HARDWARE
The Gist: Goes Everywhere, Does Everything
$299
Range matters - and the T39 has it. Ericsson packed every available feature into a phone the size of a deck of cards. Beyond the three GSM bands - which translate to seamless roaming in 140 countries - there's voice control, built-in Bluetooth for untethered connectivity, and WAP and General Packet Radio Service to ensure rapid Net access and data transfer.
By far, the best of these add-ons is Bluetooth. Granted, it took about an hour to enable the phone, program devices for it to look for, and synchronize it with my computer. But once it was configured, I yakked away using my Bluetooth headset (part of the limited-edition kit) while walking down the street. To place a call, I just pressed the button on the headset and used the voice dialing and answering features to connect. The T39 links to other PDAs, laptops, and regular headsets through infrared or cable.
GPRS allows for 2.5G digital packet-switched data. It delivers an always-on wireless connection to the Internet at a speed about three times faster than traditional home dialups (56 Kbps versus 115 Kbps). Potentially, GPRS can be used to transmit streaming audio and video to and from your phone no matter where you are, making a videophone call possible over the cell networks. But don't plan on hot-wiring this phone to your PC just yet: Network support is spotty. Most of the US will remain 2G - digital voice, data over voice, and circuit-switched data networks - until 2002.
Navigating the menu is a snap thanks to a speedy interface, and predictive text input makes writing short messages on the saltine-sized keypad bearable. The one doodad that's missing is the flip-open. I was sad to see the spring-loaded mechanism vanish, but I can always use the exercise.
Ericsson: www.ericsson.com.
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