Smart Phones

Its hard to find a phone nowadays that doesnt have a calendar, a few games, or even downloadable applications. But some phones go the extra mile to bring voice and data needs together, including syncing e-mail, surfing the Web, shooting pictures (Find out how we test phone cameras and see a slide show of results), and supporting hundreds of third-party apps. Some have full keyboards to get down and dirty with your e-mail. We call these multitalented devices smart phones.

If youre the type who craves 24/7 connectivity, a smart phone could be your answer. With one device, you can take calls, receive all your corporate and personal e-mail, and store your PIM information, including phone numbers, contacts, addresses, calendar, and to-do lists. And with the hundreds of apps available for smart phones, you can perform business tasks, like reading PDFs and Excel spreadsheets.

But smart phones arent all business. Thanks to more powerful processors and more flexible OSs, many of these phones can play 3D games and MP3s, record and play back video, and bring together SMS and e-mail.

Many smart phones come with freely extensible OSs that can host third-party applications. These apps let you expand a phones capabilities—giving it true smarts.

To read PC Magazines definitive reviews of the current crop of smart phones, click here.