I was grudgingly fond of Kyocera's previous offering, the 6035, despite its heft (half a pound) and murky black-and-white screen. I'm a newspaper reporter and want my address book, calendar, and notes with me just about all the time. Even a big smartphone puts a welcome end to awkward juggling of PDA, phone, and paper notebook in a typical call.

The new Kyocera model is not a matchbook. Someone who doesn't always need a PDA and prefers the kind of phone that slips under a cocktail dress (that would be Jenna Elfman in Keeping the Faith), will not want this. But it is a considerable improvement on its forbears (see Figure A), and not conspicuous in a pocket or against your ear.

FIGURE A


The Kyocera 7135 (right) is much smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the 6035. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The marketers call phones like these "converged devices." Some people compare them to Swiss Army knives, but the analogy is misleading. Smartphones don't just package existing tools. They create a new tool, capable of tasks that could not be done before.

I have no idea how I functioned without pocket email. Wireless Web access can also be priceless. Consider: a Google search in the taxi en route to a meeting for which you are missing one key fact. You can update Vindigo, even add a new city, wirelessly. You can check traffic and flight delays, find concert times, or look up a lawyer's biography on Martindale Hubbell. These are not fanciful examples. I've used them all. Of course, there is touch-and-dial access to your whole address book. Mine has 2,246 entries.

Two strong contenders now contest the smartphone market: Kyocera's 7135 and Handspring's twin Treo models. The Treo 270 is for networks, like T-Mobile, which use a standard called GSM. The Treo 300 is for networks like Sprint, which use the CDMA standard. Palm's Tungsten W, to my mind, does not belong in this category. Anything without a speaker, requiring a headset for voice service, should not be considered an everyday telephone.