In February, Microsoft unveiled Windows Mobile 6 - an update to its operating system for smartphones. It offers a range of new features, including the ability to view e-mails in their original format, more one-click set-up options and synchronisation with Windows Vista. It also has a rich set of Windows Live services and the new Office Mobile Suite.
WM6 comes in three versions: Standard, for smartphones without a touch-screen; Professional, for personal digital assistants with phone functions; and Classic, for plain PDAs. The first wave of WM6 Standard-powered handsets reached our shores this month. Devices with the WM6 Professional edition should start arriving in the next two months.
Well-connected One of the most attractive WM6 Standard-based smartphones found in local stores is Dopod International's C730, a handset that supports high-speed downlink packet access - also known as 3.5G - cellular networks. Built with 802.11g wireless network connectivity, the device also supports quad-band GSM, EDGE and 3G networks. That means C730 users can roam almost anywhere in the world and still keep in touch with home and the office.
Packed to the brim The sleekly designed C730 measures 112.5mm x 62.5mm x 13.5mm and weighs 120 grams, with battery. It packs plenty of features, including a 400-megahertz processor from Samsung Electronics, a 2.4-inch colour screen, two-megapixel camera, 128 megabytes of ROM and 64MB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, an expansion slot for microSD memory cards and a five-way navigational button, a three-way smart-jog bar and a qwerty keypad.
Bundled software includes the mobile editions of Microsoft's Outlook, Office, Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer. There is also Microsoft's ActiveSync, Adobe Reader LE, RSS Reader, and a Chinese/English talking dictionary.
If you don't need the extra features offered by the WM6 Professional edition, the C730 does the business for a friendly price of HK$3,680.
