The Best Smartphones for Global Travel
07.06.07

Stay in touch overseas with one of these powerful devices.

By Jamie Lendino

Planning to leave the U.S. often and want to make sure you'll have
cell coverage? Sure, you can always pick up an inexpensive world
phone, slide in a local GSM prepaid card, and make calls on the cheap.
But what if you want to take your phone number, contacts, and other
info with you? I say just upgrade to just one powerful cell phone that
does it all.

Whether or not you can go this route of course really depends on your
carrier. If you're with AT&T/Cingular or T-Mobile, you have lots of
smartphone choices. I suggest you double-check their international
roaming rates before setting off. If you're on Sprint or Verizon, your
options are pretty limited, but they're starting to improve. The
technology both these carriers use, CDMA, roams in 35 countries, but
sadly nowhere in Europe.

Of course, the ideal situation is if you're shopping a new smartphone.
Then you are not stuck in a contract and really have some freedom to
choose. If that's the case, here's your comprehensive smartphone
buyer's guide. Every device listed below has world-traveling
capabilities. You'll also find options for all four carriers. Bon
voyage!

Reviews in this roundup:

AngleSamsung BlackJack (AT&T-Cingular)
This quad-band world phone gives you 3G broadband speeds with its dual-
band UMTS/HSDPA network support. It's also one of the smallest
smartphones available with a full QWERTY keyboard, and it's priced
competitively to boot.

Cingular 8525Cingular 8525 (AT&T-Cingular)
Is the 200MHz BlackJack not powerful enough for you? In that case,
check out the Cingular 8525. It's a smoking-quick global handheld with
a CPU that's twice as fast as the one in the Samsung model. The 8525
also includes support for 3G UMTS/HSDPA and ordinary GSM/GPRS/EDGE
wireless data networks. Sure, the 8525 is larger and heavier than the
BlackJack, but that's mainly because of the 8525's touch screen,
stylus, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Palm Treo 750Palm Treo 750 (AT&T-Cingular)
This AT&T version of the ever-popular Treo is capable of reaching UMTS
speeds in foreign countries, with its tri-band UMTS support and quad-
band radio. It can't go all the way up to HSDPA data speeds here in
the U.S. yet, but Palm is promising a software upgrade sometime this
year.

BlackBerry Pearl (Cingular)BlackBerry Pearl (AT&T-Cingular/T-Mobile)
T-Mobile's version of the much-loved BlackBerry Pearl lets you connect
in any country that has T-Mobile GPRS service available. This is your
best option if you want a super-small smartphone with a numeric keypad
instead of a wider, QWERTY device.

FrontT-Mobile Dash (T-Mobile)
Just like with the Pearl, T-Mobile's slim, feature-packed Dash lets
you connect anywhere there is T-Mobile GPRS service. It's also now
available with Windows Mobile 6, one of the first handsets to hit the
market with Microsoft's updated OS.

BlackBerry 8830 (Verizon/Sprint)
BlackBerry's brand-new 8830 lets you kick-out-the-jams with built-in
MP3 and video players, all contained within RIM's latest trackball-
equipped smartphone design. The handset, sold by both Sprint and
Verizon, also boasts useful world-traveling features such as CDMA and
GSM support, not to mention the ability to run travel apps like
WorldMate.

Samsung IP-830wSprint IP-830w (Sprint)
I think this phone is poorly designed and too heavy, but it's still
your only other option for international travel on Sprint other than
the 8830. The extra GSM slot is a unique feature, and if (unlike me)
you can get past the ungainly design, the IP-830w is a fast and
powerful Pocket PC smartphone as well.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2154959,00.asp




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