Just back from lunch with the Sierra Wireless people behind the Voq, which Jack mentions below. I got a first play with the new phone, which will go on sale at an as-yet-unspecified point in the first half of next year.
First impressions: it's a nice smartphone, light years ahead of the Orange SPV I've moaned about recently. For a start it uses a 200MHz Intel PXA262 processor with stacked flash memory which means that - combined with a much-improved and adapted version of Microsoft's Smartphone software - the experience is much more snappy. There are some nice features Sierra Wireless has added on top of the OS, too, including a very fast and easy way to file and retrieve information locally, and from the web/network.
The most obvious hardware feature is its fold-out keyboard: a QUERTY effort divided by a big, solid hinge. It's reasonably fast to peck out a message - certainly, much better than an alphanumeric keypad or even the SPV's fabric keyboard - although don't expect to be touch-typing. But the device is also light - lighter than the SPV? - if slightly taller, and around the same thickness.
The phone will be aimed squarely at business users; although it will play games and do fancy/irritating ringtones, the most important features will be pretty pragmatic; support for standard BigFirm email systems including Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, for one.
Price info: top end of the SmartPhone scale, less than a PDA, which places it in the £200 - £300 bracket by my guessing.
