After years of having a "plain old cell phone" I've finally upgraded to the world of SmartPhones. I got this one from the Philippines, but it works just fine in the US.

http://panasonic.co.jp/pmc/products/en/x800/index.html

Here's my take on this so far:

Pros:

• Symbian!

• Works really well with iSync and the Mac in general.

• Pretty stylin - small and light, but does not feel cheaply made

• Runs SallingClicker - and it takes about 5 minutes to install.

  • Make sure you reboot the phone after installing the client - otherwise the application doesn't show up in the application list.

• Most operations are fast once they are loaded - better than my Nokia 6200. See my comment below about accidentally quitting applications.

Cons/Annoyances:

• Closing the clamshell with the earpiece plugged in should not hang up the call.

  • An acceptable fix would be allowing the headphone profile to have a different setting - right now you can only "autoanswer" when the earpiece is connected, which is clearly not what I want. You can only set the "hang up on close" globally for the phone.

• Battery life seems limited - this might have been due to me leaving a game running in the background (not exiting it completely) overnight.

• Quitting applications forces them to reload next time, which is really slow. Normally, this isn't an issue, but your phone book counts as an application - so if you quit that instead of simply switching out of it, you are in for a huge pain in the ass. The "End Call" key lets you escape to phone mode without quitting an application - it's my new favorite button.

• The keypad is shifted down a 3/4" from the hinge - that makes it difficult to use T9 with one thumb.

• Only the top two softkeys are assignable. Would be nice to tweak the others.

• When you are in "phone" mode, the directional keys do nothing when pressed. That's 4 wasted direct access keys. The standard Nokia software uses these to browse contacts, open calendar or compose an SMS.

• The "Clear" key is close to the d-pad and is too easy to hit accidentally.

Ambivalent:

• Highly nonstandard jack for power, USB and earpiece. However, all of those items were included, so I can't complain.

• Camera seems crappy. However, I already have an 8MP camera, so I wasn't expecting the phone to compete.

  • In conversations and comparisons with other camera phones, it's actually pretty good. Most people are impressed with it. I guess I expect too much.