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Pharos Traveler 137 Smartphone (Unlocked)

08.09.2009
The Traveler 137 from is an excellent touchscreen smartphone with impressive connectivity features, including compatibility with the 3G data networks of both AT&T and T-Mobile. If you're not a Windows Mobile veteran, however, you may find its menu structure daunting, and slow to use. Fortunately, the Traveler 137 supports the , so the menu situation may change when the update launches this fall. For now, the Pharos Traveler 137 performs better as a business companion than as an entertainment device or social networking gadget.

The quad-band GSM phone is compatible with three types of 3G data networks (UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA) on the 1700-, 1900-, and 2100MHz bands, and can thus maintain data connections worldwide. It supports Wi-Fi and stereo Bluetooth 2.1, offers a GPS receiver, and supports laptop tethering--a handy option when other Internet connections aren't available. The included navigation software continues to work even if you lose your cellular-network connection.

The 4.9-ounce, 4.6-by-2.4-inch candy-bar phone has a solid feel and is almost identical in size to the . The 800-by-400-pixel, 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen (the iPhone 3GS has a 480-by-320-pixel, 3.5-inch multitouch display) is sharp and easy to read, but the Windows Mobile 6.1 interface has many small icons and radio buttons that are easier to activate with the 's pop-out, telescoping stylus than with a fingertip. The phone is in a good position, however, to take advantage of Windows Mobile 6.5, which promises a much better interface for fingertip navigation as well as snazzier graphics and a raft of new apps when it launches October 6.

Providing some relief from the generic Windows Mobile 6.1 interface is the Traveler's graphics shell, which presents larger icons than Window Mobile does and allows you to switch menus by sweeping your finger across the screen.

Of course, Windows Mobile 6.1 is adept at synchronizing contact, calendar, and task data with a Windows PC. The Traveler 137 also comes loaded with mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint, all of which allow on-device editing.

Smart Navigator GPS software comes with the phone, preloaded on a microSD card. In addition to detailed street maps of the United States and Canada, plus voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, it also offers free traffic and weather updates and local movie times, gas prices, and TV listings. The software supports map downloads on demand and single-finger map zooming, too: Simply sweep your finger from the upper left of the screen to the lower right to zoom in, or from the lower left to the upper right to zoom out.