Best PDA/Camera Combo: The new Treo 600 from Palm One offers probably the best combination of PDA, phone and audio playback available today. It combines the operating system and look and feel of a great Palm PDA with the physical architecture and industrial design of a great phone. It includes a 640×480 camera that snaps rudimentary pictures, and even stores and plays-back MP3s. It even includes a small but serviceable full-sized keyboard too. And because it runs the Palm OS, there are tons of games and other programs that will run on it. It lacks a removable battery, though, and it's not cheap. But for around $700 unsubsidized (or $450 with a contract and rebate), this one offers just about everything.
PDA/Phone Runner Up: Looking for something smaller? Don't care about the keyboard? Don't need a camera? Then Samsung's i500 is the phone for you. This flip-phone includes a fully featured Palm OS-based PDA, stylus input area and a standard numeric keypad. In fact, it's phone first and PDA second – which should appeal to anyone who wants a phone with just a bit more features. The screen is sharp, the applications responsive. It's priced about the same as the Treo 600 — $450 with rebate and contract, or around $700 without.
Camera Phone: Sanyo-SCP-5300. It's not the smallest camera phone on the market, but the SCP-5300 delivers a good mix of features and functionality. It takes decent pictures and even includes a built in flash! At around $300 – even less with a contract, it's a well priced phone. Avoid the SCP-8100, though, which sells for around the same price. It's smaller, but lacks the flash. Even worse, it takes pictures of just a third the quality of the 5300 – no better than a dime-store photo-booth.
MP3 Phone: Nokia's 3300 is another odd duck. It includes a full sized keyboard and a nice screen. You can store MP3s on the removable MMC cards, and it'll play both MP3 and the AAC format supported by the iPaq and iTunes store. However, it's not the best phone in the world. And since it's only $50 less than the 3600, you might consider that model instead.
Avoid: Nokia N-Gage. Designed as a no-compromise portable game player, this device boasts an impressive list of titles for such a new platform. It also offers a nice MP3 player, built in FM radio, Bluetooth and more (but no camera) Alas, it's an awful phone – you actually have to hold it sideways to talk on it. At between $200 and $400, depending on contract terms and whether the N-Gage is locked to a single provider, it's not cheap either. If you want to play games on your phone, opt for one of the other models instead. The games aren't as detailed, but the phones are better.
For more phone reviews, check out our mobile phone product guide at PCMag.com.