Click to View

AT&T Wireless began carrying the world's smallest Windows Mobile Smartphone, the UTStarcom Personal Communications Division's (formerly Audiovox Communications) Audiovox SMT 5600, shortly before merging with Cingular Wireless last October Upon which the smartphone quickly disappeared from the operator's stores and Web site.

Late in November, however, the 4.25 x 1.8 x 0.6-inch and 3.6-ounce handset suddenly reappeared as an AT&T offering. Today, the Cingular arm of the combined company finally started shipping the award winning tri-band (GSM/GPRS 850/1800/1900) Audiovox SMT 5600 itself.

Cingular says it will sell the smartphone for $200 with a two-year voice and data service contract.

The tiny smartphone runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile for Smartphone 2003 Second Edition platform and includes a 200 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor, 32 MB of RAM, 64 MB of ROM, Bluetooth, a minSD slot for additional memory (up to 512 MB), a speakerphone and a 2.2-inch display that supports a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels.

It also has a VGA digital camera with low-light capabilities, 4x digital zoom, and a camcorder function. Not a bad group of features for such a small smartphone.

In addition, the Audiovox SMT 5600 is the first smartphone to bundle Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, an application that enables the seamless transfer of media from a PC running Windows XP to the phone as well playback audio and video on the handset, naturally.

The Audiovox SMT 5600 is also the first mobile phone to be certified under the PlaysForSure logo program for its compatibility with a wide variety of online services such as MSN Music and Napster

Of course, the handset offers the usual Windows Mobile desktop and Outlook synchronization with the mobile version of Outlook, in addition to coming with Pocket Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger.

The .NET Compact Framework lets enterprises mobilize existing Microsoft based applications. Cingular says the framework is also used by a large base of developers to offer a variety of business applications for the Audiovox SMT 5600.