CES 2008

Alltel HTC Touch

(Credit: Alltel)

Alltel Wireless has just announced the immediate availability of the HTC Touch smartphone with pricing starting at $199.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts. The Alltel HTC Touch has a number of the same features as the other versions of the phone (unlocked and Sprint's), such as the TouchFlo interface, Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition, and a 2-megapixel camera. They've also added a fourth "cube" to the menu interface where you can access some of the carrier's exclusive applications such as Voice2TXT (converts voice mails into text), Games from Magmic, Sharpcast Photos, and Axcess Shop. The HTC Touch joins Alltel's other smartphone offerings, including the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, the Palm Treo 755p, and the Motorola Q.

Asus P527

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Asus introduced several smartphones for the North American market at CES 2008, including the GPS-enabled Asus P527. In addition to the built-in SiRFIII GPS chip, the device has a preloaded application called Travelog that lets you record and share your travel pictures, routes, and more with your friends and family. There's also a program called Location Carrier that can send your position to others via text message.

Aside from the GPS capabilities, the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE/GPRS) phone runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and features a 2-megapixel camera, 128MB Flash/64MB SDRAM, a microSD expansion slot, Windows Live integration, and a business card reader. The P527 has a candybar design and has a 2.6-inch, 65,000-color touch screen and alphanumeric keypad. The Asus P527 should be available this quarter and will cost about $527 unlocked.

Verizon Wireless SMT5800

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

Today, Verizon Wireless added a new smartphone to its lineup, and it looks to be a goody. Manufactured by HTC, the Verizon Wireless SMT5800 takes after the HTC Vox in design and boasts a compact cell-phone-like form factor yet manages to pack in a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. There's also an alphanumerical dialpad on the exterior of the device.

The features are pretty much standard fare. It runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition and has a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 (with support for the A2DP profile), and EV-DO. Onboard memory is 128MB Flash/64MB RAM and comes equipped with a microSD expansion slot. The Verizon Wireless SMT5800 is available online starting today and will be in stores on January 21 with a price tag of $249.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts.