Sony Ericsson Equinox TM717 (carbon black, T-Mobile)

Pros: Texting accomodations, camera options, slick design, front panel information

Cons: Proprietary connection jacks, low speakerphone and the weird media card it takes.

Summary: I'm not a phone nut and don't want the latest and greatest. Having said that, I think the reviews for phones are getting outrageous. Reviewers expect them to do absolutely everything. I don't.

I had an old flip phone. I went for the new Motorola Cliq smartphone and data plan. A great device, but it was too smart -- and too costly, spending most of the day connected to its data plan while not being touched. I had it for 2 days and sent it back, opting for the Equinox. It seemed like a nice compromise -- a smarter flip phone. I haven't regretted this switch at all.

The outside display has a circular white light that lights up for incoming calls. There is another little colored light that can be customized based on the caller. This is nice if you keep the phone on silent a lot. It also reads gestures. Wave your hand across the closed phone and it stops the ringing.

For someone who texts only a few times a day, a QWERTY keyboard is nice to have, not a need to have. This phone displays a helpful little mini menu as you use the keypad input making it easier and quicker to find your letters or symbols. It has an optional conversation view of text messages, so they display like a chat session. I don't find the keypad clumsy or too slick at all.

It has some light mobile-only apps if you have a data plan, like Google Maps. What I found better is the Telenav GPS app. For a small, separate, monthly fee, you get a turn by turn voice-guided GPS with traffic. Though it won't replace my Garmin, I was impressed with it. It made a few odd suggestions, but it got me to my destination. I plan on paying for this feature. I tested it out and it worked fine in the NYC area. I like it for the the traffic updates alone.

The speakerphone (and thus the GPS directions read aloud) is not very loud and could use some improvement. I synched a stereo Bluetooth headset with no problems. It also has options for using it as a Bluetooth presenter or multimedia controller.

The shots from the camera look better to me than they did on the higher megapixel Cliq. The phone has a couple of camera setup options like panorama, night, decorative frames, etc. If these options were ever on my other phones, I never saw them and they weren't as easily found as they are on this phone. It has menus all ready to connect your photos to social sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Lastly, the call quality has been fine. I'm told that my voice is clear, and the incoming calls are also equally clear. The volume on the internal ear piece can get pretty loud with distortion.

If you're looking for something to replace every other device you own, this probably isn't for you. If you're looking for a smarter flip phone, you've found it.

Updated on Nov 28, 2009

Just a correction -- I meant to write that the call volume on the ear piece is loud withOUT distortion.