From...

September 24, 1999
Web posted at: 12:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT)

by David Pescovitz

(IDG) -- One of the first of the new smartphones, the NeoPoint 1000 aims to merge cellular abilities, Net connectivity and PDA portability.

Sold in the U.S. by Sprint PCS, the NeoPoint 1000 looks every bit the futuristic personal communicator. Half of the compact plastic body (5.5 inches by 2 inches by 1 inch) is dedicated to an 11-line LCD screen. It's much smaller than the Palm V's LCD, of course, but any more screen space would be overkill for reading text and navigating the phone's intuitive icon-based interface.

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The NeoPoint's real novelty lies in its wireless Internet connection via Phone.com's UP.Browser. Reading stock quotes, weather updates and flight schedules on microbrowser-ready sites is a convenience that will hook you the first time you use the feature. Of course, you can enter any URL into the UP.Browser, but when the site eventually appears, the reformatted Web page will probably look so mangled you'll never try that again. As for e-mail, the biggest drawback, as with so many other mobile e-mail devices currently on the market, is that you're stuck with a separate e-mail address.

And now for the deal-killer (which also applies to almost all of today's cell phones): The NeoPoint's alphanumeric keypad makes data entry a near impossibility. Fortunately, the multitap method of data entry (e.g., press 2 three times for a C) is slightly better than in similar devices thanks to Tegic Communications' T9 software. You press one key for each letter of the word and T9 attempts to "guess" the word you're trying to type. A built-in personal-information manager that syncs with your PC also makes up for some of these shortcomings.

As a digital cell phone, the NeoPoint 1000 is a dream. As a Net receiver, it works wonders. But transmit more than a few sentences a day and you'll be toting around your palmtop PC again in no time.