In addition to the usual Palm OS applications, the SPH-I300 supports several other options that make good sense given that it's also a phone. I've already mentioned the voice dialing. There's also a voice memo function that allows you to record up to ten one minute messages. This is handy for jotting down a quick thought or two as you're driving down the highway. There's also a speed dialer and an application to take you directly to your voicemail and text messages. Add in a wireless Web browser, and you've got an idea of the complete package.

One of the features that I've grown to count on the most is the integrated speakerphone. Once you've placed a call, tap a small speaker icon on the phones display and the phone becomes loud enough for two or more people to listen in on a call.

One of the other things that I like about the phone is that it comes from the factory with a second battery. Given that it has only got about three and a half hours of talk time on a single battery, this may not be so much an option as a necessity for those who use their phone frequently during the day. Another nice touch is that the phone includes a leather case that can double as a wallet. With space for three or four credit cards and a small area for folded bills, you don't need to look for a case as you do with many other Palm OS devices.

The bad and the ugly
The phone part of the Samsung SPH-I300 is a very well designed phone, but it's not entirely without flaws. The unit can only be synchronized with a PC through a serial connection. Come on guys, this is the year 2002. What are you doing making a Palm OS device that can only work over slow serial connections?

I've also had an opportunity over the last several months to work with the phone on analog (non-PCS) wireless carriers, and the battery life seems to be only a quarter of what it is on digital systems. Of course, this isn't an aspect of this phone's performance, rather it's an ugly reality of digital phones versus analog phones.

If you use your phone while driving or in noisy situations, it's polite to mute the mobile phone so that others aren't subjected to your noise level. Muting the SPH-I300 requires you to select a small option from a pull down menu. This is very difficult to use if you're driving or if you're working with your hands. I would have liked to see part of the screen area devoted to a quick tap that would invoke and release the mute function.

The SPH-I300 also comes from the factory preset to turn off the screen after thirty seconds of phone use. I thought this was inconvenient at first, but I found, on one of the configuration screens, a setting that allows you to turn this off.

My final beef with the phone comes from the Address Book application. When phone numbers in your Address Book contain extension number information (as in 123-456-7890 X2124), tapping one of the phone icons causes the phone to dial the number and the extension number at the same time. I can imagine some unpleasant surprises and overseas phone calls resulting from this behavior. I would have liked to have seen an option that set the phone to stop dialing after seven digits within a phone number.