The best business phones on the market today did not arrive at their positions via gimmick features or quick sales and markdowns. These phones are rated so highly and respected due to their reliability, design, and innovative thinking. Given the wide range of opinions, the array of business-oriented phones can be boiled down to the Palm Treo 800w, Blackberry Curve 8320, and Nokia E71.

Palm Treo 800w

The Palm Treo 800w is the latest in the long lineup of Treo smart phones, running on the 3G CDMA2000 network. To be specific, this phone operates on 800/1900 MHz, and uses EVDO for fast downloading of documents, email, and web browsing. This phone also has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11g), GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. The phone has a built-in flash memory of 256 MB, but uses microSD for expansion up to 8 GB. The 800w comes with a 2 megapixel digital camera with 2x digital zoom. The phone uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional as the operating system, which is the latest development by Microsoft of their mobile line of operating systems, providing a better user interface and support for current and future technologies. The app support is great as well, one key example being the Office Mobile suite by Microsoft for full document work while on the move.

Blackberry Curve 8320

The Blackberry Curve 8320 is the latest in the line of Blackberry devices from Research in Motion (RIM). The Curve 8320 has models that run on both GSM and CDMA networks. The 8320 is unique in the Curve line for its offer of Wi-Fi, and with a special plan, users can make phone calls over Wi-Fi connections. The GSM models of this phone only run on the 2G EDGE network, while the CDMA2000 versions transmit data over the much faster 3G EVDO network. This phone has a microSD slot for a 4GB maximum storage increase, 8GB when with Verizon. Bluetooth is included, as well as a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash, 5x digital zoom, and a self portrait mirror. A media player is included with audio and video functionality. For enterprise support, this phone does offer push e-mail, calendar sync, address book, and tasks/memo pad. Lastly, this phone does offer instant messaging, text, and MMS services.

Nokia E71

The Nokia E71 is a recently released model that promises to succeed the e61 model, but not only succeed, excel in every way. The E71 is offers quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, dual band UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and integrated GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. This phone is so unique in having two cameras, one front-mounted for video chat, the other a 3.2 megapixel with AF and LED flash. Both will record video to various formats, of course. This amazing phone has a microSDHC slot for cards 4 GB and above, useful for storing media for playback. The E71 has a media player with MP3, AAC, and WMA functionality, video and FM radio as well. A mobile music store is built in, and third-party applications can be installed to increase the functionality.