Smartphone picks for the new professional

Whether it's a transition from a student's life to that of a professional or just job-hopping for financial gains or career advancement, it signals the time for a makeover. And what better way to welcome change than the upgrading of your mobile-gramophone into a new-age smartphone.

Finding the right kind of phone that has a professional look and features could be as challenging as searching for the 'ideal' job, with the new being similar to the chaos of the old. Then there is the cost factor - is it worth spending a fortune on a smartphone? Well, the good news is that there are 'cool' smartphones you could flaunt without shelling too much.

Here are 5 smartphones we think would enhance your 'social status', cater to your business needs and will not pound your pockets (these cost Rs 15,000 or less)

Nokia e71

Features - 3G, Email, Instant Messaging, MS Office, Assisted GPS, Java downloadable games, Video player

User interface - 2.36" TFT display, Full QWERTY keyboard, Symbian OS 9.2

Memory - Internal: 110 MB, External: microSD flash memory of maximum 8GB

Battery - Lithium polymer battery 1500 mAh, Maximum talk time of 630 minutes

BlackBerry Curve 8520

Features - Email, Instant Messaging, Inbuilt & downloadable games, Video player

User interface - 2.46" TFT display, Full QWERTY keyboard, Touch-sensitive optical trackpad, BlackBerry OS, HTML browser

Memory - Internal: 256 MB, External: microSD flash memory of maximum 32GB

Battery - Standard Lithium battery 1150 mAh, Maximum talk time of 270 minutes

HTC Touch Viva

Features - Email, Instant Messaging, Pocket Office, Games, Music player

User interface - 2.8" TFT resistive display, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, Pocket IE browser

Memory - Internal: 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, External: microSD flash memory

Battery - Standard Lithium battery 1100 mAh, Maximum talk time of 480 minutes

Asus P565

Features - 3G, Typical & Push email, Instant Messaging, Pocket Office, high sensitivity SiRFstarIII GPS, Business card scanner

User interface - 2.8" TFT resistive display, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, WAP browser

Memory - Internal: 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, External: microSD flash memory

Battery - Standard Lithium battery 1300 mAh, Maximum talk time of 240 minutes

Samsung Corby Pro

Features - 3G, Email, Instant Messaging, Office document viewer, Assisted GPS, Games

User Interface - 2.8" TFT resistive display, Full QWERTY keyboard, Accelerometer sensor, WAP browser

Memory - Internal: 150 MB, External: microSD flash memory of maximum 16GB

Battery - Standard Lithium battery 960 mAh, Maximum talk time of 480 minutes

Predict the Future Gadgets

No one can know the future. But can we predict the future gadgets? The answer is yes, but our prediction will not be 100% accurate. We predict the future gadgets by paying attention to current trends. The trends will guide us to discover what devices will become part of our life. The trends for the gadgets of the future are:

Miniaturization - The trend in technology is to create ever-smaller scales for first mechanical, then optical and most recently electronic devices. The miniaturization trend can be traced back to ancient times both as an abstract science and a physical practice, beginning with atomic theories of the nature of matter and the use of early microscopes and leading, centuries later, to the current sciences of nanotechnology and molecular nanotechnology.

Futuristic and bold design - All the actual gadgets have great design. The new devices use futuristic designs or a combination between classic design and futuristic one. Another popular combination is retro futuristic design. Of course there will be a large number of simple devices which will use the classic design. This gadgets are for the ones who consider simplicity to be the new complexity and for the ones who don't like hi tech and adopt very hard new items.

Usage of hi tech and hi speed chips - The impact of this tiny chip has been far-reaching. Many of the electronics products of today could not have been developed without it. The chip virtually created the modern computer industry, transforming yesterday's room-size machines into today's array of mainframes, minicomputers and personal computers. The integrated circuits made the gadgets faster and smaller. They played a major part in the miniaturization process. The gadgets for the future will use tiny, but powerful chips which will make them super powerful.