The Nokia 770 has always been an oddity in Nokia’s line-up as it lacks a phone or GPRS or 3G data, instead relying on WiFi or a Bluetooth connection to another handset. And early devices had teething problems, as discussed in our review. But as it runs Linux, the open source community have been very busy porting applications to Nokia’s Maemo platform, which we understand has led to the development of other similar devices during 2006.

The Sony Ericsson M600i is a 3G phone with tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900), expandable memory (using Memory Stick Micro cards), plus a full range of applications including the Opera web browser, an email client, and multimedia player. Plus the M600i comes with a jog-dial control in addition to the touchscreen, as does the larger P900 series.

The BlackBerry’s manufacturers RIM have successfully pushed out variants of the 8700 into many major markets. Although primarily sold as the 8700g, there are also network specific versions for Rogers of Canada (8700c), Orange and subsidiaries (8700f) and Vodafone and partners (8700v). The differences between the models appear to be mainly styling and software.

Buy BlackBerry 8700 directly from Amazon

The LG KU800 is a 3G version of the LG “Chocolate” KG800 phone, which should be available from Vodafone (pictured) and some other operators by Christmas 2006.

It’s a great looking phone, and of course the original LG Chocolate was one of the most attractive phones of 2006. The most serious flaw with the Chocolate was the way that the heat-sensitive keys were just TOO sensitive and would activate accidentally. We don’t know if LG have fixed this in the KU800, but our advice would be to back up your address book to a PC on a regular basis.

The Motorola MS600 RAZR Z is a CDMA device, not a GSM device, aimed at the Korean market. The MS600 RAZR Z is interesting though, because it’s a rare Motorola sliding phone and it’s quite possible that we’ll see a GSM version sometime during 2006.

At 110 grams and 104×51x14.8mm overall, the MS600 RAZR R isn’t as light or as compact as some sliders, and it doesn’t appear to come with any expandable memory (although we could be wrong).

The Motorola V1100 is a RAZR-like 3G phone with HSDPA (3G broadband), exclusive to the Vodafone network, and due to be in the shops by Christmas.

From what we know of the V1100’s specifications, it’s almost exactly the same as the RAZR XX with a 1.3 megapixel camera and a slightly different case. We assume that it has a QVGA 240×320 pixel display.

Samsung’s first attempt at an HSDPA (3.5G) handset a few weeks ago – the SGH-Z560 appears to be a rather sleeker implementation of an HSDPA handset though.

Physically, the Samsung Z560 measures 97×51x16mm and weighs 98 grams, which is lightweight for a 3G phone. There’s a large 2.3″ 240X320 pixel display on the inside, plus a 128×128 pixel display and 2.0 megapixel primary camera on the outside. The SGH-Z560 supports Bluetooth, has 30Mb of internal memory plus a microSD slot. There’s also a multimedia player, and the Z560 comes with external media controls.

This unassuming looking handset is, in fact, the smallest and lightest 3G phone that we’ve ever seen. Weighing just 85 grams, the SGH-Z330 comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera, a secondary camera for video calling, 1.9″ 176×220 pixel display, 140Mb of embedded non-expandable memory, Bluetooth, an MP3/multimedia player, email client and web browser. Although some features have been sacrificed to make the SGH-Z330 a lightweight device, it’s still an impressive little handset, with a decent enough camera and plenty of memory to be useful.