Today Verizon Wireless released the first of a new group of PDAs and smart phones to be ready for the upcoming holiday buying season.

 

The SCH-i760 from Samsung, available online beginning October 19th and in stores November 2nd, runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional, which offers a bevy of productivity tools, including Word and Excel, and the ability to view PDFs and PowerPoint presentations. The device sports a touchscreen, a full QWERTY horizontal slider keyboard, stereo Bluetooth, and a 1.3-megapixel camera and camcorder with flash. The SCH-i760 costs $349.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year customer agreement.

 

The Verizon Wireless XV6800 keeps the mobile professional in mind; like the SCH-i760, it runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional and connects to the Web via Wi-Fi. This device comes dressed in blue and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 2-MP camera/camcorder with flash, and media playback functionality.

 

The slim-form Palm Treo 755p contains a large color touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3-MP camera and support for Bluetooth stereo headsets. The built-in 60MB of dedicated memory and 8GB of expandable memory (via miniSD Card), provide ample space for media and applications.

 

Also on the horizon is the Verizon Wireless SMT5800, which runs WM6 Standard, providing Internet access, calendar, contacts, tasks, e-mail, and music. In addition to its five-way navigation key and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the SMT5800 is loaded with a 2-MP camera with autofocus; Windows Media Player 10; and Bluetooth capabilities for both headsets and speakers.

 

More information and pricing will be announced closer to the devices' availability dates.