A CDMA/EVDO phone for the US Verizon network only, the Samsung Zeal is notable because it uses an electronic ink keypad that can dynamically change lettering between a QWERTY layout and a standard number pad.

Normally we would regard this as a pretty novel feature, but in fact the Zeal is almost identical in every detail to last year's Samsung Alias 2, also on Verizon Wireless. Indeed, the two phones are so similar that it is really very difficult to tell them apart unless you look very closely indeed.

The Zeal features a clever dual-hinge arrangement, which is another quite unusual feature, and the whole handset is certainly eye-catching and is the sort of thing that will distract other people from their iPhones, if only for a moment.

Compared with the Alias 2, the hardware specification on the Zeal is completely unchanged. There's a 2.6" 240 x 320 pixel non-touch display, a 2 megapixel camera, a media player, microSD expandable memory and Bluetooth wrapped up in a 4.3 ounce (123 gram) clamshell package with a small external display and multimedia controls mounted on the outside.

Although the hardware seems to be utterly identical to the Alias 2, Verizon appear to have refreshed the software platform with new options for social networking and multimedia downloads. The Zeal has GPS too, so you can use it as a basic personal navigation device using VZ Navigator.

Available now from Verizon Wireless, the Zeal costs just under $80 with a two-year contract and online discount. It is unlikely that we will see a version of this launched outside the US, although we feel that the e-ink keypad is definitely of interest to other consumers worldwide.

At first glance, the specifications of the Nokia 7710 look very contemporary. A Nokia smartphone with a large 3.5" 640 x 320 pixel touchscreen display, a completely new version of the Symbian operating system plus strong multimedia support, it doesn't sound a million miles away from the new Nokia N8. But this is November 2004, not November 2010.. and the Nokia 7710 is one of Nokia's most notable failures.

This was Nokia's first production touchscreen phone.. and basically the last touchscreen device they made for four years until the Nokia 5800 was released. The 7710 also came two years before the iPhone brought Apple's take on the same idea to market.. and ultimately it was the iPhone and not the 7710 that redefined the smartphone market.

When you look a bit more deeply at the 7710, the reasons for its lack of success are perhaps more obvious. This was a GSM-only device, supporting GPRS and EDGE data with no 3G or WiFi connectivity. Practically, it meant that most customers Nokia 7710 with mobile TV were limited to download speeds of just 48 Kbps, less than the speed of a dial-up modem. Nokia had introduced their first 3G handset (the Nokia 6600) the previous year, and the Nokia 9500 (also announced in 2004) featured WiFi support. So, it's not as if Nokia couldn't do 3G and WiFi.. they just didn't do it with the 7710, a move that effectively crippled it.

There were other problems as well. The 7710 was hampered by a slow 168MHz processor, fairly typical for the time but really quite underpowered for a big screen smartphone like this. The 7710 also had limited internal memory, but again the technological limitations of handsets from this era really made that inevitable, and Moore's Law usually helps to fix most performance problems. One of the big differences between the 7710 and the original iPhone is that the iPhone had access to much more modern componentry, especially a significantly faster processor.

The price tag of €500 before tax and subsidy also made this an expensive phone, combined with quite a few rough edges on the Series 90 operating system and a not terribly good display, the 7710 pretty much bombed in sales terms. A number of 7710s were retro-fitted with DVB-H receivers to pilot free-to-air mobile TV, but other than that the handset virtually vanished.

Nokia 7710 with stylus Given that there was obviously real consumer demand for a phone like this, at the time being met by the likes of the HTC Blue Angel and the Sony Ericsson P910i, then you would expect that Nokia would pick themselves up, dust themselves down.. and come up with something better. But in fact, Nokia cancelled the entire project and operating system and didn't return to the touchscreen market for another four years.

The repercussions of the 7710's cancellation are still being felt today. Although some of the work done on this phone was folded back into mainstream S60 devices and carried forward into Maemo (eventually leading to the N900), Nokia effectively wasted the chance to be the market leader in touchscreen smartphones.

These days the Nokia 7710 is quite collectable due to its rarity and unusual design for the period, typically selling for €200 or so in good condition.. although given its flawed design it is unlikely that anybody still uses one as their everyday phone!

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is a minor update to last year's BlackBerry Bold 9700, doing just enough to keep this long running product line vaguely competitive.

There's not much to say about the 9780, major changes from the previous version include a software update to the improved BlackBerry 6 operating system, a 5 megapixel camera (up from 3.2 megapixels), double the amount of internal Flash storage at 512MB and that is about it. The 9780 shares the 9700's 480 x 360 pixel non-touch display, GPS, WiFi and 3.5G connectivity, Bluetooth, a microSD slot (with a 2GB card in the box), a multimedia player and a 3.5mm audio socket.

BlackBerry Bold 9780 Because this is a BlackBerry, it does all the usual things that a modern BlackBerry will do, including excellent messaging support and personal information management tools, there's a reasonable web browser which will be somewhat hampered by the small 2.44" display and an application pool of 10,000 varied packages including a selection of those all-important fart apps.

There's nothing really in the 9780 which will attract new customers to the BlackBerry camp, and there's not much to tempt people from the old 9700 either (which will be upgradeable to BlackBerry 6 sometime soon). If you are using an older version of the Bold or Curve then it might be an attractive upgrade.

The physical dimensions of the 9780 are identical to the 9700, coming in at 109 x 60 x 14mm and weighing 122 grams. The large 1500 mAh battery is quoted as giving up to 6 hours talktime and 17 days standby time on 3G.

If you're after a Bold 9780 then you won't have long to wait as RIM say that the handset should start to be available worldwide from November onwards. No pricing has been specified, but as the existing 9700 retails for a fairly expensive €450 or so we would expect the 9780 to cost a little more than that at launch.