Touchscreen watchphone touches down under

NOT CONTENT with supplying a GSM wristwatch phone, SMS Tech of Australia has introduced a touch screen version, the M500.

Those familiar with the joke about the wristwatch PC which was powered by two car batteries will be glad to know that its makers claim a talktime of 3 hours 20 minutes, and a standbytime of 80 hours.

This is a quad-band device so it works on both US GSM frequencies (850/1900 MHz). It even supports Bluetooth for both voice and data. So you could theoretically use a headset rather than having to look like a plonker talking into your watch.

More incredibly, the M500 works as a MP3 and MP4 player so you should be able to listen to tunes as well as watching videos on probably the world's smallest fourth screen [the mobile phone].

The screen is actually a TFT 1.5 inch colour touchscreen offering 120 x 160 pixel resolution. There's even a built-in stylus and its water resistant too.

Inside the watch there's 128 MB of storage which will have to hold your contacts as well as favourite tunes. Plus, if you can fit one in, the watch can run J2ME applications.

There's a choice of black or silver. The bad news is that it costs $820 [Aus $1,000]. And, according to our source - only 500 will be made so it is a collector's item.

Despite efforts to test the earlier model, the M300, the promised loan watch never arrived. So the INQ still has no idea what features are missing/present as a decent mobile phone. µ

L'INQ
SMS Tech

See Also
Aussies serve up mobile phone on a watch