(FORTUNE Magazine) – My phone is chirping, reminding me that it's time to call the office. It also wants me to stop by the bookstore to pick up some reading material before getting on the plane. Nag, nag, nag. Go to the bank, call the doctor--but what's the doctor's number? I tickle the phone's belly with a little stick, and it not only shows me the number but also dials it. With the press of another button it becomes a speakerphone, allowing me to check my daily calendar on its big display screen and jot down a quick note while I talk. I can say "Dad," and the phone looks up my father's number and calls him automatically. Another tap or two, and I can send and receive e-mail, and browse the Web for the weather forecast, flight departure information, news headlines, and current stock prices and charts. Using my thumb, I can transform the phone into a voice recorder to remind me where I parked the car at the airport.

Whew! Welcome to the new generation of smart phones. Specifically, say hello to the new Kyocera Smartphone QCP-6035, which combines a Palm handheld computer with a digital wireless phone in a single, easy-to-hold unit. Instead of juggling two devices--looking up the number on the Palm-based personal digital assistant (PDA) with one hand, calling the number with the phone in the other hand--the Kyocera Smartphone does it all. One in the hand is definitely worth two in the pocket.

Combo phones are not new. There have been several clever but not necessarily smart attempts to merge phone and PDA, none of them wildly successful. Qualcomm's pdQ phone and Nokia's Communicator were the size and heft of a brick. Ericsson's R380 is a sleek combo phone, but it uses a brand X organizer instead of the Palm system. Handspring has a VisorPhone attachment for its Palm-based organizers, but it is awkward and works on the GSM wireless standard.

In the coming months, however, a new breed of smart phones will be arriving, among them a Palm-based phone from Samsung and a gaggle of new Stinger smart phones from Microsoft and its manufacturing partners. Judging by the prototypes we've seen, a lot of people will be buying new phones when the holiday season comes around.

There will be people who balk at the Kyocera Smartphone, of course, perhaps because they do not need to get any smarter, or perhaps because of its size. It is--dare I say it?--a manly phone, not one of those dinky little accessory phones that are held to the ear with an upraised pinkie. No, the Kyocera is a power tool. It is six inches tall and 2.5 inches wide, and weighs a bit less than half a pound. You'll definitely know it is in your pocket, although it is no larger or heavier than the phones we used to carry just a few years ago. By the way, if you see Verizon's full-page advertisements for the Kyocera phone in the New York Times, purporting to show the phone in "actual size," do not believe them. The actual phone is significantly larger and thicker.

The real test is to put the Kyocera next to the handheld organizer and wireless phone you may already be carrying. It was not grossly larger than the smallest little gets-lost-in-the-pocket Nokia phone and a sleek Palm V stacked atop each other.

At $500, the Kyocera costs about as much as a good Palm handheld and a small digital phone bought separately. Sprint and Verizon are the only wireless carriers offering the Kyocera at this time; after being in short supply following its introduction, the phone now appears to be readily available. Users will have to pay not only for the phone but also for a monthly service plan, just as they would with any wireless phone. During my testing, I found that I was devouring far more minutes than I ever did with a plain old wireless phone, mainly to check the Web. The data connection speed is 14.4 kilobits per second, not exactly snappy but faster than the Palm VII wireless handheld I have been using.

The Kyocera shows a fairly even balance of the genetic characteristics of PDA and phone. With its lid flipped up, it's a phone. With the lid flipped down, it's a PDA. The PDA can be operated even when the phone is turned off.

As a PDA, it uses the Palm OS 3.5 software and thus can run hundreds of applications written for the Palm platform. It syncs with a desktop computer, just as a regular Palm or Handspring handheld does, and comes with a docking cradle. It has an 8MB memory and a rechargeable lithium ion battery that powers both the PDA and the phone; if the phone battery fizzles, a separate internal battery keeps the PDA data fresh for a few days. (Kyocera claims a battery life of five hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time, but those numbers are optimistic.) The monochrome screen is very readable but a bit smaller than those on regular Palm handhelds. The touchscreen sensitivity on my test unit was stiff.

As a phone, it's a tri-mode CDMA digital wireless device (code division multiple access, 1900MHz digital PCS, 800MHz digital cellular, and analog). Its built-in speakerphone is handy because it allows the PDA and the phone to be used at the same time. A small jog wheel on the side of the phone makes it convenient to look up contacts, speed dial, and check call histories with one hand. To turn on the phone, one must press and hold the hang-up button, which is bizarre.

Samsung's forthcoming I300 smart phone dispenses with the flip lid and is basically all touchscreen, which may be a problem. For people who live in the Windows environment, Microsoft's Stinger phones will offer--as one might expect--very close integration with Microsoft applications like Excel and Word and corporate e-mail systems. For now, however, the Kyocera phone is the smartest one around.

FEEDBACK: plewis@fortunemail.com