Samsung's dual-sliding Exclaim. (Click to enlarge.)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Samsung]

The cell phones now under test in our labs include a lot of models with full QWERTY keyboards—further testament to the phenomenal rise of texting, and of tweeting and social networking on phones. The batch—which we expect to post to our Ratings, available to subscribers, in a week or so—also includes yet another phone whose camera promises to rival many point-and-shoots on the market.

Here's a peek at some of the models you'll see in our update, with a few preliminary test findings. Prices are for a two-year contract with rebates.

Motorola Karma QA1 (AT&T) $130

At first glance, the square-shaped Karma looks like a thick coaster, but sliding the front plate up reveals a QWERTY keyboard to facilitate messaging—and phone calls. True to form, preliminary test results indicate this wide-body phone is better for heavy typers than heavy talkers.

Sony Ericsson C905a (AT&T) $180

With its brushed metal finish, rounded edges, and 8-megapixels of resolution—just like T-Mobile's Samsung Memoir—this Sony has the look and feel of a subcompact camera.; it even bears the “cyber-shot” nomenclature of many standalone Sony cams. It lets you select the best of a series of images to save from a single shot. Besides a flash, the camera has autofocus, red-eye reduction, face and smile detection, supports USB printing, and can record video. It even has a sliding lens cover. Oh yes, it's also a phone.

Samsung Exclaim (Sprint Nextel) $80

This dual-slider design smartly integrates a full QWERTY keyboard with conventional phone controls. Pushing the front panel up uncovers a keypad for making phone calls; sliding the panel to the right reveals the QWERTY keyboard for e-mail and text messaging. The display adjusts to landscape or portrait orientation accordingly. The Exclaim can view Office documents such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—confirming that the line between cell and smart phones is blurring.

T-Mobile Dash 3G (T-Mobile) $170

HTC's relatively thin (just 0.5 in.) Dash provides easy access to its many functions, features, and applications via a convenient array of controls that include home, back, and messaging buttons, soft keys, and a trackball. Its interface is similar to Windows, which makes navigation intuitive to PC users. It synchronizes easily with Microsoft Outlook on a PC. In preliminary tests, we also found it easy to switch between applications and run multiple programs. —Mike Gikas