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E-TEN Information Systems has unveiled what it asserts is the world's thinnest Pocket PC Phone. Sure, the 15.5 millimeter (mm) goldfish X500 doesn't seem all that thin when compared to other recent Windows Mobile devices: the 11.5-mm thick Motorola Q and new T-Mobile Dash, for example. But keep in mind that the E-Ten is a full-fledged Pocket PC and not a Windows Smartphone like these other devices.

This means, among other things, the goldfish x500 delivers a touch screen and the ability to edit and view Microsoft Office applications, both features not available with Windows Smartphones.

The upcoming E-TEN packs nearly everything one would expect from a Pocket PC Phone nowadays, including GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a 2 megapixel camera, 128 MB of ROM, 64 MB of ROM, a 400 MHz Samsung processor, and a microSD slot. There's also a 2.8-inch, 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 65,536 color screen.

Missing are 3G cellular broadband and a slider-keyboard like what you find in some other Pocket PC Phones, such as Cingular's soon-to-be-released 8525, for example. The 8525, be contrast, mearsures 22.86 mm, however.

The goldfish X500, which measures 4.4 x 2.3 x .6 inches (113 x 59.5 x 15.5 mm) and weighs 5.1 ounces (146 grams), is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/EDGE smartphone with 1,530 mAh Lithium Polymer battery that specs out for 5 to 7 hours talk or 150 to 200 hours standby time. It'll come with Microsoft's Direct Push e-mail technology already installed.

Due in November, E-TEN has yet to reveal where the goldfish X500 will ship or for how much it’ll go for.

Outside of the world of Windows Mobile smartphones, Motorola's rules with its 13.9 mm RAZR line. The handset that started the diet trend among phones. There's also the super thin, 8.8 mm, VK VK2010 and VK2100, available outside this country. And back in the spring,KTF Technologies introduced what was at the time the slimmest cell phone of all, the 7.9 mm EV-K100, which weighed in at an extremely light 60 grams (2.1 ounces) as well. Next came the even thinner 6.9 mm Samsung SGH-X820 Ultra Slim Phone, which took the EV-K100’s crown by besting it by a whole millimeter.