In Part I of this series, we looked at some mobiles with virtual keypads – that is, purely touch-sensitive handsets with no physical keypads. In Part II we examined handsets with both a touchscreen interface as well as a physical keypad that give users the best of both worlds. In this final installment I’d like to show you a few handsets that, although they may not have launched in India, come equipped with the latest in touchscreen sensitivity – haptics.

For those unfamiliar with the term, allow me to (heh!) touch base. Haptics essentially means feedback provided though objects that you touch. From the mobile point of view, haptic technology or feedback implies a system where you receive feedback on your fingertips when you’re typing or moving your hand across the touch-sensitive area of the handset. Haptics enables users to judge whether or not a key has been activated. So now that you have some idea about haptics, let me show you a few phones that incorporate this new technology.

There aren’t too many companies that use this technology in their handsets, but here are some of the popular haptics-enabled phone models that will hopefully be available in our stores before long.

Motorola ROKR E8

Having had a chance to play with the Motorola E8 at Mobile Asia, I can say it's one heckuva cool phone. Although the screen may be a just a bit small at just 2 inches, the technology is really good. The entire keypad is touch-sensitive; there are no conventional keys. In fact, this keypad is intuitive enough to selectively display keys that pertain to the feature being used. For instance, if you’re watching videos or playing music the lights in the numeric keypad go off and all you’ll see are keys that allow you navigate the music and video player.

The E8 also has a touch-sensitive scroll area under the display. Other features include a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth with A2DP profile, an integrated FM radio, and support for EDGE.

LG – KF600

The KF600 is a superbly designed slider phone. Aside from its 2 inch TFT display that sports a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, it has a smaller 1.4 inch touch sensitive navigation system in the form of a secondary screen underneath, with a resolution of 176 x 240 pixels. The phone's animated screen savers extend to the bottom screen when in standby mode. An intuitive navigation system displays small icons that coincide with the function running on the main screen.

The lower screen doubles as a highly sophisticated pad that recognizes handwriting for typing mail or messages. The KF600 comes fully loaded with a 3 megapixel autofocus camera with a flash, stereo Bluetooth profile, FM radio, media player, and document viewer. Oh, and more importantly, it has a slide-out keypad.