First, let me just say that before I got my current cell phone I considered previous phones to be … well … phones. Objects to be carried around, lost, recovered, driven over, found, replaced.

My current device is the Sprint Mogul (HTC PPC6800). I had never paid anything like this for a phone before ($299), but I love it. When it dies (which I’m sure it will, we all do), I will cry. And if it outlasts me you will have to pry it from my cold, dead hand.

This is not a phone to me. Yes, it accepts and makes calls, but that is not what I mainly use it for.

It runs Windows Mobile (WM) 6.1, which I have no problems with. I’m not sure why WM gets such a bad rep. OK, it doesn’t have cute icons like a McDonalds check-out or the iPhone, and sometimes I have to use a stylus, but mainly I can use the touch-screen with no problems. And a full QWERTY keyboard. I can even cut-and-paste.

It uses microSD removable storage; I have a SanDisk 8Gb card at the moment and will shortly be upgrading to the now available 16Gb cards . This is large enough to hold my music, podcasts, audio books and Office documents.

It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, along with Sprint’s fast EVDO Rev A data service. Paired with the Exchange server in my home office, which pushes my email, calendar and contacts to/from the device, I could not be any more in touch. Where is the nearest donut store? Why, officer, let me check. Here it is, and Google maps says to take the next left.

(I do have a firm policy regarding the phone while I am driving. Don’t. If you call me I will either pull over and answer or let it go to voice mail. The phone is for my convenience, not yours.)

The standard battery will just about get through the day. I purchased an extended battery and I never have to worry about that any longer. I do admit that it was never a small phone and now, if the brakes fail on my car, I could attach a rope and toss it out of the window to bring me to a halt. I don’t care.

Which brings me to the Celio Redfly. In simple terms, this is a keyboard, 8 inch screen, USB ports and VGA port for the Mogul. You can use USB devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, or USB stick. It has no storage, no OS, no moving parts.

It was not affordable when it was first released and I waited until the price sank to a market-seeding level of $199. Still a lot of money to me, but they caught me on a good day.

Why not buy a netbook? I did consider it, but the Redfly is on in a few seconds with no boot time to speak of. You connect to your WM device using a USB cable or Bluetooth. When connected by cable, it charges the phone while you use it! If you use Bluetooth, the phone does not need to leave your pocket/bag.  And with Sprint’s fast data service, I can sync documents to the cloud very easily and conveniently.

Oh, and battery life? They advertise eight hours, but I (and most other owners) get nearer ten.

Because it works with phones running WM, the display is not that of the phone stretched. No, it resizes it to 800 x 480, so you see more of the Excel sheet or the email or the Word doc. Or the Google map!

No video with the version I have (C8). They have now released a version with a port to take video from your device. It will display the video in a resizable window while you continue to toil over your spreadsheet. I emailed them to ask about letting us early adopters trade-up. I got a nice reply saying they were actually thinking about that. Nothing since then.

I would like the new one (C8N) because as a photographer, I want to tether the camera to it so I get a much better image for the client to look at while on location. But I will probably just buy a portable DVD player to do the same thing.

The C8N is $299. It should be half this price.

The bottom line: my cell phone is more than my phone. It is my miniature laptop, made all the more usable by the Redfly.  The device is the “size” you need it to be at that moment: fit in the pocket, or go up to sub-netbook size, or attach a full-size keyboard/mouse/monitor.

This is the future.

Why they chose a name that makes it sound like an aphrodisiac I have no idea.