HP's unveiled a pair of new Windows Mobile smartphones, the iPAQ Data Messenger and the iPAQ Voice Messenger, a few weeks ago. The latter is now available in England through Vodafone.

The Voice Messenger is tablet-style communicator with a small QWERTY keyboard under its QVGA 2.4-inch display like the RIM BlackBerrys, Samsung BlackJacks and MOTO Qs of the world. Since the Voice Messenger runs on the Standard Edition of Windows Mobile 6.1, there's no touch screen.

Pricing on the Voice Messenger ranges from free to £85.11; it all depends on the service agreement and data plan signed up for by the user. Or, if you're commitment adverse, you can buy the smartphone for £333 without signing on the dotted line.

It integrates GPS, a 3.1 megapixel camera, and a microSD slot for storage expansion. There's 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM internally.

The quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM world phone supports tri-band (900/1900/2100 MHz) HSDPA 3G for cellular-data transfer speeds up to 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 with support wireless stereo headsets.

Unfortunately for anyone in the U.S. interested in the Voice Messenger or its sister-handset - the Data Messenger, HP still has not said when or even if either smartphone will become available in the this country.

Data Messenger
The features packed into the Data Messenger are similar to those of the Voice Messenger, except for a few key differences.

Unlike the Voice Messenger, the Data Messenger leverages the Professional edition of Windows Mobile 6.1, which means, among other things, its larger 2.8-inch QVGA display is a touch screen. Also, the Data Messenger offers a bigger landscape-style keyboard that slides out horizontally from under its display.

Vodafone plans to offer the Data Messenger for £399 without a service agreement. No word on when that will be, however.