Roam around the world: cell phones for international travel

If your travel plans involve frequent stamps to your passport, you'll need a world phone for keeping in touch around the globe. With a much bigger footprint than CDMA, GSM (think AT&T and T-Mobile) technology will be your best bet. Also, keep in mind that your handset should support at least the 850, 1800, and 1900 GSM bands to work outside of North America. Quad-band phones, which add support for the GSM 900 band, are the most ideal since they'll get you service in the most countries possible. As a final thought, remember to check with your carrier about about overseas roaming rates. All carriers offer discounted fees for travelers, but you'll need to secure them before leaving home to avoid a nasty surprise on your bill. Alternatively, with an unlocked phone you can buy local SIM cards.

Whether you're off to Stockholm, Sydney, or Sao Paulo, pick a world phone for maximum coverage. To help pass the time on long plane flights, a handset with an MP3 player can be a great diversion. The Motorola Rokr E8 is a great option for T-Mobile. The controls take acclimation, but we were pleased with its performance. And speaking of music, you know we couldn't leave out the new Apple iPhone 3G for AT&T. Besides making calls and playing music and videos, it also has a full Web browser. The Samsung Soul is an unlocked phone that offers unique controls and full feature set including an MP3 player, an FM radio and a high-quality camera. And speaking of great cameras, the unlocked Sony Ericsson K850i has a 5-megapixel shooter. For a less complicated handset T-Mobile has the Samsung Katalyst, which offers Bluetooth and it lets you make calls via Wi-Fi. Finally, while Verizon Wireless is a CDMA carrier, it offers a world phone option with its dual-mode Motorola Z6c. There are many more world phones available, we can only list a few here, and Bonnie Cha will follow up tomorrow with her list of best smartphones for global travel.