While on the surface Vox looks like any number of Windows Mobile handsets, it is, according to reports, quite different in one respect: Unlike other Microsoft-based phones with sliding keyboards, this one isn't a Pocket PC, but is instead the first Windows Smartphone with one.

As with the Pocket PCs with now-you-see-it-now-you-don't typers, when you expose the keyboard from behind Vox’s 320 x 240 pixel (QVGA) resolution screen, the image on the display will automatically switch from portrait to landscape mode. Unlike with the Pocket PCs, however, the screen won't be touch.

Additional specifications for the quad-band GMS/EDGE smartphone include 128 MB of ROM, 96 MB of RAM, a 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 5-way jog bar for navigation, and a microSD slot. At this point, it doesn't appear that 3G will be part of the Vox picture.

Because Vox isn't due to ship until the middle of 2007, there's been speculation that it may run on Microsoft's update to Windows Mobile 5.0, which is code-named Crossbow. If correct, Vox could enable users to edit as well as view Microsoft Office documents. Today's Windows Smartphones, unlike their Pocket PC brethren, only allow for the viewing of these files.