By Christopher Lim

MOST decent mobile phones these days can handle the demands of work and play - but there's something to be said for separating the two.

The most obvious benefit of having a dedicated phone for recreation is the freedom to buy something that might not fit in a corporate board room.

Take Nokia's first designer-branded phone, the N97 mini Raoul Limited Edition ($1,1,38), for example, which will be in stores in a few weeks. Put it face down on a table and the exclusive striped Raoul metal backplate immediately marks this as a stylishly fashionable phone.

The N97 mini is a diminutive cousin of Nokia's flagship N97 phone, with a smaller touch-screen and memory storage, but also smaller size and weight. There's still a camera with flash and a physical keyboard. The Raoul version of the N97 mini is a limited run of only 2,000 phones, split evenly between Singapore and Malaysia.

In terms of hardware, the Raoul Limited Edition is almost exactly the same as the regular N97 mini. The small differences will attract fashionistas, however. The Raoul version is rose gold, and comes with a matte pebble-grained calf-skin leather Raoul pouch, unlike the regular version, which doesn't even come with a case. There's also a matching Raoul phone strap. All of this is housed in a leather-wrapped Raoul box that is pretty enough to keep.

Eventually, the regular N97 mini will get the same phone software as the Raoul, but some of the Raoul's new features will be exclusive to the limited edition phone for at least a couple of months.

This time-limited software exclusivity encompasses widgets such as Fashion Asia, which is packed with fashion news and style tips, and other equally interesting widgets that are currently in development.

The N97 mini's 5-megapixel camera is no slouch, but if you want a stylish phone that has a crazily powerful camera, check out Sony Ericsson's new Satio, which has a 12-megapixel monster of a camera, coupled with a xenon flash that should do a better job in dark clubs than the Nokia's less powerful double-LED flash.

The Satio is also one of Sony Ericsson's best-looking phones in ages. For example, the company's 8.1-megapixel C905 Cyber-shot phone is excellent but feels flimsy, whereas the Satio looks stylishly solid. There's no physical keyboard on the Satio, but that's made up for by a large 3.5-inch touchscreen.

This is similar to the approach taken by Taiwanese company GIGA-BYTE, which is better known for making computer components such as motherboards but has just entered South-east Asia's phone market with the GSmart 1200 ($768), which might be the business phone you're looking for, depending on your needs.

Although the GSmart has attributes of a lifestyle phone, with a small size and thin profile, the main reason to buy one is that it runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. It isn't the most user-friendly OS in the market, but might be the right choice for those who want maximum compatibility with Microsoft software and file types.

In fact, many people might welcome the features of a business phone in a form factor so much smaller than models typically marketed to business users.

However, there are still plenty of heavy e-mail users who type long letters on the go and prefer a physical qwerty keyboard. For those people, RIM will begin selling the new Curve 8520 by the end of this month, bundled with various operator plans from all three telcos.

The 8520 may be the entry-level model for RIM's Curve series of BlackBerry phones, but it has one key feature that potentially puts it ahead of all other BlackBerry models ' a touch-sensitive navigation button.

Most other BlackBerries use a trackball that you roll to navigate through e-mails and phone features, and press to select items. The Curve 8520, however, has a button that senses how your thumb is moving on it. Brush to the left and your cursor on the screen follows. Very slick, and it requires slightly less physical effort than using a trackball.

Of course, if you only want one of these four phones, each of them will multi-task effectively in the office or the dance club. You just won't be able to indulge in a transformation after work before painting the town red.

limchris@sph.com.sg

This story was first published in The Business Times.