C/NET has a nice look back at new products demonstrated at the CES and has picked “the next big thing” in a number of product categories. Their pick for the “Cellphones and Handhelds” category is the sweet Samsung i730 Pocket PC Phone Edition. The i730 is a Windows Mobile based phone that has EVDO connectivity built right into the device. The best feature on the i730 is the slide out QWERTY keyboard making this phone perfect for emails, IM and text messaging while on the go.

There is a short video on the C/NET web page that shows the i730 in action which is really nice (those at work beware the page auto-plays a video with sound as soon as you open it). I would expect Verizon to offer the i730 since it works on their new EVDO high-speed network.

Full specs
2.8″ LCD
128 MB flash memory/ 64 MB SDRAM
Bluetooth
EVDO and backward compatible to the CDMA network
Windows Media Player 10.0
WMA ring tones
Instant messaging, e-mail, Web browser, and text messaging
Portrait and Landscape modes
SDIO expansion slot
Dual stereo speakers with 3D sound