Gadgets and Gizmos

Practically being given away on contract ahead of the imminent launch of its replacement model, this stalwart is the cheapest way to combine a phone and a PDA.

A full PalmOne PDA, a quad-band phone and a qwerty keyboard have all somehow been squashed into this sleek and portable unit. The legendary Palm usability has been extended to the phone app, which includes excellent software for keeping track of texts and a booming speakerphone. The keyboard is surprisingly practical whether held in two hands or one, and cleverly doubles as a conventional numeric keypad for phone use. A decent Web browser is bundled and there’s a stack of third-party software on the Net.

This has the poorest screen on test, with a pitifully low resolution and just 4,096 colours. There’s also no Bluetooth - a criminal omission on a device such as this - and the bundled software lacks any office suite for Word documents or spreadsheets. The camera isn’t up to much either, and is the worst of the three in this round-up.

It’s dirt cheap and very user-friendly, but this much-loved handset is starting to show its age - hold off for the new version if you want Palm.