Palm Treo 500

The basics

When you have a Palm Treo 500, you won't need a laptop to stay connected. This smartphone allows you to email, chat through Instant Messaging, browse the web, organise your tasks, play music, as well as record video and audio chunks. Comes with a sleek silver and black finish.

The good

It’s half the size of a typical PDA, it doesn’t have a touchscreen and it’s running Windows. So in what way exactly is this a Palm device? Well, the Treo 500 does comes laden with a bunch of business software, so you can tinker with PowerPoint and Excel files while you’re on the bus, and it syncs easily with XP and Vista desktops back in the office. The weight loss programme is welcome, as is nifty web browsing via IE and a 3G link. Stereo Bluetooth and microSD expansion get our thumbs-up, too.

The bad

Tapping messages out on the annoyingly rigid QWERTY keyboard is marginally more pleasant than having your fingernails extracted by American Special Forces operatives, but probably not a lot quicker or more efficient. The media player and basic games all feel a bit forced, too.

The bottom line

This is a business phone poorly disguised as a business PDA. If you have to pick a Windows Mobile phone for work, though, you could do a lot worse.