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Nokia 6500 Classic Review - Classic by name, classic by nature?

Spec

Click here for full specification

For

• Ultraslim, elegant design
• 1GB of internal storage
• 3G connectivity

Against

• No memory card expansion
• Camera is average quality
• One micro USB connector for charging and headphones

With its Nokia 6500 classic, Nokia has produced an unashamedly elegant handset that's a mere 9.5mm thin but which packs in 1GB of internal memory and has 3G connectivity.

It's an understated but elegant sliver of a design that avoids the flash attention grabbing of the Nokia 7500 Prism and the wallet-bruising price tag of the Nokia 8800 series. Note though: the candybar-style Nokia 6500 Classic shouldn't be confused with the Nokia 6500 Slide sliderphone.

For some reason Nokia has decided to give these distinctly different looking and differently featured phones matching numbers. Beats us why they couldn't tweak a number here or there to make life easier, but there you go...

It may be smart-looking, but the Nokia 6500 classic isn't one of Nokia's Symbian-powered smartphones. Instead, it utilises the latest version of Nokia's popular Series 40 user interface that's familiar to millions across the world. Its spread of features includes a music player onboard to take advantage of that 1GB of track storage space, and a 2-megapixel camera with video recording function.

The 6500 Classic's 1GB of onboard memory can't be increased by adding a memory card, however; the 6500 Classic doesn't have a MicroSD card expansion slot that's now virtually standard issue across Nokia's mid-range handsets. That's a shame, as MicroSDs are now such a cheap and convenient way of adding extra storage (2GB cards are widely available for under £15).

Unusually for a 3G phone, it doesn't offer face-to-face video calling. This isn't necessarily a big drawback, as video calling is unlikely to be a big draw for the 6500 classic's target audience. Other 3G functionality, such as support for fast video and audio downloads and streaming of content, and web browsing, are present.

Nokia has kept it simple and sophisticated on the casing, with curved edges and an anodized aluminium top half giving a tactile, classy feel to the phone.

Despite its slim size, it doesn't feel too miniature and liable to slip out of your hand, thanks to its longish length and a deceptively substantial feel. It measures 109.8 (h) x 45 (w) x 9.5mm (d) and weighs 94g.

It's certainly minimalist on the sides of the casing - there's no quick access keys, controls and barely any socketry; there's simply one Micro USB connector on the top taking care of data connectivity, charging and headphones.

The Micro USB connector also handles the supplied stereo headphones, as Nokia hasn't included a dedicated 3.5mm headphone socket on the 6500 classic, as it has started to do on some other models.

Numbers on the keypad are neatly accented by angled, tiny silver strips, separating individual keys on an otherwise flush pad. There's no tricksy stuff on the navigation keys - a regular navigation D-pad and large softkeys, plus call/end keys maintain the classy feel of the handset. Above this is a bright 2-inch, 16.7-million colour QVGA (320x240 pixels) display.

The standard Nokia interface allows you to customise the standby screen, with an (optional) Active Standby home page; here you can have calendar updates, add notes, get notification and create shortcuts to the music player. A set of icons on top of the standby page can also be changed for fast access to a variety of functions, while the D-pad can be user-configured for fastkey shortcuts too.

With 1GB to fill, some users will head straight for the music player. Loading up tracks is straightforward - hooking up the supplied USB cable, you can sync to tunes stored on a PC using the Nokia PC Suite software provided, or simply drag and drop music files with the phone connected as a mass storage device to your PC or Mac.

You could zap them over via Bluetooth too. The 6500 classic sports the stereo A2DP Bluetooth protocol, so wireless headphones and speakers can be used with it too.

You can also download tracks and videos over the air using 3G from compatible mobile network operators' music services. The new Nokia Music Store option isn't available on this handset, however.

Once loaded up, you can listen to the tunes through the built-in speakers (probably a bit low-rent for 6500 classic customers) or through the supplied earphones.

The speaker - on the back, directly under the camera lens - can be pushed up pretty loud although it is trebly, and gets tinnier and harsher the louder you crank it. The earphones are a far better option. Unusually, these are attached via a Micro USB connector, so if you want to plug in your favourite quality headphones instead you'll need to source a Micro USB to 3.5mm adapter.

The earphones produce a respectable if not remarkable performance, like so many in-box sets, and it's a shame that Nokia has limited the ease with which you can upgrade them.

The music player itself is a tidy piece of software, organising tracks by the usual categories, and allowing equalisation tweaks to suit your preferences. The player makes use of the D-pad for controls, and can play in the background while in standby or be used with the phone off in flight mode.

The camera on the Nokia 6500 Classic is a standard 2-megapixel shooter, capable of taking images that can be blown up to standard photo print size. It's a fixed focus lens, though there is a digital zoom. Image quality can be decent in well-lit environments, but overall the quality is fairly average, particulalty for a Nokia phone.

There are some control settings to adjust white balance and quality, and you can add basic shooting effects, but with low quality video too imaging isn't the stand-out feature on this Nokia.

Nokia has geared up the 6500 Classic with both a standard Nokia XHTML browser, and an Opera Mini browser. The Opera Mini browser, tucked away in the Apps folder, provides small screen rendering of websites, optimised to make them easily scrollable on a mobile phone screen.

An email client is onboard the 6500 Classic, to go with text and MMS. Regular organiser functions are included, and calendar, notes, and the to-do list can be synced with a PC using the supplied Nokia PC Suite software.

A calculator and convertor software, plus a My Nokia information update and user tips service, are loaded onto the phone. Four Java games - Backgammon, Golf Tour, Snake III and Sudoku - come preloaded too.

When it comes to the basics of voice calling, the 6500 classic certainly puts in a classic Nokia performance. Audio quality was first rate and signal finding and holding appeared better than some of its more illustrious smartphone stablemates.

Battery life is quoted by Nokia at up to 9 days on standby or 3.5 hours talktime - so it's not the longest runner in this category of slimline handset. Extensive use of the music player will eat into the power further, so expect to charge regularly.

The Nokia 6500 classic is undoubtedly a classy looking handset that puts style above fashion, with a sophisticated look and slimline appeal.

The 1GB of internal storage is still a hefty amount for a mobile phone, although the lack of memory card expansion does limit it for those who want to pack the handset with music; we'd have preferred to see an expansion slot here.

The headphone socket arrangement isn't the best we've seen either, and the camera is a fairly ordinary model (particularly when considering the 6500 Slide's 3.2-megapixel, Carl Zeiss-optics equipped camera).

But what you do get with the Nokia 6500 classic is a well-groomed, decently featured, slim and stylish 3G phone. It delivers a solid performance, and while other Nokia handsets do offer a fuller features list, the Nokia 6500 classic has some charm.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Review - Striking slimline music mobile with plenty of audio punch

For

• Slimline design
• Striking looks
• 2GB MicroSD memory card
• Fine quality music player
• 3.5mm headphone socket

Against

• No 3G
• Very average 2 megapixel camera
• Love-it-or-loathe-it colour scheme
• Keypad a bit plasticky

Verdict

It isn't the best all-rounder, but its primary purpose is as a music player, and at this it excels

No one can doubt that Nokia is determined to mark out some serious mobile music territory for itself, what with its recent N81 and N95 8GB-packing smartphone releases, and a series of high profile music service announcements (including Nokia Music Store and its Comes With Music).

At the same time, it's turned its attention to lower down the handset range, too, by refreshing its XpressMusic music phone portfolio. The 5310 XpressMusic is one of a pair of affordable newcomers to the loud and proud - if low-key - XpressMusic line.

Whereas Sony Ericsson seemingly has a new Walkman phone every few weeks, reinforcing its mobile music branding, Nokia's so far taken a relatively sedate approach to releasing music-optimised XpressMusic-tagged phones.

The 5310 XpressMusic aims to hit its target youth-market with a slick slimline look, featuring prominent colour contrast music player controls, and plenty of tune-playing punch; Nokia supplies the 5310 with a 2GB MicroSD card in-box to supplement its modest 30MB internal storage.

And at a pre-pay price that's initially pitched around the £120-£130 mark, this is a phone that is going to grab attention with its price-tag too.

The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic doesn't have 3G built in for fast over the air downloading - it makes do with quad-band GPRS - although Nokia has included a few useful Web-based apps. The 5310 is also light on the snapping front, with a rather basic 2-megapixel camera on the back that makes do without autofocus or flash.

Music, though, is of course the headline act on the 5310. Complementing Nokia's restyled music and video player inside, there's an FM radio, plus Nokia has slipped in a 3.5mm headphone jack, enabling users to upgrade headphones easily from the supplied pair.

A set of three large music player keys are ranged down the side of the display on coloured aluminium side panels - red or blue - that set off strikingly against the rest of the black and graphite grey bodywork.

That chassis is just 9.9mm thin, and with a weight of just 71g this candybar feels suitably light in the hand and comfortable in the pocket - unlike some of Nokia's earlier, chunky XpressMusic handsets.

The numberpad keys are a bit plasticky, but are large enough, arranged in a straightforward grid, and slightly curved to make them suitable for no-fuss texting. The display is a 2-inch QVGA (240x320 pixels), capable of showing up to 16.7 million separate colours; it's not the biggest array, but it is bright and vivid.

Nokia has unsurprisingly used its standard Series 40 user interface on this model, and the navigation controls are a familiar set of buttons arranged around a central D-pad. A pair of softkeys flank it, while there are standard call and end keys beneath these.

The D-pad and softkeys can offer shortcuts to a range of features. They arrive pre-set, but it's simple to reconfigure them to your own tastes. Similarly, out of the box, the standby screen is set for Active Standby, with a quintet of icons lines up on a bar at the top of the display for shortcuts to functions.

Other fast access options - like music player and radio, and calendar reminders, are listed down the screen. You can re-set all of this too to suit your own requirements. That makes for a flexible and quick menu access set-up - although you can choose simply to hit the central menu option and delve through the options from a standard grid format.

The conspicuous music player controls with their diamond etched music symbols look good on the 5310 XpressMusic and trumpet what this phone majors on.

Get the music player or radio in motion, and you can control the tunes - play, pause, forward or reverse - even when the music is strutting its stuff in the background. With 2GB of track-space to play with out of the box (thanks to the supplied MicroSD card) you can get hundreds of tunes onto the 5310 before you even consider adding further cards (it can accommodate up to 4GB capacity MicroSDs).

The music player user interface is similar to that used on other recent Nokia's latest Series 40 models, though you can tweak the themes on the 5310's player with additional skins. The player supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc+, and WMA music file formats, and tracks are organised in familiar MP3 player style - by playlists, artists, albums, genres, and there's a video option.

Cover art can be copied over to the phone too. For any music player, good sound quality is the key requirement, and the 5310 XpressMusic gets this spot on.

It produces a superb sound performance; the supplied headset is decent enough to be getting on with, but try plugging in some good quality headphones and you get a lovely, rich sound with tonal subtlety as well as plenty of bass. It's a fine player.

You can adjust equaliser settings if you want to optimise your istening pleasure. You can use the built in speaker, too, which is OKish, but isn't a treat to the ears. Stereo Bluetooth on board means you can stream tunes to wireless headphones or speakers too.

Nokia supplies its PC Suite software and a USB cable to sync and manage your music via a PC, though another option is drag and dropping music files straight to the phone in mass storage mode. The FM radio adds another free entertainment option, with the music player controls neatly coming into play for this function too.

One less favourable aspect of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is its rather basic 2-megapixel camera. For a lower-end music phone like this you may not expect a high quality shooter, and images aren't brilliant. It can take reasonable shots in decent lighting conditions, but overall colours are subdued, and no flash means it struggles in low light conditions.

The lack of autofocus limits the detail you can get in close up shots. It has a zoom, but this reduces picture quality further. The video recording capability is limited to low resolution (176x144 pixels) shooting, so is pretty poor played back on a PC screen.

Without 3G, browsing the internet isn't one of the highlights of the 5310. However, there are a few useful web-based applications included by Nokia to make the most of the phone's internet capabilities.

These include an Opera Mini browser app to go with standard Nokia XHTML browser, Yahoo! Go mobile software - which presents a suite of applications and information services in a widget-style homepage - and there's an app to download the Nokia WidSets customisable widgets application.

The Opera Mini browser is optimised for rendering web pages for small mobile displays, and does an able job in producing reformatted pages in easy scrollable format relatively speedily for a 2.5G phone.

The Yahoo! Go and WidSets apps - although available as downloadable apps - are a smart addition, as they enable users to get regular updates on blogs, web-based information services and favourite websites without having to fire up the browser each time, and spend ages surfing from site to site.

The 5310 covers the usual Nokia bases in terms of email support and organiser options; calendar, contacts and notes can by synced with a PC using Nokia PC Suite software. Voice recording and voice control options are available too.

Alongside an internet Search app and functional Convertor software, Nokia has included a couple of apps to please to the younger mobile demographic - a cash-saving fractals-based abstract wallpaper creator, and Nokia's Sensor Bluetooth-operated short-range social networking application that can plug you into similar Sensor users within a 10 metre radius.

Three games are provided too, City Bloxx, Snake III, and Music Guess (a quiz based on your own tunes).

At its base level phone functionality, call quality was impressive, with no audio problems - sound was clear and loud at both ends.

In terms of battery life, Nokia claims the 5310 XpressMusic can keep playing tunes for up to 20 hours solid, which is a decent amount of play-time for a slimline music mobile. In ordinary phone usage scenarios, Nokia quotes battery life at up to 5.4 hours talktime or 300 hours in standby; not the longest for a non-3G handset, but it should keep you going for a fair amount of time between charges.

We were able to go 4-5 days between charges with moderate usage, but we'd guess those who are attracted for its tune-playing prowess will be caning the music player, and so wil have to charge more frequently.

The music player is, after all, the central feature of what is a decent budget priced handset. The camera may be somewhat underwhelming, and the 5310 lacks 3G for fast tune downloading and surfing.

But it comes with a generous amount of MicroSD memory in-box and a great music player that lives up to its top billing. For a music phone at this price the 5310 XpressMusic is enticingly slim and eye-catching enough to distinguish it from the crowd, while its fine audio performance certainly makes it stand out too.

* A detailed specification of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic can be found on the Nokia website.

Total Mobile

Dell XPS M1730 Review - A stunning machine, and not just for gamers

Spec

Click here for full specification

For

• Strong construction
• Superbly powerful

Against

• Not particularly portable

Verdict

A real 'beast' of a laptop that had delivers power and performance in equal measure

When it comes to gaming laptops, Dell knows its target audience and the XPS M1730 (£1,639 inc. VAT) plays straight into this market. The 17-inch machine comes with the latest feature-set and even incorporates dual graphics cards for the best possible gaming performance.

Referred to by Dell as 'The Beast' this is easily the most powerful machine the company currently produces. Powered by the Intel 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, this chip can be overclocked and tweaked to suit the way you game. For hardcore users, this machine also supports the new Intel Extreme CPU. In use we found it easily handled our tests.

The chassis is large, but incredibly sturdy. It's made from carbon fibre with lights on the lid and the front of the case. Media buttons, also on the front, allow you to manage movies and music with ease.

Built for gaming, you'll find twin Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics cards connected using an SLI bridge. This delivers stunning performance. The 17-inch Super-TFT screen is amazingly bright and allows you to play games up to a resolution of 1920 x 1200-pixels without any signs of lag or delay.

When it comes to gaming laptops, Dell knows its target audience and the XPS M1730 (£1,639 inc. VAT) plays straight into this market. The 17-inch machine comes with the latest feature-set and even incorporates dual graphics cards for the best possible gaming performance.

Referred to by Dell as 'The Beast' this is easily the most powerful machine the company currently produces. Powered by the Intel 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, this chip can be overclocked and tweaked to suit the way you game. For hardcore users, this machine also supports the new Intel Extreme CPU. In use we found it easily handled our tests.

The chassis is large, but incredibly sturdy. It's made from carbon fibre with lights on the lid and the front of the case. Media buttons, also on the front, allow you to manage movies and music with ease.

Built for gaming, you'll find twin Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics cards connected using an SLI bridge. This delivers stunning performance. The 17-inch Super-TFT screen is amazingly bright and allows you to play games up to a resolution of 1920 x 1200-pixels without any signs of lag or delay.

Has the iPhone screwed over the UMPC? - How one portable computer can win whilst another flounders

When the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) was launched in the middle of 2006, it didn't exactly meet with an enthusiastic reception.

Whilst the idea of a paperback book-sized PC you could use with a pen like a notepad sounded promising, the first generation of UMPCs just didn't hit the mark. They were too bulky, with too short a battery life. And they were too expensive. Yes, they were fun to try (as a lot of new technology ideas are) but not particularly useful to own.

However, just because the first UMPCs didn't quite get portable computing right didn't mean the idea of a full Windows PC you could carry around you like a Filofax was a bad one.

But do you really need Windows in your bag? This is the question asked by the latest breed of all-singing mobile phones, in particular Apple's iPhone. The iPhone claims to be almost a full computer, too. It runs Mac OS X, although on an Xscale PDA processor rather than a notebook CPU.

So if the iPhone is essentially a little portable Mac, and the UMPC is a portable PC, why has the iPhone succeeded where the UMPC failed? Both can play music and video, and you can get UMPCs with built-in GPS, such as Asus's R50A, which can give you a map showing exactly where you are.

Phones 4 us

Let's forget the size difference for now - although this is clearly a major factor. The iPhone may be pocket friendly, where the UMPC would require trousers baggier than MC Hammer's to accommodate it.

The obvious difference is that Apple realises that the battle to be the people's everyday computing device was won some years ago. And it was won by the mobile phone.

Sure, Microsoft has Windows Mobile, and that's not doing too badly. You can buy quite a few decent phones running it nowadays, although pure PDAs appear to be dying out, with Dell killing its Axim range in April. But Windows Mobile is not really Windows, anyway, it's Windows CE, which is an entirely different codebase and can't run the same applications.

In contrast, the iPhone runs MacOS X, right? Well, no, not really. You definitely can't run desktop MacOS X apps on it. In fact, you can't officially run third-party apps on the iPhone at all, just unofficial hacks, although in October Apple did announce it would be releasing the SDK for this in February 2008.

So the iPhone's success is not about the extra software you can run on it, which is the primary selling point for the UMPC.

Work to live, not live to work

Despite the fact that the iPhone is basically a large PDA phone, it focuses on fun and style, not processing power and extensibility. After initial reports to the contrary, the iPhone has arrived with Exchange email support and Office compatibility. But it's really the funky iPod features and built-in Google Maps which make the iPhone more than just a phone.

The UMPC, on the other hand, is a device designed by people who only begrudgingly know what leisure is. It's a laptop without a keyboard; another incarnation of the Tablet PC concept. It has some fun abilities, but its big selling point is that it can run Windows apps, in particular MS Office. In other words, you will have even fewer excuses for not working 24 hours a day.

So who needs a UMPC any more? Who needs, or indeed wants, to carry a complete computer around with them at all times?

Well, some of us do. But most of us don't. Most of us just want an all-in-one mobile entertainment device you can actually fit in a pocket. And that's why so many people have gotten all hot and bothered about the iPhone, even queued up for hours to buy one, where the UMPC has come and gone with very little fanfare.

James Morris

Panasonic SDR-H250 Review - A hybrid approach to storage

Spec

Click here for full specification

For

• Versatile storage options
• Easy to use
• Good overall quality

Against

• Not HD

Verdict

A generous set of user-friendly features together with its combined ability to shoot either to SDHC cards or HDD in impressive widescreen makes this camcorder the obvious choice for upgraders who aren't quite ready to make the leap to HD quite yet

Panasonic's "hybrid" camcorder offers a choice of video recording to either internal hard disk or high-capacity SD card media and, on first impressions at least, shares an outward appearance with several models in the JVC Everio G range of HDD camcorders.

It's aimed at the home movie maker looking for a no-nonsense, easy-to-use camcorder that offers truly tape-less recording and playback together with all the necessary functions and features necessary to record great-looking widescreen video - and still get a lot of change from £500.

The camcorder's compact design makes it a really comfortable and handy unit to use, and its size makes it easy to tuck into a pocket or small bag when not in use. Its non-removable 30GB HDD occupies the part of the camcorder where the tape would be accommodated on a DV camcorder and this contributes to an equivalent body mass overall.

A collection of controls sits at the back - among them an independent on/off button, main function dial (providing Record and Play options for Movie and Photo shoot modes respectively), a Menu button (for selecting Record and Play functions) and a mini-joystick positioned in the centre of the main function dial, which is used to navigate the menus and make selections.

The H250 employs three 1/6th inch CCDs each of which produces an effective 540,000 pixels. The 10x optical zoom lens also features Panasonic's superb Mega OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) that works to smooth out hand-held shots most impressively when fully zoomed-in to a distant object.

We like the shutter-style lens cap, which opens and closes by turning what you might think is a focus ring - very useful in protecting the lens when putting it your pocket - even though you're denied a manual focus ring, of course.

The Menu button provides the entry point (in all camera modes) to the choice of functions. Like retrieving digital stills images in a camera, we can review movie clips and stills by using the mini-thumbwheel to navigate our way around the pages of thumbnail representations on the 2.7in LCD and select one (or more) to view and play. It's also a relatively easy job to create a Playlist of clips that can be recalled when you want to show only a selection of clips on a TV screen or even burn to DVD.

In addition to having a button - positioned inside the opened LCD screen recess - with which to increase the brightness of the LCD screen in three steps, Panasonic has included a simple DVD Copy button.

When the camcorder is connected to a Windows or Vista PC via USB 2.0 cable (supplied), and where the bundled Image Mixer software CD is installed, it's possible to make a quick, no-nonsense, DVD backup copy of your clips as stored on either HDD or SD card. Just click the button and off you go. This is a nice little add-on that saves the user's precious time.

Even when shooting in fully Auto mode, it performs well. The 30GB HDD provides ample capacity for several 'family days out' movies, and the convenience of SDHC card shooting made it all the more flexible.

Shooting in full Auto mode does create some problems when shooting against sheet-white skies, but careful use of the manual controls will eliminate such fundamental errors; colour and resolution when shooting in both 4:3 and 16:9 widescreen modes is very good indeed - widescreen movie playback looks great when you've been careful during shooting.

As with many so-called "handycam" sized cameras, audio does suffer when it's a bit windy, but in optimum conditions it's very good -spacially, the stereo is well-defined and audio definition is good.

The choice of recording media makes life on the road really easy, and with the plummeting cost of high capacity SDHC cards it's probably fair to say that recording to DV tape or DVD disc is actually more expensive.

Given that the knurled ring around the lens barrel is there to open and close the shutter, it would be nice to think that Panasonic would have replaced this with an Auto lens cap and given us a manual focus ring instead, but all in all this is a great camcorder at its price, and we can't see many users having much cause to complain about anything at all.

Digital Video (UK)

Samsung F210 Review - Stick thin but some meaty memory for music

Spec

Click here for full specification

For

• 1GB onboard memory
• Excellent call quality
• Innovative design

Against

• Small screen
• Sluggish scroll wheel
• Poor camera

Verdict

A handbag-friendly number that will turn heads with a decent performance to boot

There's always room for a phone that's a bit quirky, offering something a bit different, and the swivel-screen F210 is bound to attract plenty of attention.

And not just because our test model came in this season's Quality Street-wrapper pink (it's available in a variety of colours - including purple and blue - depending on the operator you buy it from).

One look and it's clear that Samsung's latest foray into fashionista territory is essentially a follow-up to the Samsung SGH-X830 (aka the Blush), with added musical va va voom to win over a new audience. It's easy to guess from its colourful casings whose pockets - or rather handbags - this phone is primarily aimed at...

The tall, slim styling and swivel screen of its predecessor remains, but joining the party is a generous 1GB of onboard storage, MicroSD card support and a decent lanyard-style headset. Build quality is excellent, while its solid metallic feel and elongated dimensions make it difficult to put down.

Push the screen to the left and it swivels open eagerly, revealing a keypad that's surprisingly well spaced given real estate is at a premium.

Samsung has obviously learnt that cheap and nasty keys make for a cheap and nasty phone, so the buttons on the F210 maintain the metallic swagger of the rest of the handset - even texting isn't the headache it would first appear.

Tiny screen

Unfortunately one thing that will probably be an issue is the size of the screen. At a time when big screens are in vogue, Samsung's decision to go with the opposite will certainly help the F210 stand out from the crowd, but in use things don't look so rosy.

The menu has been adapted slightly to meet the needs of the slimmed-down screen, and initially things don't seem to bad when opting for the block view.

Get down to the nitty gritty of the sub-menus, though, and it's like watching Sky Sports' videprinter scrolling past. All this would be a minor gripe, were it not compounded by the sluggish thumb wheel used to navigate the menu lists.

True, you could just press the up and down sections of the wheel, but the iPod generation will feel put out if their thumbs don't get the requisite exercise. It's fair to say that most areas of the phone are compromised slightly by the miniscule screen, but on the whole the F210 copes better than we thought it would.

Contacts are perfectly legible and not subject to scrolling, although good eyesight is required, and even texting isn't too much of a problem. WAP is pretty much a non-starter, though, and pages just don't translate well to the long narrow display.

With no 3G, this is even more of a problem. Samsung has attempted to improve things by including the option to navigate pages via the Page Pilot, which shows a series of - even smaller - thumbnails, and offering the ability to rescale your pages into Large, Normal and Small page sizes.

It's a nice try, but unless you're desperate to know the football scores we wouldn't bother. One area where screen size is immaterial is the handset's music playing credentials. The interface itself is fairly basic, but it does the essentials and is easy to operate.

For such a small phone, the F210's got a whopping memory as well - 1GB onboard, to be exact, and room for a further 2GB with the addition of a MicroSD card (you'll have to buy that as an extra, though).

Tracks can be added and managed using the bundled Samsung PC Suite, transferred by Bluetooth, loaded onto a memory card or downloaded with WAP. If you use Windows Media Player on your PC, you can also sync with this via the supplied USB data cable.

Listening options are also varied, and Samsung has once again proved its calibre in pushing traditional design boundaries by including a clip-on lanyard that acts as an extension to the bottom of the handset. It's an interesting idea, and if you're the active type it's great, but we fear that the necessity to remove the bottom cap to attach it will eventually result in the loss of one part or other.

It's definitely worth experimenting with, though, as the audio quality is pretty good. For those who can't be doing with the faffing around, you can always use the bundled 3.5mm adaptor cable to hook up your own set of headphones, or make use of the A2DP support to pair a wireless stereo Bluetooth set.

The other in-demand multimedia app of the moment is, of course, the camera. Again, with such a small screen this function was never going to be high on the list of selling points for the F210 - but nevertheless it's there in all its 2-megapixel glory.

Well, we say glory, but in this case it's just making up the numbers - as is the video app. Images lack sharpness, and the camera struggles with contrast; dark colours are under-exposed, while light areas are on the murky side.

Fun snapper

Still, we've seen worse and it's perfectly adequate as a fun snapper. Minor quirks aside, where it really counts the F210 comes good. Call quality is nothing short of excellent, and the odd shape doesn't feel so odd in use.

The handset also does well to maintain good signal strength even in poor areas of reception, and likewise the battery puts in a sterling performance for such a little fella.

Of course, this phone is going to sell more on looks than usability, so potential buyers are unlikely to be perturbed by the foibles of the screen. In that respect, by concentrating on performance and style Samsung has got it spot on.

Throwing in the carrot of a half-way decent music collection is just the icing on the cake. If you can get over its fiddliness, the F210 is definitely one of the classier fashion handsets on circuit.

Total Mobile