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The Zire 71 follows in the wake of its highly-successful, albeit much cheaper namesake, the Zire. But while the £75 Zire was a basic model, with limited features, no expandability and a low-res mono display, the 71 boasts the latest version of the Palm OS (5.2.1), a built-in camera and MP3 player and a new 320x320 high-resolution 65,000-colour display. It ditches the Dragonball processor for a nippy Ti OMAP 177Mhz chip that has been clocked down to 144Mhz to prolong battery life.

The 'hidden' camera slides out at the top of the device and takes 640x480 pictures, which can be stored on either SecureDigital or MultiMediaCards, via the 71's expansion slot. These cards can also be used to store MP3s, for playback through the stereo headphone jack, although you'll have to supply the headphones. Graffiti hand-writing recognition and an on-screen keyboard are provided for data input; external full-size keyboards can be plugged into the Palm Universal Connector. The 71 can also be connected to a Mac or PC for data-syncing via the included USB cradle or via Infrared.

Hotsync has been updated and allows you to pull in applications and files straight to memory or the device itself. It can handle zipped files too and will automatically convert media files for playback on the Kinoma player. Special attention has been paid to Macintosh users who get to sync

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their iTunes and iPhoto applications directly to the device.

The Palm Zire 71 is available now for £249.99 inc VAT.

The Tungsten C incorporates Palm's 'most powerful hardware ever' - an Intel Xscale 400MHz ARM processor with 64MB of RAM, running the new PalmOS 5.2.1. It also has integrated 802.11b, enabling it to connect to the vast majority of wireless networks and hotspots and giving Internet access and email, including attachments and secure support for enterprise connectivity.

In marked contrast to the Zire 71, the Tungsten C discards the graffiti area, in favour of a built-in keyboard. It has a 320x320, 65,000-colour display and all the usual means of input and storage - USB, Infrared and SecureDigital or MultiMediaCards. It has both a stereo audio jack and a built-in speaker and is also capable of voice recording, via a microphone (not included).

Connecting through a WiFi hot-spot, either directly or through VPN is fairly straightforward with three-step wizards to hold your hand. Enabling or disabling VPN and engaging the security features involves a more complex preferences tool, and in real life would probably result in many users accessing the Net through their company's network with VPN left on.

Palm has left no stone unturned in terms of security. For example, the latest email client, VersaMail 2.5, supports attachment encryption and indeed all your files can be encrypted for when you turn off the device. VPN encryption supports the latest 128bit algorithms from Blowfish, RSA RC4 and MDC and a there's also a timeout feature.

The Tungsten-C is available now for £399.99 inc VAT.

From the 25 April, the slightly-delayed Tungsten-W, which features a GSM tri-band radio, will be available for an expected £449.99 inc VAT.