T-Mobile Ameo

The T-Mobile Ameo is a branded version of HTC's Advantage, and is being marketed as part smartphone, part PDA and part mini-laptop. Even so, it's still a big device: just under a quarter of the size of this page, and slightly more than two PC Pros thick. It's also pretty heavy, but that's because of what's inside.

For starters, there's a 5in VGA touchscreen, and a very bright one at that. It's a shame Windows Mobile 5 doesn't make better use of the resolution, though, simply scaling everything up, with no more screen space than you'd find on a mobile phone.

One of the innovations on offer is a combined screen cover and keyboard, attaching to the main body with incredibly strong magnets - so strong, in fact, there's a warning in the manual to keep them away from credit cards and other magnetic media. The keyboard is best described as "adequate" - you can type on it, but it isn't the most pleasant experience. The magnetic mount means the screen is always at a fixed angle too, so you can't tilt it to avoid glare.

It's possible to use the Ameo as a tablet, without its keyboard attached, and this is when another innovation comes into play: press the VueFLO button next to the screen and a G-sensor is activated, monitoring the movement of the device. Tip it forwards and the page scrolls down, tip it backwards and it scrolls back up. It's actually more gimmicky than useful and, since it's measuring G rather than absolute position of the sensor, it can't be used for auto-rotating the screen.

The Ameo uses a non-removable 8GB Microdrive that uses the G-sensor to park the heads in the event of a fall.

Like many current high-end mobile devices there's GPS onboard, although we think it's pretty stingy not to bundle some kind of navigation application, especially at this price.

Communications are superb, with quad-band GSM, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Ultimately, though, the Ameo works well as a technology demonstrator or a lust-after style device, but as a day-to-day mobile comms tool it's marred by compromises and poor usability.

Author: Paul Ockenden