LG Phenom Express

Powering the device is a 100MHz SH3 processor, backed up by a more than adequate 16Mb of ROM and 16Mb of RAM (upgradable to 32Mb). It runs Windows CE 2 quite quickly and felt a lot faster than the Jornada, which was running Windows CE Professional Edition.

The key advantage the Express holds over its notebook brethren is its battery life. Following in the footsteps of the HP Jornada, the length of time you can operate the Express away from a source of mains power is much more impressive than the average notebook. With the processor set to half speed, I managed to extract a laudable seven to eight hours from a single charge of the lithium ion battery. The only problem was that for the last two hours I was constantly plagued by a reminder that the battery level was low.

So the Phenom Express is at least as easy to use as HP's excellent Jornada. In fact, all it lacks is Windows CE Professional. If you're desperately in need of Pocket Access you can upgrade for the princely sum of £60 but, if not, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that the Express costs a mere £510 - a staggering £340 cheaper than the Jornada. If you're after a device for simple word processing, calendar and email tasks on the move - and providing pocketability isn't an issue - the LG Phenom Express is the new benchmark.

Author: Jonathan Bray