RIM BlackBerry 7230

After years of waiting, Research In Motion's BlackBerry 5820 (see issue 91, p136) finally gave us Brits the chance to have email pushed directly to our mobile device. But the 5820 was aimed exclusively at the enterprise, leaving anyone without forward-thinking IT departments adrift in an email-less wilderness. The 7230 changes all that, as RIM partners with T-Mobile to produce a package aimed at 'professional consumers'.

The major difference is that you no longer have to rely on company email. Instead, you integrate your BlackBerry with your own email accounts (providing they're POP3- or IMAP-compliant). Messages sent to your existing email account are then pushed directly to the BlackBerry. This works with all the big names, including AOL and Hotmail. The good news is that messages sent from the handheld can be sent via your existing email address, making the process appear seamless.

Another plus is that the BlackBerry can handle very long emails. Although it will only download the first 2KB by default, as you scroll down it grabs more data. It's the same principle with attachments, and is capable of reading Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files, although it may not read the latter two perfectly.

When first switching the BlackBerry on, you need to set up your own T-Mobile email account, of the form yourname@instantemail.t-mobile.co.uk. You can then add up to ten different email accounts.

The BlackBerry 7230 won't just be limited to T-Mobile, however. You can integrate it with your company's Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino server - for more details, contact europe@blackberry.com . The main drawback is having to spend around £2,500 on RIM's Enterprise Server software, but in return you get extra security - like Triple DES - and the ability to wirelessly synchronise calendars.

Thanks to the keyboard, firing off messages is quick and easy. You won't hit 50 words per minute and you probably won't want to write long missives, but it avoids the frustration and learning curve of character recognition on pen-based PDAs.

And the BlackBerry has plenty more to offer besides email. As it supports GPRS, the obvious addition is web browsing. It only has a WAP browser, so there are some limitations, but generally it coped well. In terms of speed, it's roughly equivalent to a 56K modem, so visiting compact sites is quite a nippy experience. Where it becomes more frustrating is information-heavy pages; with such a small screen, you have to scroll repeatedly down. This can be irritating as the 7230 doesn't have a touchscreen, so you can't just drag on the sidebar - instead, you must scroll through using the jog dial. Thankfully, you can hit the Escape button to go back a screen, while a scroll button allows you to jump a page at a time.

The screen was much-praised in the PC Pro office, mainly because it's so sharp and detailed. Just like the mono screens of PDAs past, this colour TFT doesn't need a backlight to make it readable - whether indoors or outdoors, you'll be able to see its contents. There is a backlight, but this is solely for use in dark conditions (the keys are illuminated as well). Don't expect a bright, vivid screen as found on current PDAs, though. With a grey background rather than white, there isn't a huge amount of contrast so colours look washed out. I wouldn't want to stare at it for more than ten minutes at a time.

But the major power-consuming component of a screen is its backlight, so in return you get stunning battery life. Despite being left on over the weekend and being put to frequent use, the 7230 still had three power bars out of five showing by the Tuesday morning - the type of longevity PDAs can only dream of. What's more, it can charge via the USB connection when synchronising or a travel charger, and the removable battery is another plus.