E-Ten P700

First things first - this latest PDA-cum-phone won't win any beauty pageants. It's pretty heavy at 200g, has an unappealing, angular silver styling and is far larger than its competitors, namely O2's xda II and Handspring's Treo 600. But this PDA phone does have a lot to offer, both inside and out.

For a start it has an impressive specification. The top-of-the-range XScale chip is coupled with a generous quantity of ROM and RAM, making the P700 one of the quickest PDAs we've used. Its ease of use is also helped by the responsive 3.5in screen, though we weren't impressed by the overall image quality. It's perfectly clear for everyday use, but rather pales in comparison to the xda II when it comes to colour reproduction. There's the usual array of shortcut buttons, as well as a jog dial, and the stylus is large and easy to handle. We were slightly concerned about how it attached to the device; simply clipping on to the side doesn't inspire confidence.

Running Windows Mobile 2003, E-Ten has also supplied a wealth of applications including Pocket Outlook, MSN Messenger, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Internet Explorer. There's also a backup facility that can use the built-in Bluetooth. An infrared port is supplied too.

Sadly though, it doesn't feature the 802.11 wireless we were expecting at this price. However, you could invest in a wireless card to fit into either the SDIO or CompactFlash slot. Being a PDA phone, it comes with tri-band GSM and Class 10 GPRS. You can hold it up to your ear, but as it's so big we stuck to using the supplied headphones when on the move.

Given its size, we were hoping for good battery life, and weren't disappointed. The P700 lasted for five hours of solid talk, and took days of regular use before starting to fail.

While the fashion-conscious may balk at its appearance, the P700 is both fast and well featured. But it's worth taking into account that the price doesn't include a connection to a mobile service provider, and that the xda and Treo 600 are better equipped and offer more value for money.

Author: Mark Walsh