Geoff Lynn BBC News Online review

The Handspring Treo 270 is a combined palmtop computer and mobile phone that slots into a segment of the market that is becoming increasingly crowded with new devices.

There are phone manufacturers adding personal organiser functions and e-mail to their handsets, while computer makers are turning their handhelds into phones.

As such, the Treo 270 is competing with mobile phones such as the Sony Ericsson T68i, Nokia 7650 and Microsoft SPV and new PDAs like the XDA and the Palm Tungsten.

Handspring are manufacturers of personal digital assistants (PDAs), so the Treo 270 is a personal organiser with a phone built-in and feels a bit wider and flatter than the average mobile phone.

Miniature keyboard

Works pretty well as a mobile phone

The end of the flip-top lid houses the earpiece so you open it clamshell style to make a call.

Handspring has included a handy jog wheel on the left-hand side of the Treo's body, which allows you to scroll through your contacts and select a number to call one-handed.

You can also make selections by using the stylus on the touch-sensitive screen, or enter numbers or text using the miniature keyboard.

As a mobile phone, the Treo 270 works pretty well. If you make a lot of long calls during the day, you will need to recharge every night, which is pretty much what I have to do with my phone anyway. Otherwise, you can go for longer periods between charges.

Bit fiddly

I was occasionally baffled by some of the functions Geoff Lynn

The Treo also has a function which allows you to turn off the phone and continue to use the PDA functions which can save you battery life.

For text messaging, it is a lot easier to type using the miniature keyboard than it would be on your mobile phone, once you have got used to pressing the tiny keys.

One of the main selling points of combining a phone and a PDA is that you can use it to surf the internet.

The Treo 270 is only upgradeable to GPRS which means that, once you have set up a connection to the internet, you will be downloading data at the grand old speed of 9600 bps.

If you stick to websites that have been optimised for PDA browsing it can be an acceptable experience.

Spec for Treo 270

Memory - 16 MB Dimensions - 10.8cm x 7.1cm x 2.1cm Weight - 153 g Battery life - 3 hrs talk time, 150 hrs standby

To get access to your e-mail account, you need to install the mail software from the accompanying CD. You can do that when you install the Handspring desktop software that allows you to back up your data on your PC.

Once the software is installed, you connect the device via a USB cable to your computer and you can synchronise your desktop calendar, contacts and To Do list with your handheld.

Crammed gadget

I was occasionally baffled by some of the functions, including the fact that you need to press and hold the power button for a few seconds to switch the wireless mode on an off.

Disconnecting from the internet also was not entirely intuitive either until I had worked out what key you had to press to access the options menu.

Some people I called complained of an echo on the line.

The jog wheel can be a nuisance when making a call, because I found I would occasionally press it by accident prompting it to offer to make another call.

Overall Handspring have made a pretty good attempt at cramming a lot of features into a fairly compact device.

The Treo 270 costs about �300 with a monthly contract on the O2 network.