Datawind Pocketsurfer 2r

There’s been a lot made recently of mobile internet access but only a few mobile phones really make it seem worthwhile, and carrying a laptop around may be impractical.

The Pocketsurfer 2 addresses these two problems with a proper keyboard layout and a bigger screen than most phones.

In fact, it was neither of those that really caught our attention but rather the trackpad, which is apparently a first for a non-laptop mobile device. It worked really well and was a real aid to web browsing.

Having said that, both the screen and the keyboard were disappointing. The keyboard does not have proper keys (it's a membrane keyboard like those on some 1980s computers), making it less than easy to type on. There is a useful selection of shortcut buttons down the left-hand side, though.

It uses the Vodafone mobile phone network to access the internet – in fact it's essentially a phone without the ability to make calls or use text messages. The price includes 20 hours of web browsing per month, and there's a handy timer on the main screen.

The screen quality is poor by modern standards, closer to what we saw on phones some years ago, although tweaking the contrast and brightness helped. One other frustration was that web pages were not rendered to the width of the screen as a phone-based browser such as Opera Mini can do. Given the speed limitations of mobile internet access it is annoying to have to scroll side to side to read a line of text.

It did work with more complex websites such as Googlemail and the Zoho office suite, allowing us to use mail and access and edit documents on the move.

As well as the web browser the Pocketsurfer 2r has built-in email and instant messaging software. The battery lasted for about four hours of surfing. It also has GPS, combined with Google Maps for directions.

The device may seem quite expensive at £200 but given that the purchase price includes both the phone hardware and access for one year, it compares quite well with a mobile phone contract on value (it works out at around £17 per month over 12 months).

For £60 Datawind offers a so-called Immortality Plan, which gives the user unlimited internet access for the life of the product. It works abroad but costs 5p per minute of access in Europe and the USA.

The Pocketsurfer2 is good for brief internet access on the move or away from home but it isn’t going to replace a notebook if you want to do anything really useful.