The Motorola A1000 on the 3 mobile phone network is the first smartphone using the Symbian operating system that supports video calls. The handset looks good, thanks to a screen that takes up around 80 per cent of its front panel, and there aren't many standard buttons, as almost all functions can be accessed via this touch-sensitive display.

Motorola has integrated a stylus into the bottom right of the phone, which allows you to use it just like a handheld computer. If you just want to make a phone call, you can use your fingers to tap the virtual buttons displayed on the screen. We found this slightly unnatural at first, but with some practice we were communicating with friends in no time.

Unfortunately, the rest of the A1000's features can prove rather difficult to use. The menus are not user-friendly and finding certain options initially involved a lot of trial and error. The aforementioned buttons on the face and side of the phone are used mainly for dialling, hanging up and accessing 3's online content services.

There is a central rocker button designed to help navigate up, down, left and right through menus, but it's absolutely useless. Regardless of which direction you select, you are more likely to push down on it, which invariably results in you selecting the wrong menu item.

Using the stylus is much easier, but there were occasions where a dedicated keypad would have proved far more convenient. Thankfully, the A1000 features fairly good handwriting recognition. You can enter text messages and phone book entries in your own scrawl and have it recognised and translated into storable entries.

To its credit, the A1000 does have some interesting features. It has camera lenses facing towards and away from the screen, so you can take pictures of your friends or self-portraits without having to turn the screen away from you. The camera is a 1.2-megapixel model, so it delivers images on par with cheap digital cameras.

We were able to enjoy relatively high-quality video playback, but the phone's internet browser (which could have been put to good use thanks to the large display) was hampered by the fact that the 3 mobile network only allows you to browse its own sites.

The A1000 has an impressive 200-hour standby time and 225-minute talk time. It also has Bluetooth support and, thanks to its tri-band compatibility, you can use it in most countries around the world. If you're a business user, the contact management functions could be appealing, but there are other devices that are easier to use and do a better job.

Contact:
Three 0870 733 0330
www.three.co.uk

Also consider:
Orange C500