Oregon BackFlip PDA Pro

This simple idea really should have been thought of sooner. Not everyone has an infrared port on their mobile phone. So when most of us are away from our PCs we're also away from our email. The BackFlip, though, solves this by looking to the past.

As a PDA, the BackFlip is nothing special, with just simple email software and organising functions burnt into the Rom. The back of the case, though, houses a speaker and flip-out microphone. Position these against the handset of a regular phone and you have a modem reminiscent of the acoustic couplers used in the IT dark ages.

Enter some details from a card in the packaging and your BackFlip is set up and ready to send your first message. You're forced to use the pocket.com email service, but we got our first choice of user name.

We were a little concerned that to send our messages we had to dial into a premium-rate number, but the whole process completed so quickly that it probably cost us no more than 10p or so to send three mails and download a pocket.com 'welcome' message. Calls are charged at 25p a minute, rounded to the nearest second. More worryingly, though, was the 60p a minute charge for calling customer services. Fortunately, there's plenty of help on the pocket.com site, but the idea behind the BackFlip is that you use it away from your PC so you'd not have access to this while you're on the move.

The keyboard is fairly lousy and it has sticky-shift enabled, which we hated. The screen is a rather blocky 40 x 8 characters, comprising a 240 x 80 resolution. In all, it's a great idea, if you want email access and little else.

CONTACT 01628 826 688 www.oregonscientific.co.uk