4. Entertainment On The Go

Apart from business-first devices like the Blackberry and the Nokia E62, and the music-focused Sony Ericsson W950 Walkman phone, just about every PDA phone has a camera. Until the second half of 2007 these were nearly all 1.3 megapixel cameras, but two megapixel cameras have arrived on the latest HTC Windows Mobile devices like the Artemis and the Tytan and on a number of other smartphones. You're less likely to see the higher resolution cameras from smartphones and feature phones on PDA phones because they're often designed, at least in part, for the business user rather than the consumer.

Don't expect the same image quality as a digital camera; even with higher resolution the lens and optics you can squeeze into a PDA phone aren't as good. Auto-focus and flash are getting more common on PDA phones, but you nearly always take the photo using the menu controls rather than with a dedicated shutter button.

Some phones add a second VGA resolution camera on the front for video conferencing so that you can look at the screen and see the video of whom you're talking to rather than having to flip the phone over so they can see you. These are more common on 3G PDAs but the Samsung i600 (the UK version of the BlackJack) has one too.

Windows Mobile devices and Palm OS Treos both have very capable media players that can play back MP3s and video clips. Windows Mobile can stream video from the Web, play DRM-protected music and on larger screens, play full-screen video rotated so you get the widescreen effect. The player on Symbian phones varies but can usually handle MP3, RealPlayer and AAC. RIM hasn't added a media player to any of its full-size devices. As with smartphones, you'll need an adapter to plug in headphones as the socket you get is for a headset.