Vodafone 360 H1 review

Vodafone has combined the likes of Facebook, Google Mail, Windows Live and others including 360's own chat function, although it is lacking Twitter at the time of writing. Getting connected to the accounts of your choosing is a quick and simple affair, although we couldn't get it to work with Gmail, no matter how many times we tried. We're hoping this is just an initial quirk that soon gets ironed out. Outlook isn't supported either at launch, although when we met with Vodafone, a spokesman did say that may change if user demand is there.

In use, 360 displays each of your friends' profile photos, which are shown floating on the screen in 3D mode (or you can have a more basic, linear display if you so wish) and can be scrolled through by sliding your finger up or down; or side-to-side to change groups of friends. Tapping on their photo opens up their last update and tapping that update opens up their profile. Those with phone numbers on their profile are also given a dialing function by means of a phone icon on their "page". Other icons specific to an individual include email, comment, chat etc.

Back to general functionality, the phone performs well. Call clarity is good; setting-up the handset is straightforward and has some nice visual touches too. The Wi-Fi discovery, for example, is shown like a radar screen. Each connection's proximity by signal strength is shown as a "bogey" on your radar, and can be tapped to connect.

Video playback quality is excellent and the large screen (bigger than the iPhone's) makes it quite usable to watch films and shows whilst on the move. Equally efficient is the MP3 player, with easy touch screen buttons and the now familiar album cover display. The 16GB memory is also adequate to fit enough media content to keep you entertained for all but the longest of journeys and the 600MHz processor, task bar manager and search functionality will add to its appeal for business users.

The back-up service on offer through the web-based 360 portal should also prove attractive to those whose emails, texts and pictures as essential to their lives as food and water. Indeed, the service backs up what's on your phone every 15 seconds or so, which we're pretty impressed with.