HTC Advantage X7500

Like the iPhone, HTC's Advantage is a large-screen device designed for web browsing as well as making phone calls. Unlike the iPhone, it comes with a full range of ports, connections and applications - and a keyboard.

It's not a UMPC because it runs Windows Mobile rather than a desktop release of Windows or Linux, but with a VGA port, 8GB micro drive, built in GPS, a USB port that you can connect standard peripherals to (with an adapter), 3 megapixel camera, video conferencing support as well as true 3G connectivity it's a lot more than just a smartphone. It's also a lot bigger.

Now it comes with Windows Mobile 6, is that enough to make you want to make room for this kind of intermediate device?

You can use the Advantage like a traditional PDA or like a mini laptop because the QWERTY keyboard attaches magnetically; pull it off and you can rotate the screen and use the stylus, hold it about an inch away from the screen and the magnet pulls it into the right place and turns the device on. The leather case has clips for the screen but again the keyboard attaches magnetically and pulls into position when you open the case. If you don't use the case, the magnet also turns the keyboard into a screen cover for the Advantage. A transparent section turns the screen into a line of icons for power, signal, unread messages and so on - you can even change what you see with the volume slider.

The keyboard has an excellent layout, although the function keys for numbers and punctuation could be easier to see. You don't get much motion when you press a key so you'll have to learn to watch the screen instead of trusting your fingers - but if you're doing a lot of typing you could use a full-size portable Bluetooth keyboard and treat the magnetic keyboard as a stand. There's a miniature joystick and an OK button on the main screen, two soft buttons on the keyboard and several dedicated app launching buttons on both, if you don't get on well with a touch screen and the rather tiny clear stylus. Alternatively, the VueFLO accelerometer lets you tilt the screen forward and back to scroll through long Web pages. It's a little fiddly at first and doesn't work with all applications, but it means you can scroll smoothly rather than jumping from link to link.

The large screen is one of the highlights of the Advantage; it's bright enough to use outdoors and you can switch from landscape to portrait to suit the application you're running. Although the screen is very clear and photos look good, few apps take advantage of the VGA resolution. If you find the low resolution of Windows Mobile frustrating you can install a utility like the free MVrTrueVGA which quadruples the resolution, although this doesn't render all settings screens correctly.

Having this much screen makes you want more powerful programs and the 8GB micro drive gives you more than enough space to install apps, meaning you can save the miniSD slot for transferring files and media. The micro drive is fast enough to play music and video from and there's no lag in launching applications. The new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint work very well on the large screen, especially if you're creating charts or tables and tabbed browsing in Opera makes good use of the space. This is the only device that makes HTC's powerful camera interface feel usable (and images are fair to good in quality for still images and good for video conferencing). We tested the GPS using CoPilot 7 and maps are ideal on this size of screen; the speakers make navigation instructions clearly audible, the large on-screen buttons make it easy to use in the car and you're getting the equivalent of a dedicated navigation device in a smartphone that can do a lot more.