The problem with pocket-sized internet gadgets (such as smartphones) is that the web facilities they offer tend to be patchy.

Even the all-conquering iPhone, for instance, fails to properly display some websites, and is completely stumped by online pages containing Flash animations. This is no good to serious web users, who yearn for a portable internet experience that’s the same the one you get sat at a desktop PC.

Nokia’s new N810 promises precisely this, with the company’s marketing materials boasting that it puts “the entire internet in your pocket”. Happily, the N810 gets web browsing mostly right. Having used the N810’s browser – a slimmed-down version of Firefox – for several weeks we have yet to visit a web page that it cannot display acceptably.

A quick press of a shortcut button and the browser window fills the whole screen – a wonderfully sharp, touch-sensitive display with a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Similarly, a pair of zoom buttons allow the displayed web page to be magnified or shrunk, as best fits for viewing. All this works brilliantly and the N810 undoubtedly offers one of the finest portable web experiences around.

However, enjoying that web experience depends on being close to a wireless hotspot or carrying a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone for data purposes, as the N810 has no built-in mobile phone of its own. Some may not consider this a big disadvantage but few people want to carry a second device in addition to their mobile phone (which may offer internet access in any case).

The battery life is a little limiting, with about four hours’ continuous use – not enough for a busy working day. Beyond the internet, the N810 is a powerful portable computer in its own right. It runs a mobile version of the Linux operating system, with plenty of applications available for download.

It has a built-in keyboard that slides out from under the screen, while an integrated stand can be swung out to prop the device up on a work surface. The keyboard is okay for short typing bursts, though the top row of keys is awkward to press. Alternatively handwriting-recognition software can be used, though this doesn’t work very well.

For the user’s files and folders, the N810 has 2GB of storage, which is ample for this kind of device, although music fans might find it a little small. There are other faults – the integrated webcam’s quality is awful and the built-in GPS receiver, for mapping and directions, is slow to get a lock on the positioning satellites. The supplied software is limited – it’s more fun than functional.

The LED Alarm Clock with its individual digits is as much of a talking piece as it is a time piece. Available in black or red, the clock is a series of Perspex stackable cubes that can be moved around independently each displaying one LED number and when placed in the correct order displays the current time. It looks great as a desktop or bedside table accessory and once you arrange them in your favourite way, it’ll be easy for you to tell the time, but might not be for others. Each cube is 1 inch wide x 1.5 inches high with a separate controller for the time set, dimmer and alarm functions (including snooze).

Worldwide music at your fingertips

The WM201 can pick up internet radio wirelessley, but also lets users listen to music stored on PCs.

Setting up the device is easy as long as you are connected to a broadband connection. Connecting involved entering the WEP or WPA key into the radio. If the radio is to be placed close by the router, it can be connected using the network cable supplied.

To stream music from the computer, a small application needs to be installed. It can play MP3 and WMA files, including those bought from online music stores.

Switching on the radio by pressing the scroll wheel in the middle automatically makes the radio scan for stations, and this is where it gets a little bit confusing. All the functions are controlled by the one scroll button in the centre of the radio. However, this we found it hard to tell which way to navigate and when to push the button in.

This led us to scroll through to the Uruguayan radio section instead of the one for Britain. The small screen centred beneath the wheel was little help: it may be bigger than average for such a device but the tiny text didn’t do much to ease the scrolling confusion. There is a remote control, but you still need to use the screen.

When we finally worked our way around to British stations we were able to pick up a decent 540 stations in the UK There is of course also the array of other global stations, and there are 12 presets so you don’t have to go through the process of tuning using the scroll wheel each time. Handily, it can also access recorded programming such as the BBC’s Listen Again service.

Sound quality from the radio and streamed music was amazingly clear, and the device is capable of quite high volume levels without a problem. Overall, the quality lives up to what we have come to expect from Roberts.

Although the radio keeps pace with the looks and quality of an iconic Roberts mode, the scroll wheel is very confusing. That said, the sound quality goes some way to make it more worth the £200 price tag.

Logic3’s Soundstage is a surround sound unit that has only one speaker section instead of the usual six.

While normal surround sound speaker sets rely on the user to place the various speakers in the right positions around the room, the Soundstage sits directly under the television and distributes the sound around the room from there.

It’s similar to the Evesham Soundstage (in this regard, but unlike the Yamaha YSP products (look out for a future review).

While those speakers use an in-built microphone to figure out the shape of the room and how to distribute the sound accordingly, the Logic3 Soundstage simply uses a built-in estimate of how the surround sound should sound.

It comes with an impressive number of inputs, including two optical connections and two coaxial digital connections, plus analogue sound input and even an FM radio tuner. All of these can be controlled using the supplied remote control, or the inputs can be selected using the buttons on the front of the unit.

We were able to set up the device easily, although its weight - the box weighs 17Kg - and its bulk mean that it’s worth having someone else to help put it in position. It also comes with fittings to fix it in place.

Basic sound quality was very impressive, with good response at all levels, and able to reach high volume levels without any distortion. The surround sound was less convincing - although the sound was noticeably fuller using five channels rather than the two for normal stereo, we weren’t able to tell the distinct channels apart as much as we could from a real six-speaker surround sound system.

Vista compatible: Yes

Trust’s Universal Notebook Power Adapter is a very simple product: it replaces your notebook computer’s own power supply.

That’s handy for anyone who’s lost or broken the original adapter that came with the computer.

The main power brick has a switch to select the output voltage - this can be found on the underside of the computer, or on the original power adapter.

It also has two power inputs, using either a mains cable or the supplied car charger, so it’s even possible to charge the computer’s battery as you drive.

The kit includes plenty of plugs for all sorts of notebooks - we couldn’t find a recent notebook (made in the last five years) that it couldn’t fit. The adapter can also power a USB device at the same time - that means it’s possible to plug in an iPod (using the iPod’s own charging cable), a phone, a Sony PSP or any other device that charges over USB, and power that at the same time as the computer. There’s a list on the Trust website of notebooks and other products that the adapter supports.

This versatile power adapter does its job well and is capable of more than just charging a notebook. That means it’s an excellent alternative to your notebook manufacturer’s official replacement adapter.

Who wants to traipse off to the high street or spend ages uploading images to a website when it’s often easier and cheaper to print photos at home?

Epson is the brand of choice for many photo professionals, so is its latest portable printer, the top-of-the-range PM 290, pull off the same trick for the man in the street?

First impressions aren’t good: its boxy grey plastic housing suggests that the designers should have gone back to the drawing board, or at least had a spell in detention.

But it’s what’s inside that counts, and that is an inkjet printer with a great resolution of 5,760×1,440dpi that will in theory deliver much more detail than similarly priced dye-sublimation printers.

There is also a four-colour all-in-one cartridge - reminiscent of a video cassette - that slots easily into the base at the back so there’s no fiddling around with messy innards. Four colours also mean a wider and more subtle range of tones and impressively deep black shades alongside warm, well-saturated colour. More detailed prints don’t mean having to wait ages for delivery either: the PM 290 claims - and fulfilled - 37 seconds for a 6×4in photo print, the fastest we’ve experienced.

The unit can be used as a standalone device - there is a USB port and slots at the front for common memory cards - or it can be used with the PC if you budget extra for a USB cable. Even better is the fact that it’s Bluetooth-equipped and has a tray for copying images to or from CD or DVD. With a bright and clear tilting 3in screen on which to review shots, the PM 290 shapes up as truly a complete printing package.

Home printing is usually more expensive than high street bulk printing, but if you opt for Epson’s 100-sheet photo pack the price per 6×4in copy is a very reasonable 20p. A carry handle and battery are available as extras.

The PM 290 offers the best marriage of speed and image quality on the market. It may appear expensive compared with the best of competing brands, but it is a knockout product for which it’s well worth digging deeper.

A portable photo printer for affordable pictures

Fashioned into a shape that suggests a ghetto blaster for a toddler, HP’s miniature A626 printer shows that the company has cottoned onto the fact that design is as important as function nowadays.

That’s especially true if the printer is equipped with a carry handle meaning it might be seen out in public.

Equally attractive is the fact that the A626, unusually for a printer of its size, employs inkjet rather than dye-sublimation technology.

Whereas dye-sublimation printers typically have a maximum print resolution of 300dpi - usually considered as approaching photo quality - the A626 offers a whopping 4,800×1,200dpi.

Though this sounds like overkill when it only prints to 5in x7in paper, in real terms it means finer and more subtle detail than its rivals, at a price similar to them or cheaper, with an average cost per print of 21p. The A626 also uses HP’s Vivera inks (in the form of a three colour cartridge) as found in its more grown-up desktop printers.

The front of the printer flips open to reveal four separate card slots for camera memory cards, plus an additional USB port for direct connection should your card not be supported. And then there’s the A626’s large 4.8in pop-up screen, which perfect for reviewing the shots to be printed. Though it does operate as a standalone device, it can also be hooked up to your PC - but it’s up to the user to provide the USB cable in that case.

The screen is also touch-sensitive, with a plastic stylus provided for easy cropping of images, removal of red-eye and overall enhancement without having to fire up the computer. This cuts down on the number of distracting buttons and controls, giving the unit a minimalist appearance and making it easier to understand.

Given the amount of features it offers, and its funky styling, the A626’s asking price feels more than fair, and though it isn’t the fastest out of the blocks - delivering a print in 90 seconds that’s still a little moist to the touch - this printer is one of the more convincing standalone photo models out there.

Vista compatible: Yes

New digicam ranges are significantly more versatile 

Canon has launched a range of new camcorders that make the most of high-definition (HD), widescreen TV and DVD technologies.

The DC300 and MD200 ranges both record straight to DVD and in 16:9 widescreen. The HV30 model can record HD footage.

The DC300 range comes with a high-capacity battery pack, which is said to extend recording time, and an SD card for saving still-life images.

The better-equipped DC330 has a 45x advanced zoom, and a DIGIC DV II processor, which is said to give true-to-life colours. The DC301 has the same features plus a 36x zoom.

The models in the MD200 series have a quick-start feature and an LCD video light for close-up filming in poorly lit areas. The MD235 has a 45x zoom and an ‘easy shooting mode’ for point and shoot recording. The MD205 has a 36x zoom.

The HV30 takes advantage of HD technology and claims to let people record in the same HD resolution as full HD televisions. It has a 2.7in multi-angle LCD screen, and a 10x optical zoom with an image stabiliser to keep shaking to a minimum.

The camera can record at 25 frames per second giving a cinema-like effect to footage. It has a high-capacity battery which is said to give around four hours of continuous shooting.

Finally Canon’s HF10 and HF100 are Flash memory-based models, which means that footage continues to be stored on the device even if the battery runs out.

The HF10 has the option of recording to its internal 16GB memory or an SD card, while the HF100 stores everything directly to its Flash storage. Both have 12x optical zoom and a 3.1-megapixel resolution on still images.

Pricing was not available but all models should be available from next month.

Although notebook computers are cheaper today than ever before, it’s still rather unusual to see one for sale for less than £350.

What’s more, cheaper notebooks tend to be rather similar: most have a 15.4in widescreen display, and although they’re fairly powerful very few are light enough, or have a battery good enough, to be really portable.

Asus’s oddly-named Eee PC, then, is rather unusual. Not only is it a complete notebook computer that costs just £220 including VAT, but it’s both tiny and portable. There are several things that might put potential buyers off choosing the Eee over a conventional computer.

Firstly, its size can be troublesome: the Eee is tiny and when closed, it’s not much larger than two DVD cases stacked together. This makes it easy to fit into even the most cramped travel bag, but it also means that everything about the notebook is similarly small.

The keyboard, for instance, has keys that are minuscule and rather wobbly. It’s possible to type fairly fast if you have small fingers, but we wouldn’t want to write a long document on it. The battery itself is also fairly small, but will keep the Eee running for between two and three hours when surfing the web.

More importantly, the Eee has a small screen. The 7in display has a resolution of just 800×480 pixels, giving far less room for programs and documents than most notebooks. This also means that text is generally small, making it a poor choice for anyone with worse than 20/20 eyesight.

Another key difference between the Eee and a regular notebook computer is that, unlike most notebooks, the Eee doesn’t come with Windows XP or Vista. Instead, it uses a special version of the free Linux operating system. This uses clear menus with large icons that give access to all the free software included on the Eee. This includes the Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird email program and the excellent OpenOffice suite, which can open and edit Word and Excel documents.

The downside of using Linux is that it’s not possible to install any Windows programs you might have, but with so much good software installed already there’s a good chance you won’t need to.

Finally, the parts used inside the Eee are rather different to those found in most modern notebooks. The processor, for example, is a simple and slow one rather than the fancy dual-core chips found in most notebooks, and there’s only 512MB of memory.

The biggest difference of all, though, is the fact that the Eee doesn’t have a hard disk. Instead it stores files and programs on 4GB of flash memory, the kind of storage used in a camera memory card. Over half of this is filled up with the programs that are installed as standard, so there isn’t much left, but it’s easy to add more storage space by plugging in an SD memory card.

Overall, the Eee is a mixed bag. For everyday computing or work it’s no substitute for a normal notebook computer running Windows with a big screen and keyboard, but as a tiny, portable way to surf the web wirelessly from the sofa, or for travellers on a budget, it’s brilliant.

Notebooks are becoming similar to desktop PCs in the level of power they offer, with the same high-end specifications and media features.

Described as a desktop PC replacement, the Easynote 17in notebook from Packard Bell is one example of the trend.

Although the Easynote is designed to replace a desktop PC, its weight and bulk still come as a surprise. It’s impossible to take it out of the house unless you happen to be a muscle man, and in most cases we would be disappointed to be stuck with it indoors, but this notebook’s dodgy design makes that a blessing in disguise.

The Easynote we looked at has a sparkling white ‘limited edition’ case that looks like it belongs in a Christmas grotto, and it looks a little out of place now the festive season is over. Its exterior could be excused if the insides were better, but they’re not.

The 17in widescreen, which initially looked promising, is disappointingly grainy and made our DVD movies look like pirate copies. The screen, which doesn’t have anti-glare coating, suffers so badly from reflections in bright light that it could double as a mirror.

Another complaint is the space allotted to the bottom half of the notebook that houses the keyboard, a round trackpad and the mouse buttons. The chassis is big but the keyboard is tiny, cramped and stuck right at the top, and although the keys are nice and springy, making it nice to type on, it is uncomfortable and cramped overall.

This wouldn’t be so bad were the rest of the space used for something important, but that’s not the case. Instead, users are left with a gaping white space that is only broken up by an illuminated strip on the wrist rest.

The round trackpad is so far away from the keyboard that even those with large hands would have trouble spanning a hand across to it from the keyboard. This - unsurprisingly - makes it very uncomfortable to try to type and use the mouse at the same time, and it slows things down as the user has to keep moving their hands from the keyboard to the trackpad and still further to the awkward mouse buttons.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The Easynote has 2GB of memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor, which makes it perfect for word processing and some less recent games. The 160GB hard disk is big enough for most media collections and it comes with built-in wireless networking and a webcam, a nice collection of ports including four USB sockets and HDMI for connection to high-definition TVs.

The notebook comes with Windows Vista Home Premium (which includes all the most useful parts of Vista, including Media Center). It also comes with Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 (which can be used for editing music, pictures and video), Norton 360 security software and Packard Bell’s Home Cinema software for watching DVDs and listening to music.

Available at PC World shops and online, the Packard Bell Limited Edition Easynote 17in costs £700, but we’d resist buying it in favour of a desktop PC that might be a little bigger but will certainly offer better features for the price.

It’s hardly surprising that people are concerned about security when the Government can lose the personal details of 25 million people in the post.

For those similarly concerned about their PC’s security it might be worth taking a a look at APC’s Biometric Password Manager.

The Password Manager consists of a ‘biopod’ – a small fingerprint reader that plugs into a USB port on the PC – and a piece of software called Omnipass that can record and manage multiple passwords on the computer.

The installation process is a little untidy, as it doesn’t come with a neat installation program. It’s necessary instead to use the Add New Hardware wizard to install the basic driver software that controls the reader and then run a second installation program from the CD in order to install the Omnipass software. This isn’t a major problem, though, and the Password Manager worked surprisingly well once we got through the initial installation.

The OmniPass software then asks the user to create an account by scanning and recording a fingerprint, which is a simple matter of placing a finger on the reader when told to by the software. Once that’s done, OmniPass runs in the background and automatically pops into action whenever it sees that the user is being asked to enter a password, in any program or website. It can also be used to lock specific files or folders so that they can only be opened by the person whose print is stored.

The Password Manager works particularly well with websites. The first time you visit a website that requires a user name and password, OmniPass prompt you to type them in as normal. However, the software then remembers those details and the next time you go visit that site the program will prompt for your fingerprint and automatically enter the password.

We doubt that the Password Manager would keep out a really determined hacker, but it should certainly be secure enough to keep passwords and sensitive files safe in the home or office. At just over £40 it’s not a bad investment if you’re concerned about privacy on your PC.

iSkin’s Cerulean TX/RX provides a simple method of listening to iPod music via Bluetooth wireless connection.

The package has two parts - the TX is a little Bluetooth transmitter that connects either to an iPod or to a computer, while the RX is a receiver that plugs into iPod speakers.

There’s no software to install - the TX and RX automatically pair to each other to send and receive music. This took longer than the 20 seconds claimed in the manual and we were already flicking through for help before the paired connection set itself up properly. Apart from that minor glitch it worked perfectly.

The TX transmitter plugs into the dock connector on the base of the iPod or the included adaptor can connect it to a USB port on your Mac or PC. However, it will only work with fourth or fifth generation iPod models - essentially, any iPod that has a colour screen.

The RX receiver needs to plug into the docking port on a set of iPod speakers, so the device can only be used with speakers that were specifically designed for iPods. It won’t work with an ordinary set of speakers or a hi-fi system (alternatives such as Logitech’s even more expensive Wireless DJ can do this).

If you have the right iPod and speakers the Cerulean TX/RX works very well. Audio quality is very good with no obvious degradation from being sent over the wireless connection. Being able to control both music and speakers from the comfort of the sofa is rather nice too, but whether it’s worth the price might depend on how lazy you are.