O2 XDA Mini S

The O2 XDA Mini S is a good all round phone/pda only bad point is the stylus keeps falling out of holder. Overall, a good reliable pda and good qwerty keyboard

Overall I very happy with my O2 XDA Mini S. It is small enough to be used just like a normal phone but has all the features of a full PDA, as well as normal phone functionality. Saying that you do have to be technically competent to get the most out of it, as it runs Windows Mobile 5, just like any PC running Windows, every now and again a reset to just out of the box can be very useful to get things running as you would like. This is done by doing a memory reset which clears everything and sets it back to how you got it. The good thing is a sync with the PC and all contacts etc., are back on the phone. I only reset mine every now and again. This is mainly, as Windows Mobile keeps everything that you start up running, in memory. A reset closes everything down and clears the memory. Mine also got a problem with the screen after about 11 months. It kept frosting and had to turn the screen off and on to clear it. O2 was brilliant and it was swapped out in only 2 days for a brand new one. The latest OS was running on my new one and is more stable than ever. Brilliant piece of kit and will definitely get a more up to date model when my contract runs out.

As a phone... Well, the O2 XDA Mini S is a great PDA.

Basically, this is more of a PDA that can function as a phone, than a phone with great organiser functions. As such though, it's one of the better ones, as it finds a good balance between being small enough to hold to the side of your head in public (I refuse to walk around with one of those headsets speaking to thin air), and large enough to allow practical use of its PDA functions.

This is helped in no small way by the slide out qwerty keyboard. You push the screen to the right to reveal 41 discrete buttons for your thumbs, and the screen automatically shifts to landscape mode. Even as a large man, I find the keyboard only rarely lets me push more than one button at a time (and this is usually when I'm not paying attention). It will never replace a laptop for serious working on the move, but it is great for mobile email and note making in restricted spaces. You can even do spreadsheets and view Powerpoint if you like.

It uses Windows Mobile 5 as an operating system, which, whilst great for PC connectivity, does inherit a certain amount of 'character' from MS Windows; basically you need to reboot it from time to time, and not always at an opportune moment.

There's nothing on the market at the moment that appeals to me as a potential replacement (I don't want to go back to carrying both phone and PDA if I can avoid it), but should something come along that does a similar job and can speak with a Mac too...

I wonder if I could put LINUX on it?