The most glaring omission from the Joggler though, is a web browser. It’s an omission thrown into even sharper relief by the excellent screen, fine virtual keyboard and lovely touch UI. Fingers crossed, some day soon O2 will see fit to provide a version of the cracking Opera browser that Archos ships with its 5 and 7 Internet PMPs. Incidentally, our Joggler came loaded with just one game, the housewife's favourite, Sudoku. Presumably, more will be available as downloads from O2 in due course.

Brimming with features, but browserless

On a final note, the firmware in our review device wasn't as robust as perhaps it could have been. On one occasion the audio output gave up the ghost, while on a few others it dropped the connection to Windows Media Server when left to idle for an hour or so. It refused to re-connect even though the Wi-Fi signal was fine. Both problems were solved by a quick ‘reset’. In the absence of an on/off or dedicated reset button, this involved yanking out the power plug, which felt a bit barbaric.

O2 are pricing the Joggler at £150, which is pretty fair value for such a versatile gadget but it is also available free of charge in lieu of a handset upgrade to O2 contract customers and we reckon that makes it the bargain of the year.

Verdict

We can see no good reason for O2 locking the device down quite so comprehensively and not letting users load content onto the Joggler via Windows Explorer. After all, the Joggler is better seen as a handy, network-enabled media player, ideal for those who run their media from an always-on Nas box, so just forget all that calendar malarkey. The weather, traffic and news features are useful, with Internet radio and e-mail access due in the not too distant future. Indeed, it has lots of handy subsidiary functionality built-in but, if it had a web browser too, it would surely be the ultimate on-line, bedside companion. ®

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