Reg review While the likes of Motorola and HTC have become well-known for their Windows Mobile-based smart phones, Mio has kept a lower profile. The reason lies in its decision to focus on building a channel of specialist retailers and distributors rather than try to sell through the mobile networks, from whom the vast majority of Western handset buyers currently acquire their phones.

For Mio, there's the benefit of not having to jump through hoops for the networks - companies that all expect a lot from their suppliers. With it comes the risk that buyers - if they ever hear about the company - will assume its products somehow don't make the grade. But on the basis of a couple of weeks spent with Mio's latest offering, the tri-band 8390, it's clear that's not the case.

The 8390 is the successor to Mio's first smart phone, the Windows Mobile 2002 for Smartphones-based 8330. The newer model retains the older handset's clamshell form-factor, but runs Windows Mobile 2003.

New it may be, but the 8390 has a slightly retro feel. For a clamshell, it's a large handset, coming at 9.9 x 5.1 x 2.4cm. Closed, it's as thick as my Nokia 6600, and only slightly shorter and narrower. Compared to the Sendo M550 clamshell I used earlier this year, it's positively giant. To be fair, the Sendo isn't a smart phone and can get away with a smaller screen, but it's nonetheless an exemplar of how small clamshells can get. At 125g, the 8390 weighs the same as the 6600 and 25 per cent more than the Orange SPV c500.

But it's certainly well made. In your hand, the 8390 is solid - its weight makes it feel robust rather than heavy. The lid sports the usual compact status display, along with the obligatory digicam, in this case a VGA job with self-portrait mirror. Opening the phone reveals the 2.2in, 176 x 220, Smartphone-standard screen and large, widely-spaced keypad. The display is a good one - nicer, I'd say, than the c500's - and capable of showing 260,000-odd colours. The keypad isn't bad, either, with keys and five-way navigator control barely raised above the surface of the phone's body but still easy to reach and press, with a firm feedback.

The keys are capped with transparent plastic, with each decal printed below, giving the keyboard a quality feel and the user the knowledge that there's no paint to rub off. Indeed, the whole handset has a superior feel to it. Painting the plastic casing silver isn't exactly new or innovative from a design perspective, but Mio has done a good job to prevent it from feeling and looking cheap.

The clamshell opens smoothly and is not only lightly spring-loaded to keep it closed, but the lid nicely locks into place when fully open. Behind the screen sits the short antenna stub, infrared port and a bung-covered earphone socket, though it takes a 2.5mm jack rather than the standard 3.5mm and is intended more for the bundled headset than quality stereo earphones - despite Mio's assertion that this is a multimedia device.

On the left-hand side of the phone, a second rubber bung covers the 8390's SD card slot, which is almost impossible to remove if you don't have any fingernails worth speaking of. Inserting and removing memory cards is easier, with just enough space for your finger to push the card in to lock or release it.

The 8390's 860mAh battery is integrated into the hatch cover but is very slim and light. Mio very nicely bundles a second, 750mAh battery with the 8390, so you can always have one charged and ready as a back up, not that the handset's battery life is poorer than any other smart phone's. Mio also includes a charging cradle, which can power both the phone and the second battery.

Mio quotes 2-4 hours talk time with 100 hours on standby, and I'd broadly concur. I found myself charging the phone every 12-24 hours, depending on call volume.

The 8390 is based on a 200MHz Intel XScale PXA262 processor, with 28MB of memory made available to the user out of 32MB. The CPU isn't one of Intel's newest chips, but the handset was responsive, not sluggish when running the usual Windows Mobile 2003 applications. In addition to these, Mio has included camera, photo and video viewers, an MMS client, a caller photo ID tool, a Java 2 Mobile Edition virtual machine, a processor task manager, and a handful of other utilities. It also ships with Mio Assistant, a nice PC-based app for copying over photos, other files, Internet Explorer Favourites and the like. The 8390's UK distributor, AGB Global, bundles a further 17 other titles.

What's missing from the list, of course, are document viewers. Setting up an email account and receiving messages are reasonably straightforward on Windows Mobile 2003, but there's no way you can view attachments if they're in .DOC or .XLS format, as so many are these days. Nor is there a PDF reader. To ship a business-oriented smart phone without such a viewer is a mistake. Yes, you can download them, but most phone customers do not expect to have to find and grab extra software, particularly smaller companies without dedicated technology staff.

The 8390 naturally comes with Microsoft's Windows-only ActiveSync software to tie the handset into a user's Outlook databases. Mac users need not feel left out - sync software specialist Mark/Space is working on a new version of its Missing Sync for PocketPC product with support for Windows Mobile-based smart phones. It's due in the new year.

The 8390's second major omission is Bluetooth. It's not an essential feature, but still an important one, whether you plan to hook up your handset to your notebook, or you just want to use a wireless headset. And with most if not all of the 8390's rivals offering the facility, Mio may find leaving Bluetooth out will cost it more than putting it in. For me, no Bluetooth is a deal-breaker.

In the UK, the 8390 retails for around £331. For a SIM-free smart phone, that's by no means unreasonable, given the 8390's build quality and specification. There are cheaper handsets: Nokia's 6600 and the i-mate SP3 - the same phone as the Orange SPV c500 - can be had for well under £300, and offer more features, including Bluetooth. Buying one of these handsets with an airtime contract will invariably cost you rather less than that - possibly even nothing at all. Whether you're comparing SIM-less or under-contract prices, the 8390 is at a disadvantage.

Verdict

Good things don't always come in small packages, as the Mio 8390 demonstrates. It's a well-designed, well-made handset that looks good and feels more expensive than it is. The battery life is decent, and the screen excellent. Yes, it's software bundle lacks some essential mobile office tools, and there's no Bluetooth connectivity on offer, but it's still a very fine product for buyers seeking solid PDA functionality in a mobile phone form-factor. ®

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