Samsung makes a lot of phones and is active right across the board, from consumer handsets to high-end smartphones. Its Windows Mobile range has been bolstered by the SGH-i780, a Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional device.

This is a big smartphone. Its front fascia incorporates a touch-screen and a mini QWERTY keyboard, and at 116mm tall, 61mm wide and 13mm thick it is not the kind of phone you are going to easily slip into a pocket when going out for the evening. But then that is not really what it is all about.

As a keyboard-equipped smartphone you can do your mobile e-mail on it, and it has all the diary, to-do list, mobile mail and Web browsing features you'd expect from Windows Mobile.

The SGH-i780 is a 3G handset with HSDPA support and it also has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built in. There is a front-facing camera for video calling and a 2-megapixel camera on the back for shooting stills and video. There is a microSD card on the right-hand edge of the casing and you can use this to add to the built-in memory.

Samsung's Windows Mobile smartphones often have extra software that bulks out what you get with Windows Mobile, and the SGH-i780 is no exception. There is an RSS reader, podcast manager, data converter and photo and video viewers. Even better than that lot is the Opera Web browser. This is a superb little browser and far superior to the version of Internet Explorer that comes with Windows Mobile 6.0.

As well as including a lot of useful software, Samsung's smartphones often incorporate eye-catching design elements. Here that accolade goes to the trackpad.

Under the screen, where you would normally expect to find a D-pad for navigational control, there is a flat black panel. It is small at just 9mm square. Pass a finger or thumb over it and it controls a cursor on screen. Press it when the cursor points at what you want, and the item is selected.

You can disable the cursor and use the trackpad more like an ordinary D-pad or navigation button if you like, but we found that it worked quite well and offered good accuracy when making selections on screen. We aren't convinced you need both it and the touch-screen that is part of Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional, but then again we did find we resorted to using it a lot of the time.

There is one other point of note for those who tend to be away from mains power a lot of the time. The SGH-i780 comes with two batteries and a charger unit for the second.

This isn't the smallest Windows Mobile smartphone around, but it has plenty of features including HSDPA and Wi-Fi. Those interested in mobile e-mail might find it handy, and that trackpad is surprisingly good.