The BT Glide is BT's first cordless phone with Bluetooth support and works with your PC or mobile to offer a range of wireless functions. Adopting the slide handset design we've seen gain popularity in recent mobile phones, it's mounted into a slimline base unit that includes a SIM card reader for uploading your contacts. It seems to have been styled on the old Nokia 7650, one of the first mobiles to feature a digital camera; it's slightly bulkier but is roughly the same size and shape.

Initial impressions are that the phone is a little cheap looking, which is disappointing considering the high retail price. In fact it almost looks like one of those fake plastic mobile phones you buy for children, the ones that have a few moving parts but don't actually work.

A plastic chrome finish looks attractive until you get up close, but the buttons and central control pad feel pretty cheap and very plastic to the touch. They're not particularly responsive either; all too frequently we saw two numbers appear after a single button press and had to manually delete the extra digit from the display.

The phone's big selling point, however, is the Bluetooth support. What this is intended for, in case you're wondering, is to enable you to synchronise your mobile or PC with the phone handset to perform a number of functions. You can synchronise your mobile phone address book, set up a Bluetooth headset so you can talk on the move, send vCards with contact details or pair the device with your PC and upload new ringtones or wallpapers.

A few nifty features are present, such as auto-synchronising so that whenever you walk within range the phone checks your mobile to see if you've stored any new contacts, but overall it's simply a bit of a time-saving convenience around the home. All of this technology is obviously limited by the range of Bluetooth, the manual requesting that you stay within 10m of the Glide when connecting, so you're a bit limited in the distance you can go.

Elsewhere you'll find all the features you'd expect from a modern phone, such as hands-free operation, voicemail and access to the range of BT calling features like Call Diversion, Call Waiting and reminders. You can also send text messages to other SMS capable landlines and mobile phones using BT's texting service. You get up to 200 of these free depending on what calling plan you're on, after which time it'll cost you 10p per text, so you won't save much over a mobile.

Basic mobile phone features give the Glide some appeal, such as the aforementioned ability to change wallpapers and ringtones and upload some of your own to replace the default set. Features like recently dialled numbers and missed calls add extra convenience and it is nice to have a small wireless phone that you can leave in any room of the house. The problem is that many competing models offer this sort of basic convenience for much less cost.

Verdict
For £199 (you can find it cheaper if you shop around online) you get a phone that looks pretty stylish, acts a bit like a mobile and lets you connect to your PC or mobile phone via Bluetooth to update it with new contracts or media. This isn't really enough though, plus it looks and feels very cheap to use, we're doubtful how useful most people will actually find the Bluetooth connectivity and there aren't nearly enough features over those offered on much cheaper handsets to warrant a recommendation.

Company: BT

Contact: 08702 430126

Tags: mobilephone bluetooth nokia 7650 call waiting subscriber identity module sms business and economy shopping