There has been mumbling heard for some time that the standalone PDA is a dead duck, and that people either want their handheld computers to be connected to the outside world via GSM or 3G, or they don't want a handheld at all but instead favour a Smartphone.

Well, that is certainly the case for some people, but others just want a pure and simple handheld computer, capable of acting as an electronic diary and data store without the communications bit thrown in.

At least Fujitsu Siemens must think so, because the company has taken the shell of its Pocket LOOX N series (with built in GPS antenna), and turned out a solid standalone PDA in the shape of the Pocket LOOX C550.

The one notable absence from the Pocket LOOX C550 is a camera. But this aside, it hits all the right spots, and manages to have a focus we've not spotted elsewhere.

With support for the 802.11g flavour of Wi-Fi, the Pocket LOOX C550 should function on home and work-based wireless networks, while Bluetooth is on hand for pairing with your phone. It also has USB host support, something that is fairly rare in PDA circles, but which some people find useful.

The screen delivers its content at 640 x 480 pixels. With most PDAs languishing far below that, the extra crispness the higher resolution caters for is welcome, and should be especially useful if you need to read a lot of text from the screen.

What's that focus not spotted elsewhere? Well, the Pocket LOOX C550 has been geared especially well for those who are keen on digital dictation or recording audio more generally. There's a microphone on the upper left edge, right next to the button which starts the voice recording software running. The microphone's location makes it ergonomic to use for dictation.

That's not all, though. Fujitsu Siemens adds its own recording software to that provided with Windows Mobile 5.0, and this has a few more features than Microsoft's standard recording software at its disposal. You can also tweak the microphone for best 'gain' in different situations such as conference halls or more intimate short range situations.

With more than 75MB of free memory internally and the ability to augment this with an SD card, you should be able to store plenty of recordings too.

A top-notch Intel PXA 270 processor, which you can slow down if you want to extend battery life, keeps everything going nicely. Set to 'auto' speed so that the processor ran appropriately for the tasks it had to perform, the battery was good for six hours and 20 minutes of continuous music with the screen forced to stay on, which is on a par with Windows Mobile 5.0 devices generally.

Verdict
The Pocket LOOX C550 might not shout 'look at me', and its lack of a camera will annoy some people. But all in all this is a real workhorse of a handheld computer, with some very strong features.

Company: Fujitsu Siemens

Contact: 01344 475125

Tags: wi-fi windows mobile personal digital assistant gsm global positioning system microsoft fujitsu ntt docomo