In this day and age of gadgets and supreme technology, I'm surprised that there aren't more effective ways of sending / receiving emails whilst you're on the move. A wireless laptop is all very well and good, but even the lightest models add to your hand luggage and of course they aren't cheap either. If nothing else, a good wireless laptop is a bit of a security risk. The problem doesn't end there either. If you're in a meeting or training session where, to all intents and purposes, you can't really be interrrupted, then a laptop on the desk isn't exactly subtle. I need something as portable as mobile phone that gives me enhanced functionality above text messaging.

Basics

Look and Feel

Getting Started

Navigation

Use of the keyboard is difficult if you have big fingers. Typing the letters isn't necessarily a huge problem until you start to need to use the shift key to select numbers or grammatical symbols such as an apostrophe. To do this, you have to hold down the shift key and press one of the QWERTY keys simultaneously - it's hard work, time consuming and generally to be avoided if at all possible. Nonetheless, over time, I've adjusted to using the keyboard and have started to use my fingernail tips rather than the end of my finger itself. Part of getting to grips with the Blackberry to be fair is about deciding when and how you will use it. I would never use the device to send lengthy emails. The Blackberry is simply there to send brief messages and replies - if you start to send War and Peace you'll be there until Christmas 2008. To help people understand this, I have an autosignature attached to the Blackberry that clearly indicates when I have sent an email in this way. My colleagues and customers understand that in such instances, I might be more succint than I would perhaps choose to be. Similarly, if you are trying to read a very lengthy email, the Blackberry is also not ideal, as it seems to load the message in chunks. If you are a quick reader, you may be scrolling down the page quicker than it is loading. Patience, with the Blackberry, is indeed a virtue.

You can also browse the web, and it's more efficient than the WAP facility offered on normal mobile phones. Good web sites will load in a kind of butchered version with simple links to the main sections presented in a long list. As you scroll down, you can select individual links to go the relevant pages, which are then presented in a similar format. Pictures and photographs are sometimes presented and it is a genuinely practical way to view good web sites (the BBC news site works quite well). Sites that require high security or some other means of logging in don't work very well at all and are generally to be avoided. If you are sent a URL via an email, this can be selected and the relevant page opened appropriately.

As a mobile phone, it does everything it needs to. You need to have a headset (supplied in the pack) plugged into it, but otherwise it rings, diverts to voice mail, alerts you to a call and all the usual stuff. Either through habit or reluctance to be more efficient I have never substituted this for my normal mobile however and tend to use the two of them together. One definite advantage is the Blackberry's stand by time, which seems to far outstrip my mobile phone and lasts for days. The charger is better too - it stands upright on your desk, meaning you can see the device whilst it's charging. It's secure like a mobile phone too, locking itself with a password (that has to be regularly changed) when unused for five minutes or more.

The address book is functional - a simple list of contacts, each of which can be selected and then have an address, email address, telephone number or other details added and stored. To send emails to an address regularly it has to be stored here, so initially it can be a bit of a task adding everyone into the address book. I like the calendar - it imports directly from my Microsoft Outlook account and displays all my appointments in a nice, simple list. It also throws up reminders, so it helps me organise my time in and out of the office in tandem with my regular appointments.

In general, the Blackberry is genuinely useful. When you spend several hours on a train, you sometimes need to be able to stay in touch, and this is a practical way to do it. The basic premise is simple and easy to use and my Blackberry has become invaluable. Nonetheless, the 7230 handset is far from perfect and there is so much room for improvement in the quality and functionality of the handset. It needs to be much better at viewing attachments, and I don't understand why the screen cannot be navigated with a pen in the same way that a palmtop works.