You might not have heard of HTC before but it is the company behind most of the Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphones you will have seen from various network operators in the UK.

In June HTC decided to start selling its devices under its own brand while continuing to license them to network operators and others. The first two to appear are the TyTN, a Pocket PC, and the MTeoR, a Smartphone. Both are available SIM-free and both have 3G support.

Needless to say, a SIM-free Windows Mobile Smartphone is not cheap. You can currently find it with some contracts grafted on and, if you are prepared to wait, in all likelihood it will become available at a pocket money price direct from one or more UK network operators with a contract at some point.

The MTeoR doesn't have a front-facing camera so it is not up to video calls. You can use the 3G network for data such as mobile e-mail and Web browsing, though, and the handset is quad band with EDGE, so international travel should not be a problem - apart from the roaming bill, that is.

There is a back-mounted camera and this shoots stills at up to 1.3-megapixels, but has no flash or self portrait mirror. Other handsets are much more capable in the camera department.

The general hardware design is rather appealing, though. We are in slate grey territory as far as colouring goes, and the keys are rubbery and well spaced, which makes them tactile and easy to find. And that includes the four under the screen that are merely 8mm wide and 3mm tall.

There is a joystick under the screen for moving about within and between applications, and a rocker on the left edge for moving vertically up and down the screen. You press this to make selections.

With around 66MB of internal memory to fill you shouldn't be needing expansion too quickly, but when you do, a side-mounted slot will consume microSD cards which are currently available in capacities up to 1GB. Bluetooth and infra-red are both built-in, but Wi-Fi is not.

The Windows Mobile Smartphone software caters for most needs without any requirements for add-ons, from music listening to Web browsing, diary management to voice recording. HTC adds viewers from ClearVue for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents as well as for PDF and RTF files.

The MTeoR is very much 'more of the same' in many respects as far as Windows Mobile Smartphones are concerned. The novelty of 3G support is appealing, but not if you want to make video calls.