E-TEN claims its Glofiish X500 to be the world's thinnest device to combine the Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system with GPS and Wi-Fi. In the IT world very little maintains a claim of that kind for long, so what matters is how well the Glofiish X500 does its job.

Before going there I have to admit to a little befuddlement about the name. I don't know what a Glofiish is, but E-TEN seems to like the word, using it for two new devices.

Anyway, back to the matter of the Glofiish X500 itself. You'll want to know the dimensions, given that claim to thinness. They are 113 x 59.5 x 15.5 mm and 146g. For the record, I think it does win the thinness battle at the moment.

The looks are striking, with slate grey being the prominent colour and a rather nice rounded/rectangular look to the overall design. The Wi-Fi is accompanied by Bluetooth and the GSM support is Quad-band, so this is a pretty capable device as far as its connections are concerned.

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The GPS antenna is only ever going to be at its best with navigation software to route you from A to B, but you can also use it without any added software. Turn the antenna on - there is a button dedicated to this task sitting above the touch-sensitive screen - and it will get a fix and tell you your latitude, longitude, altitude and the time and date.

You can use this information with one of the many bundled and pre-installed applications, Location SMS. This will generate a text message containing your current location. The software is configured with a number of pre-defined texts, and the idea is that you can send an SMS with just a couple of keystrokes.

It works, but the spelling and syntax of some of the pre-defined texts is appalling. The upside is that you can edit them to your own preferences, but E-TEN really should have got this sorted before releasing the device onto the market.

Among the other software extras are; utilities for toying with images taken with the built-in, 2-megapixel camera; profile switcher for easily choosing a phone profile; call filtering application with block and allow lists; voice control and a Pocket PC Today Screen replacement that uses tabbed screens of icons to help you get around the device's contents. There is also an overlay for the Pocket PC Today Screen itself that provides tappable icons for quick access to applications and settings.

There's an FM radio too, which, as is the norm, requires you to use the provided stereo headset as an antenna. This uses a 2.3mm connector but comes in two sections with a 3.5mm connector just past the inline controls, so you can use your favourite headset for both radio and music listening (the latter through the media player that is part of the Pocket PC operating system).

When it comes to battery performance I found that I got continuous music playback from a full battery for just over ten hours with the screen forced to stay on. This is really very good for a Pocket PC. And if you are wondering about memory, my review sample had 52MB free and a slot for a microSD card on the bottom edge of the casing where it is easily accessible.

Because the Glofiish X500 is not supported by an operator contract it is rather expensive. But it is comparable in functions to T-Mobile's new MDA Compact III and O2's new XDA Orbit, and may be worth adding to your 'compare list' if you are considering either of those.