Palm's Treos are something of a legend in mobile computing circles. The early Treos were clunky and had protruding GSM antennae much beloved by our American cousins. Then the antenna went internal. Then the Palm OS disappeared with the Treo 750v, which launched in the UK a little over a year ago, adopting Windows Mobile instead.

Now the purely business focus of the Treo has gone too, with the new Treo 500v, a Vodafone exclusive, sporting a new look both inside and out, and jaunty, consumer-friendly marketing.

The hardware is tidy looking, and comes in two colour schemes; charcoal grey and glacier white. Its rounded corners mean it fits neatly in the hand and looks attractive.

As a 3G device the Treo 500v is good for mobile Web access while on the move, but without HSDPA it is hampered as far as ultra-speedy data exchange goes. Without a front-facing camera you can't do video calling either. And without Wi-Fi there is no hopping on available networks for a bit of GSM-free Internet access.

However, the Treo 500v has a mini keyboard so you can do mobile e-mail and the use of Windows Mobile 6 Standard as the operating system gives you the wherewithal to edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents (though you can't start brand new ones from scratch). You can also view PowerPoint and PDF documents, incidentally.

There is a 2-megapixel camera lens on the back of the casing, but this lacks a self portrait mirror or LED flash and doesn't have autofocus. It takes a reasonably good picture, but there are better cameras to be had on smartphones and PDAs.

Where Palm has come up trumps with its Treo 500v is the clever front-end it has added to Windows Mobile 6 Standard. On most devices Windows Mobile looks a little dour and its standardised main screen and menu structure is familiar.

But Palm has played with things and come up with a carousel-type approach to getting around the Treo 500v. A horizontal row of application groups spins round as you tap the navigation key, while a vertical column of applications, shortcuts and functions within each group sits beneath for you to select, again with the navigation key.

It all looks very slick indeed, and once you are used to how things are grouped, it is easy to get around. Making the shift from another Windows Mobile device might take a while because of the changes to how applications are grouped, but the learning curve from then on should be no bother.

The missing elements - Wi-Fi, HSDPA, a front camera - hamper the Treo 500v and, along with the average camera, clinch its position as a mid-range rather than high-end Windows Mobile device.