Manufacturer i-mate is a well established builder of Windows Mobile devices available to anyone who wants them without a contract. The upside of this arrangement is that you can use them with any SIM. The downside is that without an operator subsidy they are relatively expensive.

The JAMA 101 is a case in point. At over £200 you are parting with a lot of money, so you need to be sure that you are getting a device that works well now and is future-proofed as much as possible.

On the latter front, the JAMA 101 has problems. There is Bluetooth but no Wi-Fi, which might not bother you today, but could do tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Without Wi-Fi you can't hop onto a network for some quick Web browsing, e-mail synchronising or file sharing. The more Wi-Fi there is around you, the more you may regret not having it on your PDA.

There is no 3G support, just tri-band GSM, and while this is fine for you today, in the future you may want the faster data speeds and video calling that 3G offers.

Then there is the built-in camera. At 2-megapxiels it is best described as average. There could be memory issues too, as there is just 128MB of RAM, and you may find you need a microSD card to give this a bit of a boost, especially if you want to add a lot of applications to those that are built in.

On the plus side, though, you get Windows Mobile 6 Professional in a very small PDA indeed - just 105 x 52.5 x 15.5mm and 110g. These dimensions are barely greater than those of many mobile phones. And the screen, while necessarily quite small to fit into this casing at just 2.4 inches corner to corner, is very sharp, clear and bright.

The JAMA 101 actually looks rather slick. Its all round black casing has a rubbery feel to it, which means the thing doesn't slip and slide about in your hand. And the small overall size means it is comfortable to hold to the ear for making voice calls.

Battery life isn't too bad either. With i-mate quoting four hours of talktime and no Wi-Fi to drain it quickly, there is every chance of getting through a pretty full-on day's usage, including some music playback, without needing to resort to mains power.

The JAMA 101 is definitely in the average, mid-range camp in terms of features, which is a pity as it is such a small and sleek device for the pocket.