LG U400 phone
0870 733 0333
www.three.co.uk
From free-£90 with 3 Mobile contract

Music-oriented mobiles that try to rival MP3 players are increasingly popular. The U400 is LG’s flagship music phone and was exclusive to 3 but will be widely available shortly. The 3G slider-style handset is easier to operate than previous LG models. It has a wired remote control with music playback buttons and an iPod-like dial for moving through menus or tracks. The dial is too fast, but it also acts as a four-way direction pad, which works better. Playback through the supplied headphones was decent but the U400’s cable has a standard 3.5mm jack that will take other makes of headphones. The fancy music software was better than in many handsets, but in tests worked smoothly only with tracks bought from 3 Mobiles’s overpriced, restrictive service. Enjoying MP3 files dragged onto the phone’s SD memory card proved fiddly. However, the U400’s biggest flaw is its modest battery life: it will need daily recharging if you listen to music regularly. Where’s the fun in that?

SMALL TALK: Mini Voip phone

Vonage V-phone
www.vonage.co.uk
£20 plus £8 a month

This humble orange USB drive with a headphone socket enables you to make cheap, internet-based (Voip) phone calls from a Windows computer connected to broadband without installing software. Plug it in and a keypad appears onscreen, from which you simply dial. A monthly £8 Vonage subscription gives you a UK-based number and unlimited calls to UK landlines, even if you’re calling from a laptop in, say, Hong Kong. It’s a great idea but there are drawbacks. First, the girth of the USB pen makes adjacent USB sockets inaccessible. Worse, in tests, the caller sounded as if he were in an aquarium, which was at least partly due to the low quality of the supplied headset. Needs improving.

THUMBS UP: Laser mouse

Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000
0870 601 0100
www.microsoft.com
£60

Ergonomists believe that traditional computer mice are often a principal cause of RSI. This unusually shaped Microsoft example has a large chunk scooped out of the side with the intention of keeping your forearm in a more natural position, your thumb facing upwards. Like most trackballs this feels weird at first, but quickly becomes comfortable. At £60 it seems pricey for a mere mouse, especially because it features only two programmable buttons, though in tests the four-directional scroll wheel felt extremely smooth. It’s due out in January, but left-handers need not apply.

PLAY AWAY: Media player

Archos 504 personal media player
www.archos.com
0870 609 1263 1
60GB £480
80GB £330
40GB £250

Media players like this are handy for enjoying last night’s Planet Earth or Coronation Street on a train journey. Earlier Archos models could record directly from a TV but this won’t unless you splash out £50 extra on a docking station. On the plus side, it’s slightly cheaper than its predecessor and more compact. Overall, it’s probably not as good as the iPod Video because the software menus, though improved, are harder to master.

That said, the Archos boasts a 4.3in widescreen — bigger than the iPod’s — and it handles a variety of files, including music, photos and many video formats. Archos claims the 160GB version holds 450 movies. However, synchronising with a computer proved tricky, especially when using Windows Media Player.

FACE FINDER: Digital camera

Fujifilm S6500fd digital camera
0870 084 1310
www.fujifilm.co.uk
£350

This attractively priced mid-sized Fujifilm has a 10x optical zoom with an impressive 28mm wide-angle limit that enables you to squeeze more family members into a shot. It still doesn’t offer the changeable lenses of a true SLR but you can frame shots on the bright 2.5in LCD screen or the sharp electronic viewfinder. As well as autofocus it has a manual twist-barrel option that feels satisfying to handle. The most trumpeted feature is face detection: software that automatically focuses on an individual or group of faces even if they are at the edge of the shot. Our brief tests proved this effective, though not always fast. Another Fujifilm speciality, Natural Light & Flash, niftily takes two shots, with and without flash, so you can decide which looks better later. The 6 megapixel rating sounds modest, but it’s fine here, and the camera has Fuji’s low-light technology, which performed well in tests on other Fuji models.