In the second of our guinea-pig in-the-field gadget tests, we asked a high-speed Nottingham lawyer to test a new variety of PC and a high-end smartphone. Rupert White reports on the results


Normally when the Gazette gets hold of some new technology to review, it is fairly easy to predict whether it will end up either being used or simply tossed aside by the average lawyer. But one Gazette guinea-pig surprised us by liking the device we did not expect him to like and disliking the one we thought would impress.



We gave David Vaughan-Birch, a partner at Nottingham law firm Cleggs, a Samsung Q1 ultra-mobile PC and a T-Mobile MDA Vario II to play with for six weeks, to test how much real mobility a 'biking lawyer' could achieve.



Now, many solicitors may not know what an 'ultra-mobile PC' (UMPC) is. They are keyboardless PCs with a set of general minimum specifications set out by Microsoft and Intel, and roughly look like a larger, square Sony PSP, or a tablet laptop PC screen without the rest of the machine, with thumb controls similar to a PlayStation on each side and, normally, some other buttons.



Launched in February 2006, the world has yet to slaver over UMPCs as enthusiastically as it does, say, over every minor modification of Mac computers, but many say they represent a future of mobile computing. This is much easier to imagine after news that the latest Q1 variants come with solid state drives instead of disk drives, and have fittings for built-in GPS and 3G wireless.



Connected personal digital assistants (PDAs) are, on the other hand, ubiquitous and, generally, much of a muchness. Functionality is now so driven by consensus that it is hard to see real differences between devices - apart, perhaps, from Nokia's insistence on a Symbian operating system and browser at one end of the spectrum, for example, or whether you really want to read Excel spreadsheets on a screen the size of a Navy biscuit, seemingly the advertising point of those very small Windows Mobile handsets.



When the Gazette reviewed the non-3G Vario in May 2006, we liked it more than any other PDA we had tried, partly because of its slide-out keyboard. When we reviewed the 3G-capable HTC TyTN, of which the Vario II is basically a rebrand, we thought it did pretty much everything a lawyer might need.



But, alas, Mr Vaughan-Birch thought otherwise. 'As a commercial litigator, I'm often out visiting clients or at court,' he said, 'and like many solicitors I'm increasingly dependent on email. Being able to access it out of the office through a PDA is extremely useful.' Functions such as having a duplicate of Outlook's calendar and contacts list on hand have also proved useful, he said, and he has even used the word-processing facilities.



Sadly for the Vario II, he much preferred his existing O2 XDA IIi PDA for all these functions. Also, because he rides a motorbike rather than driving a car, the Vario II's lack of hands-free answering capability let it down.



'The T-Mobile looks much like a normal mobile phone although it's much bulkier, and the colour screen is much smaller,' he added. 'But the main difference is the rather nifty slide-out keyboard.'



Both the Vario and his XDA have WiFi, but the main connectivity advantage of the Vario II is its 3G capability. Unfortunately, this did not work as well as hoped out in 'rural Staffordshire', he said.



Although he liked the slide-out keyboard, he found the Vario II's screen 'really too small to be able to write on properly'. The screen size, he thought, also 'makes reading emails more difficult'.



'It's well made and neatly designed, and it's a much better phone than the XDA, but I wouldn't buy one. What really counted against it was its size. It's too big to carry comfortably in a pocket. Security is a major worry with a PDA, particularly if you carry a lot of client contact information with you, and it would be very easy for me to lose the T-Mobile.'



We thought the Vario II well-sized, which just proves that with PDAs you really need to try before you buy. The Samsung Q1, however, was a hit with our tester.



'The Samsung describes itself as an ultra-mobile PC, but it's basically just a slab of screen with a few buttons, and uses a stylus to input with handwriting recognition software, although it's possible to connect an external keyboard to it,' he said.



There is also a clever DialKeys on-screen keyboard, which the Gazette liked after some preferences modifications. The Q1 has a 7" screen, and DialKeys splits a keyboard in half with each half on each side of the screen arrayed in a quarter circle. It may sound odd, but it is strangely useful.



But it was the portability of the Q1 that went down well with Mr Vaughan-Birch. 'It's a neat alternative to carrying a laptop. It is a lot smaller and lighter than most, and is a lot more discreet,' he said. 'It would easily fit into a briefcase and leave plenty of room to spare. It also seems to be very robust, which is particularly important to me, as laptops don't much like being bounced around on the back of a bike.'



While this is not the fate of most lawyers' laptops, the Q1 and many other small-scale pieces of kit are sold on their mobility, so putting up with some bashing around is in the Q1's favour.



'I used it at a recent trial in Lincoln, instead of taking my laptop with me. It worked extremely well - it easily linked into our terminal server through the hotel's broadband network, so I could deal with emails, send in attendance notes and keep up with correspondence that had been scanned and emailed as PDFs,' said Mr Vaughan-Birch. 'It would be particularly useful on train journeys instead of using a bulky laptop, and a lot less prone to being stolen too,' he added, which reinforces notes from our first guinea pig, Cristín Toman, who did a lot of work on the train once she had the equipment to use.



All in all, the Samsung fitted into Mr Vaughan-Birch's life well, and its capabilities as, in essence, a full-blown PC in a little box made it even more useful. 'If you had minimalist inclinations and good eyesight, it would be a very neat alternative to a full desktop terminal, using its built-in stand and a wireless mouse and keyboard,' he said. 'It's a well thought-out and practical machine. I liked it. I'd buy one.' Which is about as much praise as Samsung needs.



In the lab, the Q1 was a little more problematic. It took two days to make it link to the Vario II via Bluetooth wireless to use it as a 3G modem - not necessarily a fault of the Q1 but certainly an issue with it, Windows, ActiveSync and Bluetooth when put together.



Also, any updates need to be installed using either an external disk drive, a USB stick or a wireless connection. This may not sound difficult, but try reinstalling 3G modem drivers when you cannot connect to a network to get them.



We also liked the Q1, but because of what it points to in the future rather than what it does now. It is already obsolete in the format we lent Mr Vaughan-Birch, in fact. We found it less useful than a decent laptop and just as expensive.



But if your needs include flitting around the country on a stylish BMW motorbike, it could be right up your street.