Rather than listen to mobile phone companies and operators waffle on about how the world is going mobile, and how much time you could save if only you were to have the latest crackberry (as a Blackberry is sometimes known), the Gazette decided to ask a young barrister to road-test some cutting-edge technology for a month.

We asked Cristín Toman, a Leeds-based barrister at Enterprise Chambers, to use a Nokia E61 for Internet and e-mail, and a Nokia N70 paired to a GPS receiver to find her way around. By the time the month was up, the devices had to be prized from her hands, especially the E61.

The E61 is a connected personal digital assistant with a full Qwerty keyboard, featuring 'push' e-mail, a Web browser, calendar and all the normal bells and whistles. Both are 3G devices, meaning Internet connection speeds of around 300kbps. This makes the E61 very attractive, said Ms Toman.





One of the best aspects of the E61 was being able to use it to connect her laptop to the Internet wherever she was, she said, though battery life suffers when the E61 is used like this, probably because it is one of the few devices of its kind seen by the Gazette that does not draw power or charge when plugged into a PC.



'The most useful thing I found was being able to use it in the library in Lincoln's Inn to connect my laptop to the Internet,' said Ms Toman. But, as she spends so much time travelling, a device like this became almost invaluable quite quickly. 'I spend almost all my time on trains, and it means I didn't have to carry a laptop. I also used the electronic diary which gave me reminders, but I'm so paranoid about forgetting my appointments that I always carry my paper diary anyway, so I didn't manage to wean myself to that point.'



But operators and phone companies sell these devices mainly on how much time can be saved using them in 'dead' time. Is that true in the real world? Essentially, yes, said our guinea pig.



'I do the winding-up lists on the first Tuesday of the month,' said Ms Toman, 'and it can be 30-40 cases in one day. Invariably instructions come in at the last minute, when you have already gone to court, and can't get back out of court to go back to chambers to pick up faxes, messages or calls. With the device, I could pick up e-mails without leaving the court building, though I didn't dare use it in the courtroom. It's easier to pop outside for two minutes to pick up e-mail than walk back to chambers to do it.'



Now that the E61 has been taken away, Ms Toman has noticed time she could be saving. 'Today, I was doing the winding-up list, and there were late instructions. This meant I couldn't go back to chambers to do what I had to do until lunchtime, so one of my cases had to wait until the afternoon.'



Using a device like this in court is always going to be an interesting prospect, but one judge told Ms Toman she would allow it, as long as there was no camera (the E61, unlike the N70, fortunately does not have a camera), and it was quiet. 'She was a bit reluctant about the idea that you'd use it to send and receive messages, but I don't think there's any way that anyone could tell if you were sending and receiving e-mails.'



Our test N70 came with CoPilot Live 6, the latest version of the CoPilot GPS software. The N70 cannot receive GPS, so an external receiver is needed. Using the GPS to get around was also useful, said Ms Toman, but it was not without limitations.



'It's a very cool toy. The little [receiver] isn't a problem - I just put it in my handbag and the satellite can see straight through that. It's very good at getting the directions, but it's not very good at the fine detail,' she said. The only real problem, she said, was that it did not instil enough confidence to be relied upon to get to court. 'Because getting there is so important, actually what you want to do is to do it with a map.'



When the Gazette tested the E61, it had obvious strengths and weaknesses. Not drawing power from a laptop can be a good thing when you are on the move, but connecting to the Internet on it for any length of time does kill the battery. The Web browser is also comparatively incapable. However, set-up on a PC was easy, and the antenna in the unit seems to be well above average, as signal strength was consistently very good. Ms Toman, like us, found the N70 a bit too 'feature-rich', but the phone itself is capable.



All in all, our road-test proved there is some truth in the mobile device myth - you really can save time and improve your life using them. Of course, Vodafone and T-Mobile were picking up the tab... As Ms Toman put it, she would happily buy an E61 or a BlackBerry right now, 'if I wasn't so incredibly mean!'



Do you fancy being the next guinea pig? E-mail: rupert.white@lawsociety.org.uk.