$998 without contract
Available at authorised dealers

If you can get past the BenQ-Siemens P51's bulky, blockish looks, you'll find a PDA phone that's packed with features that many a mobile executive will want.

Running on an Intel PXA272 416MHz chip and Windows Mobile 5.0, the quad-band GSM P51 comes with the usual business features that include Microsoft Word and Excel, PowerPoint and PDF viewer, push mail and standard PIM applications.

The P51 also has WLAN (802.11g), which comes in so handy now especially with wireless hot spots across the island.

There's A2DP Bluetooth, too, so you can listen to music wirelessly with Bluetooth stereo headphones.

What's more, the phone even has the SiRFStar III GPS - a navigational chip.

As for the other features, the tiny qwerty keyboard, for instance, has a surprisingly good tactile feel and adequate spacing between keys.

The 2.83-inch screen is bright and clear and just the right size for a PDA phone.

But my mixed feelings about its performance persist. Voice quality over the handset and speakerphone was good, but there were times when my callers commented that I didn't sound too clear.

The 1.3-megapixel camera took poor quality, pixelated pictures, and bright areas in photos appeared washed out.

To test the GPS receiver, I downloaded the trial version from MapKing (navigation software has to be purchased separately). Although the SiRFStar III chip is supposed to pick up signals quickly, I had to wait a couple of minutes before the P51 could get a fix on my location.

FINAL SAY

The BenQ-Siemens P51 is a power-packed PDA phone, but the camera can do with an improvement.