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Although it's not touch-sensitive, the Voice Messenger's screen is actually pretty good. It takes up just over half of the front real-estate on the phone and thanks to its 320 x 240 resolution text and icons look very crisp and sharp. It also does a good job of displaying pictures and videos as colours look bright and vibrant.

The handset is built around Windows Mobile 6.1. By default this is set to use a slightly tweaked version of the Sliding Panels home screen, which looks good and is easy to use. However, the traditional Window Mobile mess of menus behind this home screen still remain in place. On the plus side you do get the mobile Office suite of applications including Word and Excel so you can edit work documents while you're on the go. HP has also loaded some extras including the welcome addition of the Opera Mobile Browser (v8.65) and the Westek Jetcet viewer for displaying PDF files.

The phone's Qualcomm 7201A processor is clocked at 528MHz and keeps everything ticking over at sprightly pace, plus there's 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash memory for storing files. You can supplement this using microSD cards of up to 8GB in size, but the card slot is rather awkwardly placed. It's mounted on the side of the phone, but you have to take the battery cover off to get at it. It would have been much more sensible to provide access via a simple flap like on most other handsets.

Browsing the web with Opera is suitable speedy as the handset supports both Wi-Fi and HSDPA. The latter can't be used for video calls, however, as HP has only included a single rear-facing camera. This has a 3.1-megapixel resolution and features both autofocus and an LED flash for taking pictures in low light. The quality isn't too bad - it's certainly good enough for taking the odd picture for your blog or something similar - but snaps don't really stand up that well to really close scrutiny.

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