PocketSurfer 2

The Internet’s a great thing, whether its searching for stuff via Google or merely checking your bank balance: you have to admit it has changed our lives for the better.

So what’s the catch? Well you’ve got to be in front of a computer or mobile phone to access it and while the former means you are deskbound, the latter means you are worrying about data charges every five minutes.

Enter the PocketSurfer 2 from Datawind, a device that aims to offer you 20 hours of web surfing free every month for a £180 initial outlay. If 20 hours doesn’t feel enough, you can even up it to unlimited access for just £5.99.

Doesn’t sound that exciting? Already got a similar device on your desk or in your pocket? What if we were to say that the connection is via GPRS and somehow, as if by magic, its faster than HSDPA?

Now that I’ve got your attention, this online journalists dream, the Pocket Surfer 2 is a slim, 640 pixel widescreen device that works on quad-band GPRS, promising "true wireless internet" around 90 odd per cent of the country, a very different picture to 3G.

The small device, which looks like a very thin Psion 5, features an easy to use QWERTY keyboard and a plethora of quick access buttons, but unfortunately no built-in digital camera.

While you can access the Internet on most phones, laptops, computers and a stack of other devices, the selling point here is the speed of access.

Indeed, when we got hands on with it, we found it loaded up every site faster than our 3G enabled smartphone with a full signal.

For the price and the size, you just won’t get a better deal.