PDA Essentials magazine, issue 73, is now out in the UK. Of specific interest is an interview with Mark Loughran, sales director of Nokia UK, in which he states that Nokia should sell 35 million GPS-enabled smartphones this year. That's er.... a lot. Mark mentions the 6220 Classic as important in achieving this goal. More from issue 73 below, including their Sony Ericsson W960i review.

The Nokia N82, Motorola Z8 and Nokia E51 are reviewed as part of a group test of 12 smartphones. The N82 was scored low at 7/10, being summarised as 'expensive and dazzling with pure power rather than finesse'.

The Z8 achieved 6/10, as 'stylish but not as functional as it could have been'. The E51 did best, with 9/10, 'a great business phone and set at a good price point'.

The E51 walked off with the title of 'Best Budget Smartphone'.

Interestingly, neither of the N95 variants were included in the test - maybe the editor thought this wouldn't have been fair to the others 8-)

Later in issue 73, the Sony Ericsson W960i receives the full review treatment. Rated at 7/10, the review found the device 'brimming with features' but let down by a 'poor user interface' in which you have 'to work too hard to get to all the goodness'.

Steve Litchfield

PS. I didn't write any of the reviews.... in case you were wondering...