Nokia is a mobile phone maker, right? Well, not entirely. The new 770 Internet Tablet hasn't a SIM slot in sight. It's name gives the game away in terms of its functions, but only in part. True, it is an Internet Tablet, but it does a lot more besides accessing the Internet. Just remember that you can't use it for making phone calls.

The 770 Internet Tablet is pretty small, at 141 x 79 x 19 mm, and light at 230g. You could get away with tucking it into a biggish pocket. But you're going to be more likely to leave it lying round the house than carry it around outdoors with you.

It has a fantastic screen. It might measure just a shade over four diagonal inches (90mm wide x 55mm tall) but its 800 x 480 pixels deliver a much more crisp image than we've seen in any other Internet capable device smaller than a laptop computer.

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The screen is touch sensitive, and there is a stylus that lives in the casing, but you don't have to use that because prodding the screen with a finger is perfectly adequate, as is using the various navigation buttons on the device itself.

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet runs Linux-based software that includes a Web browser, e-mail, Internet radio, news reader, PDF viewer, file manager, calculator, notes and sketch software, and a couple of games as well as media player and image viewer that support a wide range of file formats (audio: MP3, Real Audio, MPEG4, AAC, WAV, AMR, MP2; image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, Animated GIF format, SVG-tiny, ICO; video: MPEG1, MPEG4, Real Video, H.263, AVI, 3GP).

You'll need a Bluetooth mobile phone or a Wi-Fi wireless network to make the most of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, as these are needed for Internet access. We had no trouble getting onto our own wireless network. There is handwriting recognition built in, but we found it less than perfect, so resorted to the soft keyboard every time we wanted to type anything (such as a Web address or a text note).

With just 64MB of built-in, user-accessible memory it is good that the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet supports flash memory. The slot on one edge of the hardware takes RS MMC cards, and a 64MB card is included to get you started. Unfortunately, adding these two memory amounts together doesn't provide for nearly enough storage, especially if you are keen to listen to music or watch video, so you'll want to buy more. We also found that our review device ran a bit slowly at times.

Nokia says that later this year there should be an upgrade to include support for Voice over IP and instant messaging. If that does appear it could radically change our view of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet as it then becomes another - and potentially a very convenient - way to make free voice calls over the Internet.

We can't help really liking the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, but in a geeky kind of way. Its screen is great and it is quite handy to have a Web tablet around the home. But it is expensive. You can get a Wi-Fi capable PDA for the same money that can duplicate many of the functions and offer more besides, such as compatibility with more file formats and PC synchronisation rather than just file transfer. The screen won't be as good as the 770 Internet Tablet's, though.