Pocketsurfer 2 Mobile Internet Communicator.

If you’re tired of hit and miss Wi-Fi coverage, here’s a handheld device for browsing the internet that isn’t reliant on Wi-Fi. The Pocketsurfer 2 is a good-looking little browser that uses Datawind’s new, accelerated GPRS. (It’s not the slow download that we tend to associate with GPRS of old, but utilizes their new compression technology.)

The dimensions are 152x75x15mm, with a 5.2” screen. Though not quite pocket-sized, it has a fairly solid construction and fits one’s hand very comfortably. It has a QWERTY keyboard, which is great! However, the 640 x 240 VGA screen tends to reduce the quality of high-resolution images, which can be irritating.

Browsing the web is not particularly comfortable, for one thing because of the resolution, and for another, the lack of a scroll wheel. One is limited to using the four-way direction pad to navigate, which is not a problem on a conventional cell phone screen, but far less than ideal on a screen twice the size.

I guess it depends on what you’re used to and how you want to use it. If you want it to display maps or check email while you’re on the move, it’s not bad, although a battery time of less than 5 hours may or may not be an issue for you.

In short, I’d suggest that you try this baby out before you rush to order online, but if you prefer a good, accelerated GPRS to WI-FI – and you can get a data contract that suits your pocket – then it could be worth a test.

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