HTC's P6300 is a fairly conventional wireless handheld that combines both cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity into a device with a relatively large display and a specification aimed at mobile business applications. The model has no keyboard, so is best suited to vertical applications such as data capture using form-filling.

Available since the end of June, the P6300 is described by HTC as a PDA phone for mobile enterprise environments. However, the device does not appear to have any specific enterprise-friendly features. It is not ruggedised, has no fingerprint scanner or barcode scanner and HTC does not offer any tools to help IT departments manage the unit in the field.

That said, the device is one of few current models that match the traditional Pocket PC format that many firms with custom mobile applications will have developed for. One or two vendors, such as Socket Mobile, are also shipping handhelds designed to fill this niche as the rest of the market moves to smartphones.

The P6300 has GPRS capability and can be used to make voice calls but has no high-speed 3G support. However, a device such as this may be as likely to be found in a warehouse where Wi-Fi is available as it is while away from a company site.

The 3.5in, 240x320, colour touchscreen gives the P6300 a rather retro look. But the device has decent specification with a 400MHz Samsung SC3 2442 processor with 128MB RAM and 256MB of Flash storage. It also has an SD Card slot for extra Flash storage in its top edge. There is a rear-mounted, two-megapixel camera that could, with appropriate software, also serve as a barcode scanner.

In use, we found the device responsive, and, thanks to the 3.5in screen, web-based content was easier to view than on some of the more compact devices we have tested. An on-screen control makes it easy to rotate the display to landscape format for content that needs a wider view. We found it easy to hook the device up to a Wi-Fi network, while a GPRS link required us to specify the access point name and other settings.

Other HTC models have a slide-out qwerty keyboard, but the P6300 lacks this capability, making it less suited to heavy text entry. Instead, it relies on a stylus and on-screen controls, plus a handful of buttons on its front panel. Two buttons at the top of the device launch the inbox and Internet Explorer, while others below the screen include a five-way navigator control, menu and OK shortcuts, plus context-sensitive buttons to match application menus.

The P6300 runs Windows Mobile 5.0 rather than the newer version 6, but with the usual collection of built-in applications, including the Mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus the ability to receive push email from a Microsoft Exchange server.