Panasonic VS6 mobile phone

A pay-as-you-go mobie for non-hoodie wearers.

This clamshell from Panasonic may be cheap, but it's more at home in the office than the local playground.

OK, it does have one gimmick - it detects smiley/unhappy faces in texts and the light on the front glows and flashes different colours depending on the "mood" of the text - but fortunately it's endearing rather than annoying. Other than that, it avoids the tackiness that pay-as-you-go phones are usually notorious for, and it even gives you a two-megapixel camera for your 100 quid.

The hi-res snapper takes better-than-average pictures and the results look great when you print them out as 6x4-inch snaps, thanks to the strong colours and pleasing amount of image detail. However, there's no flash, so it's not ideal for taking snaps in the pub.

If you're not fussed about printing the pictures, or just want to be able to fit more of them in the 32MB of onboard memory, you can select a lower resolution mode from the six that are available. Then, when you fill up the memory, you can swap the snaps or upload them to your PC using Bluetooth or infrared.

Push the button on the hinge and this clamshell pops open to reveal a top-class screen that's not just sharp and clear, but also incredibly bright - you can adjust the brightness setting to preserve battery life (and your retinas). With the brightness turned down slightly, the battery lasts for about two weeks of normal use - excellent for such a cheap handset.

All in all, this is a camera that punches above its price-tag. A few things have been left out - there's no music player or memory card slot - but the camera's great, and at this price, it's a winner.