Amstrad E3 E-m@iler

PC-free email, but you'll need a PhD to operate it!

Only a British company would launch a videophone that doesn't work abroad, and only Amstrad would make a telephone that's almost as complicated as the PCs it's trying to replace. If you plug the E3 into your home phone socket, it logs onto Amstrad's ISP, Amserve, giving you an email address and basic Internet access via a built-in 480 x 320-pixel LCD.

The E3's low price is subsidised by the calls it automatically makes to collect email (at least 17p a day) and other multimedia services. Video calls (50p surcharge) aren't too bad, with good detail and less time delay or blurring than previous units. The E3 comes with two dire keyboards to compose emails and SMS/MMS messages (50p each), the larger being an uncanny replica of the ZX Spectrum's spongy interface. To complete the retro feel, you can download and play Speccy games for £1 a week.

Email is basic but usable, although inserting a lo-res camera snap costs an additional 25p and the E3 crashed every time we tried to read an email that had an attachment. Web-surfing is excruciating. Not only is it expensive (5p per minute) and slow, but the device is unable to load complex sites, and you also have to sit through occasional popup ads from Amstrad's retail partners.

To cap it all, the E3 is absurdly complex to use, with dozens of dedicated buttons, confusing labels and a weird menu structure. Basically, it's like a 3G phone without the bandwidth, sexiness or portability. And if 3 is struggling to sell pay-as-you-go handsets at £30, how much luck will Amstrad have at £100?