Asus My Pal A696

Hand-held satnav you say? Yes please!

Clutched in our mitts is the Asus My Pal A696. Directionless and navigationally challenged, T3 lay down the gauntlet to find out if the Asus would point us in the right direction, or drive us to distraction.

Initially, the Asus ticks all the right boxes. It looks great, with a stylish brushed aluminium finish and fancy anti-glare screen, but its beauty really is skin deep.

See, the satnav-stroke-PDA is stuck in a mire of mediocrity. Its positioning software, supplied by Destinator Technologies, is solid enough, but lacks the bells and whistles of rivals TomTom and Garmin.

The My Pal's like a middle aged man driving in the middle of the road on the way to his home in middle England. It's just too vanilla for our tastes.

Yes, it's easy to use thanks to a touch screen, but it carries Windows Mobile 5 not 6. Why? What's more, its voice navigation has a frightening Germanic twist - you'll find no soothing directions or calm advice here.

If you really need a handheld with satnav built in, this will do the job, but with a plethora of alternatives with added functionality, it's a difficult purchase to justify.