For anyone who wants smartphone features but just can’t stomach the bulkiness of some of the phones on test, the P1i’s shape and sleek aluminium trim will be a welcome change.

Although not quite as thin and light as the BlackBerry Pearl, it does rival the HTC S710 in terms of pocketability, and its bright 240 x 320 resolution touchscreen is an improvement on both. Even the keyboard, which sacrifices independent keys for each letter in favour of two-sided rocker buttons, is surprisingly easy to use. The P1i also has an excellent 3.2-megapixel digital camera with a light, call quality is top notch, you get an FM radio, and there’s 3G connectivity as well.

But this isn’t the perfect pocketable smartphone. The main problem with the P1i is that the navigational controls are not well thought out, which makes its Symbian-based OS a real pain to get around. There are no pick-up and hang-up hardware keys, for instance, which means you have to prod a small onscreen button to answer calls. And, although the device’s scroll wheel makes zipping up and down lists of emails relatively quick, other navigational tasks are unnecessarily awkward.

There are some nice touches, such as predefined settings for Gmail and Yahoo email accounts. We also liked the fact that the phone includes a business-card capture utility. But alas it isn’t enough to rescue the P1i from mediocrity this month.