While there is not yet any conclusive evidence to show that mobile phone radiation is harmful, there are cases underway in the US where people are suing for brain damage allegedly caused by mobile phones, so it is comforting to find a new phone that comes standard with a personal hands-free kit.

In fact, without the kit some people would not even bother with the Xenium, not because of the radiation theres no evidence it produces any more or less than any other phone but because of its design.

The Xenium 9@9 has a metallic body that comes in a choice of chrome or graphite and, while it has rounded edges, it is not contoured, which makes it slippery. It is cold in winter and hot in summer and likely to give you frostbite of the ear on a chilly day.

To its credit Philips has taken all of this into account and, as well as the headset, the phone comes with a leather pouch that clips onto a belt or shoulder strap, and is designed not to be removed to answer the phone. That can be handled using the auto answer or any key option. The only time you really need to hold the phone is when you are using the WAP or SMS functions.

Philips is not considered a major player in the mobile phone arena, but that should not put you off looking at the Xenium, which is a remarkably full-featured mobile for its size and comes at a very reasonable price. In fact, it is only slightly more than one third of the price of Nokias 8850 Gold Edition, which is only 2g lighter but does not have WAP.

The Xenium outdoes the 8850 in several areas. It has storage capacity for 15 two-second voice tags compared to the 8850s eight 1.5-second tags, and has space for 20 seconds of voice memos a capacity Nokia cannot match.

Voice activation is also better than Nokias which records the voice tag once and expects you to use exactly the same tone of voice each time. By comparison the Xenium expects you to repeat the tag several times when recording it, then averages the recordings to give the user a much better success rate when using the tags later.

The Xenium does not have infra-red, but it does have a built-in modem that comes into use if you purchase the optional data cable that links directly to the serial port on a laptop. Add to that the usual predictive text for SMS, nine speed-dial keys, and a handy function for blocking SMS spam and there is little else you need in the phone.

The display is narrower but slightly deeper than the Nokia 3330 WAP-enabled mobile. Philips has its own unique carousel interface, which only takes a few minutes to get used to and is set out in a logical and intuitive manner, so there is little need to be constantly referring back to the manual. Every menu and sub-menu is accessed and activated by a pilot key on the side of the phone, which has similar functions to the scroller key on the Nokia 7110.

The external antenna provides good reception in most situations and the Philips claims the 900mAH Vibra battery gives a minimum of 180 minutes talk time, which makes the Xenium 9@9 a surprisingly good value package.