Not very long ago, buying a video mobile meant carrying a handset that was too bulky to fit in your pocket. NEC's 338 shows how far mobile technology has progressed in just a few years. Whilst the 338 is a perfectly sound dual-band 3G handset for making and receiving calls, taking pictures and video calling, it lacks Bluetooth and infrared wireless technologies, has no way to add more memory, and there's no external display so you have flip it open to see who's calling. Its battery life and built-in camera aren't great either, and the navigation system is a nightmare. Nevertheless, the 338 is relatively good value if you don't need the bells-and-whistles of a large-format 3G mobile phone.

Pros: Reasonably priced; compact size; syncs with Outlook
Cons: Infuriating menu; dual-band only; no Bluetooth or infrared


The NEC 338 mobile phone is an impressively small and light video mobile phone (94x47x23mm, 113g), with a distinctive black-and-silver clamshell grey case and 15-button black keypad setting it apart from most other 3G handsets. In fact, the phone's compact size belies the fact that it's actually an info-loving, high-speed 3G phone. So, if first impressions count, it scores well. But what do you discover when you take a closer look?

Well, the 338 includes most of the features you'd expect from a multimedia phone, such as a revolving camera for snapping photos, video calls and video clips. The 100,000-pixel camera comes equipped with a 2X digital zoom and a self-timer, making it easy to put yourself in the picture. You can send your pictures and videos to other mobiles (supports GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP, JPEG, MIDI, MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, MPEG-4 video, and WMV files), although you may simply be tempted to watch them on the 338's 2.0in. (220x176 pixels) screen. The screen also performs reasonably well when you're using mobile video services, with news and entertainment clips available to download or to stream with just a few seconds wait.

In addition you'll find all the other features that are usually available on video mobiles, including Java compatibility for games, a handsfree loudspeaker, polyphonic ringtones and 18MB of non-upgradable memory (4MB maximum for MMS). Unfortunately, there's no memory card slot, but NEC does include a mono earbud for handsfree calls. Also bundled with the phone is a mass of literature. Indeed, there are so many leaflets and booklets that they're distributed as a boxset, complete with an index on the slipcover. The user guide is really helpful, providing information on all of 3's services along with photographs and step-by-step instructions for accessing all of the phone's features.

Built-in applications are plentiful and you'd be easily mistaken for assuming you'd just bought a PDA. For instance, there's a currency converter, scheduler, notepad, to-do list, clock and alarm, image viewer, voice memo, and 40-channel polyphonic ringtones. There's also a mode key for selecting customisable profiles (such as Normal, Meeting, In-car and Pocket), silent vibrate alert, and Predictive T9 text input. Of course, there's also a proprietary stereo headphone jack, dial lock facility, and internal antenna. You also get 13 pre-stored alerts (six alert tones and seven polyphonic tunes) and five pre-stored wallpapers/standby screens.

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