By Melvin Seah

WHEN the press release of a brand new PDA phone proudly declares that it has a "boldly affordable price tag", you tend not to have high expectations of its looks.

Well, I didn't. But the HTC 3400i (right), with its basement pricing of $488, surprised me with a superior build which, dare I say, is comparable to phones double its price.

Instead of the cheap, plastic affair that I was expecting, the 3400i is not only sturdy but tastefully designed too.

It's even cheaper than the entry-level Palm Centro which costs $598 (as stated on its website).

So when it looks like a steal, naturally, you will start to wonder if there are any compromises on its features.

Unfortunately, there are a few.

The phone is a basic GSM, GPRS, Edge Quad-band phone; it doesn't have 3G or 3.5G or Wi-Fi, and its 2.8-inch TFT-LCD with 240 X 320 pixels and 65,536 colours isn't exactly the best in the market either.

But on the software front, the 3400i doesn't fare too badly, with Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Internet Explorer Mobile, Office Mobile, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and Window Live Messenger.

I also have no complaints about its performance. The 3400i was nifty when I was running standard work applications like Office Mobile.

For music entertainment, the phone doesn't have a standard earphone connector nor does it come with earphones.

And the speaker phone fared poorly when I tried making a phone call on it: Whenever I tried to pump up the volume, the audio became so muffled that it was difficult to carry out a proper phone conversation.

But I was surprised that it was able to capture pretty decent shots with its 2-megapixel camera.

FINAL SAY

A value-for-money phone that looks good. But be prepared to compromise on features.