T-Mobile Pulse Mini review

The internet browser on the T-Mobile Pulse Mini is based on the same WebKit framework as the rest of the Android range (and the iPhone 3GS) so should be pretty good.

However, the screen is too small to make out web pages at full zoom, and the QVGA resolution means that it's very hard to see what's been written.

The speed issue also crops up here once more, with web pages taking an age to load over both 3G and Wi-Fi.

Again, we can't work out why this is, especially when there's a perfectly adequate processor under the hood.

There's obviously no Flash video or anything here, but web navigation on the smaller, more mobile-friendly sites is OK, and the double tap to zoom function resizes the text nicely.

However, it's too hard to use the internet fluidly here - T-Mobile has thrown in 6 months free internet, but we used ours so much less than usual on other phones.

The lag means the app store is also a bit harder to use than normal - although the larger icons and buttons of the application Market are easier to use.

The range of applications on offer is as good as something like the HTC Legend, and while there are a few more high res ones that are missing due to the QVGA screen, overall it's well stocked.

For instance Google Maps is on offer, and it's a surprisingly good experience, with even Google Maps Navigation, the free sat-nav program, available to T-Mobile Pulse Mini users.

It works fairly well too, with directions generally keeping up with the road, which we were surprised at given the performance in other areas of the Pulse Mini.

It does make it more confusing as to why there's also a month's subscription to TeleNav on board - but we assume that was put in place prior to Google's announcement.