Gadgets &amp; Gizmos: Philips 755 Tag-It<br/>Morphy Richards Ordio DAB Rewind<br/>Road Angel<br/>Pentax Optio MX4<br/>Rio Carbon 5GB

Charlotte Ricca-Smith reviews the best new products

Philips 755 Tag-It, £99 (prepay), 0870 900 9070; www.philips.co.uk

Philips 755 Tag-It, £99 (prepay), 0870 900 9070; www.philips.co.uk

Philips' latest mobile phone is a thinly veiled attempt to get down with the kids. The Tag-It label refers to the fact that you can write on the phone's screen and "tag" photos before sending them as MMS messages. In reality, the phone looks more like a business handset and is far too simple for the average teen. I couldn't get on with the on-screen writing feature, but did find the touch-screen great for texting, as it offers a full Qwerty keyboard so you can rattle off lengthy texts with ease. Navigation is also far simpler using the stylus, as the keyboard and jog dial are unresponsive and very slow.

There is a VGA camera, accessed by sliding open a shutter on the phone's back, and a large 65,000-colour screen to view shots. Alternatively, use the TV link and watch them on television - another gimmick with little user benefit. As a texting tool the 755 is a nice toy, but falls down on all other functionality.

Morphy Richards Ordio DAB Rewind, £149.99, 0870 060261; www.morphyrichards.com

Another month, another digital radio. But like PURE Digital's Bug, the Ordio offers the radio equivalent of Sky+: touching a button pauses the station while you answer the door or nip to the loo. Return and hit 'play' and you won't have missed a word - and you can then fast-forward through the adverts. Maximum pause time is 10 minutes (it bleeps a warning 30 seconds beforehand) and you can also rewind a programme by the same amount to hear a song or soundbite again.

It's simple to use, with functions just like a CD player. However, the sound quality is tinny, and there are no options to change treble or bass. But for those with short attention spans, hectic social lives or weak bladders, this is a great buy.

Road Angel, £400, 01327 855586; www.blackspot.com

The one thing I hate more than boy racers is getting points on my licence for going four miles an hour over the speed limit. So I jumped at the chance of trying out the new Road Angel, which warns of imminent speed cameras and police laser guns using visual, audible and voice alerts. It works straight out of the box, and uses GPS signals to locate your position and check for cameras. However, its blue glow as it sits on your dashboard is an open invitation to passing thieves, so you need to take it out (strangely, you can't turn it off) and re-install it each day.

Regular updates via your PC are required to ensure it has all the latest road information, for which you pay a yearly subscription (from £49), though the first six months are free. So far it hasn't missed a trick and my conscience and license have remained delightfully clean. But would I pay £400 for the privilege? Maybe I'll just stick to the speed limits instead.

Pentax Optio MX4, £369.99, 01753 79279; www.pentax.co.uk

Like most of us, the MX4 seems unsure what it wants to be when it grows up. The "gun-grip" handle resembles an old cine camera, but it can record MPEG4 video with 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second. But this is fairly standard on digital cameras today and the video store - a Secure Digital memory card - limits how much footage you can record. The camera mode takes pretty decent 4-megal pixel snaps with an impressive 10x optical zoom, but there are far more compact and cheaper cameras.

As with all Pentax models, the MX4 is simple to use. But it's too cumbersome for a compact, and doesn't provide enough memory or sufficient quality recordings to be a serious contender.

Rio Carbon 5GB, £199, 020 7744 0802; www.rioaudio.com

With all the hype surrounding the Apple's iPod Mini, it is easy to overlook the competition. However, Rio's latest MP3 player is definitely worth consideration. As the name implies, the Carbon has a metallic finish with a highly polished back (not unlike the iPod). It looks and feels gorgeous, and fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. Being super slimline, it slides easily into your pocket, but still manages to pack one gigabyte more storage than its Mini rival, offering up to 80 hours of music. The claimed battery life is twice as long - up to an impressive 20 hours of listening time. It even has a voice recorder.

Sound quality is excellent and it's easy to navigate - you can bin the manual. But the Carbon's simplicity is also its one downfall as you can't make playlists on the go (unlike the iPod) and there is no hold button. Otherwise, it's a stylish and very desirable device.