THE Innostream P10 slider phone is rather chunky compared to its more petite South Korean counterparts, but its fairly large keys are easily accessible, especially for someone with large fingers like me. 

Its 1.3-megapixel camera and many of its features are similar to those of the clamshell Inno A10 reviewed recently (see In.Tech, May 3). 

There are some cool new features, though, and these include a pair of dynamic stereo speakers that produce clear, three-dimensional stereo sound from MP3 files.  

Even at low volume, the sound from speakers sounded much clearer and richer than other phones I’ve reviewed so far.  

The P10 has a camera with camcorder functions that records video with sound. Videos file are stored on an external RS-MMC card. 

The phone comes with 64MB internal memory but since only 5MB is available to users, an RS-MMC card is effectively a ”necessary option” if you want to install applications and store multimedia files. 

The phone can record video in two formats: MPEG4 and H.263. 

In my tests, I found that MPEG4 files took up less space, with a three-minute high quality clip (176 x 144-pixels) occupying 1.8MB of space, versus 2.4MB for H.263. 

The review unit came with an optional 128MB RS-MMC card, which was enough for my video, MP3s, ringtones, photos and graphics. 

Innostream claims the phone supports RS-MMC cards of unlimited capacity, but the largest capacity card currently available is 512MB 

Nice pictures and features 

Pictures taken with the phone's 1.3-megapixel (1,280 x 1,024pixels) camera were generally clear and sharp, without the fuzziness that is characteristic of many other camera phones. By default, the camera takes pictures at 0.3-megapixel (640 x 480pixels) each time the camera is launched. 

The P10 comes with an avatar feature that has six preset caricatures for you to play around with. You can also create your own avatar by using the supplied templates and modifying them with different hairstyles, faces and outfits.  

A really neat new feature, however, is the phone's integrated digital answering machine that lets you record a 30-second greeting, as well as 30 seconds of a voice message a pop.  

The voice messages are stored on the RS-MMC card for you to playback locally, saving you money on having to dial your voice mailbox. 

The phone has an English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary that lets you convert words between the two languages. It also has T9 predictive text input that supports English, Bahasa Melayu and Chinese. 

However the phone defaults to multi-tap entry and upper case letters when keying in SMS, MMS and e-mail messages – you have to manually switch to T9 input and lower case characters, which was tiresome.  

By default, the phone has GPRS always switched on. 

To make things easier, the P10 comes with all the necessary Maxis, Celcom and Digi configurations for GPRS, WAP, MMS and Internet connections.  

The e-mail settings let you configure up to eight different POP3 (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) accounts. 

I successfully managed to send and receive POP3 e-mail on the phone using my Jaring account, as well as Yahoo! Singapore and Hotpop.com accounts, which provide free POP3 e-mail access. 

Additionally the phone has a flight mode that lets you use the organiser, run Java applications and play games while in an airplane. 

Other features include a voice recorder, melody composer, biorhythm calculator and a host of personal information management applications.  

like the A10, the phone battery can be charged via the supplied USB cable when it is connected to a PC. The P10 also works as a USB drive for storing music files, pictures, applications. Another connectivity option is the phone's infrared port. 

At the time of writing, the PC Sync software for phone book synchronisation and management on a PC was not available for download, but the phone's local distributor claimed that it would be made available in the future. 

However, users would require an optional serial cable for PC synchronisation, since the USB cable that comes bundled with the phone won’t work with the PC Sync software. 

Conclusion 

Overall, the P10 is a fairly affordable and user-friendly phone. Although it is on the thick side in terms of size, the phone has good ergonomics that ensures that it is comfortable to use. 

Additionally it comes with a host of multimedia functions that makes it a good lifestyle phone for teenagers and young adults. 

Pros: Affordable ergonomic user friendly feature-rich.  

Cons: Could be slimmer doesn't come with PC synchronisation software.