With this being Pocket Gadget, I thought I’d talk about some real pocket sized gadgets! Some people seem to think that the smaller the gadget the better, but surely the smaller some things get the more they lose their functionality and worth? I watched the Gadget Show with interest this morning as 7 feet and 7 inches of Neil Finnigan and 3 feet something of Warwick Davies tested small gadgets in the smallest house in Britain, in Conway.

They began with the Haier Elegance, which claims to be the smallest mobile phone but still has an impressive range of functions. It slipped into Warwick’s tiny pocket with no unsightly bulges! But, it was very difficult to see the display, so surely that renders it a little pointless?

They then tested the Cowon iAudio D2, a Portable Media Player measuring 78.0 X 55.4 X 16.6 mm and weighing just 91 grams. The D2 is in fact smaller than a credit card (although not as thin) and easily sits in the palm of your hand or neatly in a pocket. Neil and Warwick were impressed by the superb sound quality and the surprisingly detailed picture on the 320 by 240 pixel resolution screen. The D2 also has a very simple interface which enables you to navigate with ease.

Next into the house was the OQO Model 02, currently the world’s smallest PC. It’s about as small as you could imagine a PC being (5.6 x 3.3 inch), yet manages to squeeze in an amazing amount of functionality. Despite the impressive spec, the smallest house in Britain lacks broadband, so the tester’s attention was turned to the tiny keyboard which they were less than impressed with. They then concluded there’s not much point having a tiny PC if you then need to invest in full size add ons!

Last, and sadly least, Warwick tried a miniature vacuum cleaner that plugs into your USB port. It looked like it would be more at home inside a Barbie House! After he had used it for a clean up of the smallest house they opened it up and found none hair inside! So, maybe not all the best things come in small packages after all…