A dedicated web surfing client called the PocketSurfer 2 has been priced up for the UK.

The Psion look-a-like has a 640x240 resolution colour display, a mini-USB charger, backlit QWERTY keyboard and weighs 174 grams.

Web browsing is in its original layout and the UK's exclusive distributer Widget claims it has a four hour battery life and pages load in under seven seconds thanks to extremely high server-side compression.

It can't handle Flash animations and David Elder, commercial director for Widget told me "it's a dumb client speaking to servers in the USA," so a sort of dedicated terminal idea.

£179 buys you the device and 20 hours per month of surfing for one year, where time allowence is racked up for 20 seconds after the last button press.

Data transfer is done via GPRS, courtesy of an irreplaceable Orange sim card. A second year costs £40, which Elder said "gives you some idea of what it costs to provide the service."

I can't help this kind of device is too little too late. If it had arrived three years ago at this price (conceivable, since GPRS isn't new), it could have become a phenomenon. With a bit of instant messaging thrown in, it could have ridden the MSN/AIM/Myspace/Facebook tide. Instead it jostles for space with mobile phones, PDAs and UMPCs - all offering far more functionality than the PocketSurfer.

The final design will have a keyboard "like a Motorola Razr" accordingly to Elder. It will supposed to go on sale at the end of June, however right now, Widget only quite ugly prototypes in hand.