At the weekend I was shuffling through some old bits and bobs, and came across my old N560. This was a special device because for its time it was brilliant. It was released in December 2005. It’s 8 years old nearly, yet it features stuff that is only this year being added to flagship phones like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Okay, it might run Windows Mobile 5 but after nearly 8 years it powered on first time and charged up with no problems. I played games using its 5 way home button, which is so much better than any touch screen controls. Round one to the N560.

Using the 5 way home button to play games is so much easier and more fun. I discovered I had a total of 60 games installed too. Playing 6th Gear brought back memories.

It also has a GPS chip built in and tomtom is installed. It’s out of date in terms of the maps and can’t be updated now. Plus it takes a minute to get a lock but nonetheless looks great on the crisp screen. Advantage newer phones for the GPS function.

It comes with a stylus. As it came with one before the Samsung Note 2, the N560 wins.

The HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 feature an infra red port to remote control your tv and other devices. Sorry guys, the N560 got there first. It has installed an app called Noviiremote Deluxe that is an excellent infra red app, programmable too.

Being that it is windows mobile 5 it has a windows start menu, so zero learning curve. It includes MS Office and I had installed a whole host of other software from a translator app and more.

Surely it can’t get any better. Well it can. It has USB host.

This PDA is nearly 8 years old, yet includes features that are only just appearing on smartphones this year. Of course it’s not a phone so the above isn’t a fair comparison but in its day the N560 was a master class.