In a nutshell:

Dock your phone, but still have access to call history, contacts and texts.

What’s it good for?

Tapping into your phone’s information without taking it off charge, or disconnecting from your PC.

Judgement time…

The thinking behind PC phone might seem a bit skewed, but there’s logic to it. Honest.

See, the idea is to dock your Nok, and use the software to access all your commonly used data. That includes text messages, recent calls and most importantly, contacts.

The benefit is that you needn’t disconnect your phone just to find a number or sneak a quick peek at a text. You can even reply to texts and dial numbers straight from the desktop, although you’ll still need to pick up the phone to talk.

The result is more efficient access to data, less fiddling with your phone’s USB mode, and if your handset charges via USB, a fully-charged phone. As we said, you can also text straight from the desktop, so it’s perfect for some clandestine messaging.

Nokia’s software is fuss free too. We set up an N95 in less than a minute, and the interface itself runs through a web browser.

Both Firefox and Internet Explorer are supported, although we had mixed results with Internet Explorer, both with screen distortion and broken data. With Firefox, the results were perfect.

So, it’s productive, quick and simple. More importantly, it’s free. If you’re sat at a computer all day, dock your phone and keep on top of your calls, texts and contacts without tapping tiny buttons. PC phone’s only drawback is not routing calls through PC speakers, although hopefully Nokia will work on that.