Along with the E585 comes a very short leaflet 'get you started guide, one long and one short micro-USB cable, a USB mains adapter and a handful of trading-card style reference cards, giving a brief descriptions of several of the available functions. Luckily, the full instructions are embedded into the device itself, in the on-board web interface.

The E585 is a very pocketable device, smaller than the smallest of mobile phones, and will easily fit in a shirt or trouser pocket without discomfort (86 x 47 x 12mm). However, it's worth noting that a careful read of the supplied Huawei Copyright & Safety Information states that the unit should be used 2.5cm (one inch) away from the body to avoid exceeding the recommended RF exposure. I wonder how many people will bother reading that piece of advice. It's very stylish in appearance, being finished in matt black, with a silver back and silvered 'mirror' style window on the front behind which sits the display, which I believe uses OLED technology. It's also extremely light (90g), with the only real weight coming from the battery.

The four notable external features are the release catch at the top to remove the back plate for battery and SIM replacement, a micro-USB port at the base, a microSD slot on the left hand edge and the LED-illuminated power button on the right hand edge which glows green when the device powers-up.

The first thing I did, perhaps rather optimistically, was to remove the O2 SIM from my O2 dongle and insert it into the E585, insert the battery and power it up. It booted straight up in a matter of seconds, identifying 3G network availability, but failing to connect to the Internet. It made three attempts, but on each occasion 'CONNECTING' was followed by 'DISCONNECTED'. At this point, I contacted the vendor, who pointed me in the direction of their website. This contained a step-by-step description of how to set the correct APN (Access Point Name) in the device. In the case of O2 UK this is mobile.o2.co.uk. Some other popular APNs are listed below:

The APN can be amended by using the E585's built-in web interface. This is easy enough to get into - once the device has booted and you've connected to it via WiFi (there is no security preventing you from doing this by default, though you can turn this on later) you can access the homepage by typing http://3.home in your browser. You then need to log into the Admin section by entering the password ('Admin' by default). Once in Admin, select 'Advanced Settings' and 'Profile Settings' and create a new profile specific to your network. The settings I used in my case were as follows, but yours may need to be different, but the key setting is the APN. You can try calling your network operator for advice:

Once I'd edited the APN, I was in business, and the E585 connected to the Internet immediately. Where I live, the average time from power-up to full Internet connectivity is around 45 seconds, which I think is very good, and certainly comparable with the times I've been getting with my USB dongle.

In the last shot above, you can see Internet data in KB starting to be counted at the bottom left of the display (and total time connected on the right). The E585 will continue to record all Internet data throughput whilst it's powered-up. Whilst the count displayed on the screen is reset every time the device is switched off - it's intended as a rough guide - If you want to know in more detail, you can find out via the web interface (see the data usage screenshot below). This not only echoes what's shown on the main display, but also keeps a running total, and can be manually reset as required. As it says on the screenshot, the figures captured by the device are just an estimate, for exact figures, you need to check with the Three My3 account portal. My belief is that this is because certain data throughput the device records doesn't count towards the total figure - for example, accessing the My3 portal. Obviously for those not using a Three SIM card, you will need to use the management portal provided by your own network.

I've tested its range, and it will give you coverage within a building between one floor and the next, as long a you don't move too far away horizontally. I think this is pretty impressive for such a tiny device which is powered by a small mobile phone equivalent battery. Even if you discount its main purpose as a mobile Internet access device, the E585 is a very useful way to connect between your mobile devices, effectively allowing you to bring your own WiFi network with you wherever you go. It supports 802.11b and 802.11g WiFi connectivity, with a maximum throughput of 54Mbps, which is plenty fast enough for file transfer between devices, or even streamed audio or video.

The mobile signal strength diaplayed on the front of the E585 varies between '2G' '3G' and 'H'. The latter indicates that you have a high speed HSDPA connection (sometimes known as 3.5G) which should provide greater Internet performance than 3G. With poor reception, I have also seen it occasionally downgrade to '2G' which will provide modem equivalent data speeds limited to 48Kbps. The quoted maximum data speeds are as follows:

The more advanced functionality available via the embedded web interface is probably best described by looking through the menu system. I've shown some screenshots of the main screens below for reference. Note that the 'LAN IP Filter' link doesn't work on my device. It may be because this functionality is planned in a future firmware update.