Spicing up your text life

Ashamed of your dull mobile? Instead of forking out on an expensive replacement, perhaps it's time to look at a makeover. And forget those off-the-peg clip-ons - think of ties, and move swiftly on. The mood is for something altogether more personal: pictures of your girlfriend or boyfriend, or indeed your real favourite person - both Eamonn Holmes and Fiona Philips at GMTV sport phones featuring large pictures of ... themselves.

More common, however, is man's best friend. "One of my favourites in the past month was a picture of a terrier wearing a red-and-white Christmas T-shirt," says Adrian Hey-wood, commercial director of person-alisation website Make My Phone.

It could not be easier to do. Simply log on to one of the many websites now offering the service, upload your electronic picture of Franco the Jack Russell and pay by credit card. The new fascia arrives within days, you snap it onto your mobile (currently mainly certain models from Nokia, Sendo and Siemens - see below) and bingo, you have a better Doggie Phone than Graham Norton.

Amanda Kelly, 13, opted for humans. Her phone bears a photograph of herself with her two sisters, Victoria, eight, and Sarah, six. The fascia appeared as a Christmas present courtesy of her father and the Photofone web service and now adorns her Nokia 3330. She recalls: "When I took it to school, people though it was just brilliant."

A must, then, for anyone looking to win back the love of their adolescent daughters. But if you are after something of a more adult nature, prepare for disappointment. "Some of the requests we have had for Valentine's Day covers have been rather, er, surprising," says Kevin Murtagh, of personalisation service E-Comeleon. "Unfortunately, we can't use them. We vet every image and we're bound by common decency laws." Whatever those may be.

Something a little glamorous for sir? For copyright reasons, photographs of celebrities are usually taboo, unless they are personal pictures taken by the owner of the phone. But for people who have their own shots of the stars, the mobile is a great place to flaunt them. "We had a request to do a photo of The Beatles from their days at the Cavern. We had to phone the man concerned to make sure it wasn't copyright - he said, 'No, I was there.' Who would know otherwise?"

And it's not only for technophiles, says Colin Shutt, a 19-year-old client of E-Comeleon: "I had a look round, followed what was on the screen, uploaded a picture of my mum, dad and brother, and positioned it where I wanted the text. I paid by credit card and got it five days later through the post. It looked great." NB: make sure the covers are genuine Nokia products, not pirate versions, which can scratch very easily.

Most of the sites use the sort of template system Shutt describes, so that it will be immediately obvious to the customer if the picture is the wrong shape, format, or insufficiently high-resolution. It's not the technicalities we have to worry about, it's just the taste.

But there is some hope. "People are increasingly making up their own stuff - drawings of dragony, tie-dye-type things," says Heywood. "In fact, we're offering some of the best artists the chance to put some of their work in our gallery and see if people buy it."

Conan the Barbariphone, anyone?

E-Comeleon : £34.99 plus p&p for the Nokia 3330, 3310, 3210; £29.99 for the Sendo S200, £19.99 for the Siemens C45.

Photofone : Nokia 3330, 3210, 3310, £19.99 (includes UK p&p). Comes with a silver front fascia.

Make My Phone : Nokia 3330, 3310, 3210 and 8210, £24.99 including worldwide p&p. Comes with front fascia which is not personalised but there is a choice of 14 colours.

Myfoto Fascia , at Carphone Warehouse stores; Nokia 3310, £19.99 in store. Buy the pack and send off a photo.