Just when you think you've seen it all, phone design-wise, somebody always seems to come along with something completely different.

This time that somebody is O2, with a music-centred handset that combines the aesthetics of an eighties digital alarm clock (in a good way) with MP3 player, camera and, oh yes, mobile phone.

It's a neat little package on the outside of the clamshell, with curved white plastic sandwiching music player controls in black. Music controls consist of play, forward and rewind, with a chunky old-school scroll wheel on the hinge acting as the volume control.

No need to open the phone to start the music player, you can get it all from the side buttons. There's also an FM radio with RDS info and 20 preset stations, though you'll need the supplied headphones to use it since they act as an aerial.

Shell shock

So far, so what. But the Cocoon's can't-touch-this moment comes when you start playing tunes, and the track titles are displayed on a hidden blue LED display beneath the case which lights up on the outside panel to show a scrolling text display.

The dot matrix style fits in perfectly with the retro-future flavour of the design - think 2001: A Space Odyssey and maybe that early scene in I, Robot, when future-phobic Will Smith wakes up in a room where all the technology looks late Twentieth Century but has mid 21st century abilities. The display also lights up when you receive a call or message and can display time and date info.

Another trick is that it comes with its own 'Nest', a dock by any other name. It's designed to help it operate as an alarm clock (a survey by Nokia last year claimed that 72 per cent of us use our mobile as our alarm clock). It also doubles as a charger and there's an additional plug-in aerial which allows you to wake up to radio, if you don't feel you've any appropriate saved tunes to rouse you gently from slumber.

In tune styling

Back to the design (it's hard to get away from it) and also on the sides is a brace of largish stereo speakers, which, although they're not particularly loud, at least sound a mite better than the average tinny phone player. The lack of volume seems to extend to the ringer however, which isn't particularly loud, and the vibration setting is a bit half-hearted too.