The W350i Walkman phone is Sony Ericsson's latest effort to attract the eye and ear of music mobile buyers on a credit-crunched budget.

It may be a low cost handset, but alongside its core music player credentials Sony Ericsson has given the W350i some fashion savvy appeal, with a lightweight, ultra slim body, a retro-ish flip and some smart-looking music controls on the front.

Basic feature set

Its numberpad-covering flip looks like an homage to turn-of-the-century Ericsson handsets, and its 11mm thin profile is a design nod towards the stylish W890i.

But this budget mobile has few of the headline features of its higher end Walkman stablemate – and an obviously lower build quality.

The onboard camera, for example, is a basic 1.3-megapixel affair with no flash or video capture capability. There's no 3G connectivity for fast multimedia downloading, nor any other headline-grabbing features.

The additional features list is, in fact, all standard issue Sony Ericsson rather than more eyebrow-raising stuff; an FM radio is built in, there's a video player and a web browser, plus you get all the usual extensive organiser gear.

Flimsy flip

The small, lightweight feel of the W350i – it measures 104(h) x 43(w) x 11(d)mm and weighs a mere 75g – is achieved partly by some very thin plastic used on the back panel cover and flip.

The rubber-alike feel of the back casing is good to the touch, but we were concerned about how well the cover – which houses the phone's Memory Stick Micro card slot and SIM holder – would hold up to regular card swapping.

The flip feels particularly flimsy and easy to bend, which might be of more concern when considering wear and tear – though it is easily removable, so could probably be replaced if necessary.

The flip does the old answering and ending calls routine well. It covers a commendably responsive and nicely-worked numberpad – it has large, smoothly curved keys that are fine for quick tapping.

But the flip also hosts on the outside a set of rather natty looking music controls, so you can work the player with the phone closed.

Distinctive design

Naturally, music takes centre stage, with the Walkman player interface even engaged as the default screen when the flip is shut.

The curvy front panel music buttons, which are accented by the W350i's distinctive colour schemes (black with orange or purple trim, white with graphite, light blue with silver), give the phone an almost standalone music player look.

Intuitive layout

The phone's display takes up the upper portion of the body. It's a 262K-colour, 1.9-inch screen with a lower than average176x220 pixels resolution.

While it's perfectly adequate for viewing menus and options, it's not particuarly detailed for looking at images, video clips or web pages.

Its menu system and user interface will be familiar to Walkman phone owners. It's fairly intuitive and easy to navigate.

And although it doesn't use the latest, more conventional key arrangement of newer Sony Ericsson handsets – most of which now have standard call and end keys – the W350i utilises a Sony Ericsson control button configuration we've seen many times before, based around the a navigation D-pad, with adjacent softkeys, back button and clear key.

Excellent Music player

Firing up the Walkman player, it's clear that Sony Ericsson hasn't cut corners with the sound quality.

You get a very impressive audio performance, with great balance and a good depth of sonic detail. It not only looks like a standalone music player, it does a fine job at being one too.