Sony Ericsson seems determined to cover all bases with its Walkman phone range, with the budget Sony Ericsson W380i its latest attempt to corner the low-cost music mobile market.

Hot on the heels of the up-market ultra-slim W890i and multi-gigabyte packing W960i, the clamshell W380i delivers a more modest line-up of features at a considerably more wallet-friendly price – initially around £80 on pre-pay or free on contracts.

Even at this price, you get the familiar Walkman phone basics of a good quality music player, decent earphones, and a respectable 512MB Memory Stick Micro card to store your tunes. There are compromises on the cameraphone front though, with a basic 1.3-megapixel snapper included that doesn’t do video shooting – a feature some target younger users may miss.

Eye-catching new designs

Sony Ericsson has added a dash of individuality to its looks without going all garish; it’s stylishly eye-catching, coming in a range of colours - electric purple, magnetic grey and champagne black.

It’s quite compact, at 92(h) x 49(w) x 16(d) mm and light in the hand at 100g. A few design twists and novel gadgetry make it stand out from the budget crowd too.

Music controls are subtly moulded on the front of the shell, made from a Braille-like pattern of raised dots on the outside of the phone.

These are lined up under a concealed external display that glows out of the shell with track details in landscape orientation when the music player’s active, or with caller ID info when calls come in. A smart looking extra, it’s something we’ve seen before but it’s nicely implemented here.

A mobile phone with plenty of gadgets

Another new bit of gadgetry is Gesture Control - an option you can switch on to mute incoming calls or switch alarm ringers to snooze by swiping your hand back and forth above the phone’s camera. While far from essential (apart from first thing in the morning, perhaps), it’s one more gimmick other budget phones don’t have.

The shell of the phone is attractive, with a Walkman-family look to the angled bottom of the phone, and pimpled detailing next to the camera and the prominent loudspeaker, plus some contrasting colour detailing on a couple of buttons. These include a sliding key lock on the back to disable the music keys when the phone’s playing tunes in your pocket.