We’ve been waiting for a bit of slimline 3G flip-phone action from Sony Ericsson, and with the classy-looking Z770i, it has delivered a very pocketable device with plenty to get your desire buds going.

The Z770i arrives as one of Sony Ericsson’s few real clamshell eye-catchers. It has high-speed HSDPA 3G connectivity inside, boosting download times and browsing slickness on its full web browser.

An impressive multimedia phone

Also featured is a run-down of multimedia applications that are quickly becoming welcome standard issue for Sony Ericsson’s mid-range line up. Despite no Walkman branding, it has a very able music player onboard plus an FM radio and video player functionality.

A welcome software addition is the Google Maps for Mobile application. Even without onboard GPS, this enables you to get location based information and navigation instructions over the air, with detailed mapping and satellite imagery too.

Unusually for a 3G handset, Sony Ericsson has left off video calling; there’s no second camera for face-to-face chatting. However, this is unlikely to put off most users, as video calling is still very much a minority interest.

What could sap interest for more imagery conscious buyers is the relatively basic 2-megapixel camera that gets an outing on the Z770i – not one of Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot quality best efforts.

Simple and striking design

The Z770i has a stylish, understated design. Its trim 93(h) x 48(w) x 15.5(d)mm dimensions and 91g weight allow it an easy pocket ride too.

Available in a brushed metal-look silver or black casing with a touch of colour accenting, it has a small mirrored panel running across the front. This is, in fact, an external monochrome display – one of those fashionable appear-out-of-nowhere affairs that glows through the panel when the phone’s doing the business with texts, calls or music. It provides phone status info, caller ID or text info, and names of tracks being played.

Flip open the shell, and the understated gives way to a much nattier numberpad. The striking design uses curvy backlit strips on a brushed metal-look keypad that has echoes of the original Motorola RAZR about it. The flush numbers are widely spaced and easy to dab, and are reassuringly responsive when texting or number tapping.

The main navigation pad arrangement is novel, and may not appeal to everyone. Instead of a round D-pad, you have four ultra-thin direction buttons like grains of rice in a cross around a small central button. Although almost smooth to the surface, in practice we found them easy to handle and quick to get used to.

Initially, though, when aiming for the middle ‘menu’ softkey option you may find yourself mistakenly pressing the up button that’s directly beneath the screen instead of the central select key.

User-friendly interface

The Z770i also has conventional call and end keys bookending the left/right navigation keys, but while they’re in close proximity we didn’t have any trouble with stray finger pressing errors.

The control panel shortcut configuration can be set up for favourite functions or left in box-fresh condition. There’s also Sony Ericsson’s very handy Activity Menus button, which drills you into lists of most-useful features, applications and information under one category.

You can get a list of apps like Bluetooth, Google Maps or TrackID in just one click, or tab along to internet functions in just two clicks.