Any phone that arrives with a fashion label prominently displayed is bound to be scrutinised for any potential style versus substance line-crossing.

The Emporio Armani Samsung Night Effect is the latest mobile to join the fashionista phone A-list, renewing the mobile maker's working relationship with the Armani group, following on from last year's touchscreen Giorgio Armani-branded handset.

The Emporio Armani phone brings a livelier twist to the design table, adding some bright lighting effects on the edges – inspired by city neon – to gloss up a slim black candybar model. It has some elegant touches, with a black brushed metal and reinforced glass front panel, a rubber-feel back and a slim profile, but this model is more upfront about its fashionable status than its understated predecessor.

There is solid function as well as style-conscious form though. It supports high-speed HSDPA 3G data connectivity, including audio and video streaming and downloading and video calling. It has a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, and is geared up for music, too, with dedicated player control buttons and a standard 3.5mm headphone socket on the side. A 1GB MicroSD card is boxed with the phone, along with other logoed-up accessories in a swanky Emporio Armani branded carrying case.

The handset has been released in the UK initially as a Vodafone network exclusive.

Design

First appearances can be deceptive. The simple, stylish black look of the phone looks quite understated out of the box. Switch it on though and it jolts to life with a ring of neon-style LED appearing around the edges of the phone. On one side, this illuminates a hard-to-miss Emporio Armani logo – not the only branding, as there's an eagle EA eagle logo perched on the back and another label under the screen.

The neon piping around the phone appears in intense electric red, blue or green – you can select which from a standby screen shortcut – and radiates when the phone is active. This includes incoming and outgoing call alerts, messages, and other keyboard tapping activities. You can switch it off, but its retina-catching glow is a key part of the Night Effect concept.

The flat, one-piece keyboard has no separate buttons, lines or ridges to differentiate individual keys, so finger action needs to be accurate to avoid mistakes. The control panel configuration is conventional navigation D-pad though with surrounding softkeys and call and end buttonry.

This Vodafone-configured UK phone we tested has replaced the standard model's phonebook standby softkey with a Vodafone live! mobile portal one. This makes accessing the phonebook trickier than it should be – there's no one-hit hotkey pre-configured, which is unusual and can be frustrating. You can, though, re-set one of the out-of-the-box home screen shortcut options if you prefer quick access to your contacts list.

The bodywork measures a tall and slim 114.9(h) x 47.4(w) x 12(d) mm, and weighs a reasonable 90.2g. The screen is a 2.2-inch QVGA AMOLED display, bright and sharp but with average dimensions for a mid-range handset.

Around the sides, Samsung has introduced a microUSB port instead of its standard proprietary connector, which takes care of charging, USB connection and earphones – offering the opportunity to slot in a second set of headphones at the same time as the boxed microUSB connected headset.

Features

There's a set of shortcut icons for five key features on the home screen, which can be scrolled through and selected using the D-pad. These can be changed to suit how you use the phone – so you can swap the light-colour changing option to something more practical, if you prefer.