Nudging the line between the Walkman music mobile range and the Cyber-shot cameraphone line-up, Sony Ericsson's 5-megapixel camera-packing W902 sports the best-specified shooter seen so far on a Walkman-branded handset.

Previously, while the Walkman phone range has hit the right notes for music buyers, anyone after a top-of-the-line cameraphone performance would have to look to Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot line-up.

Cyber-shots had all the best imaging gadgetry, Walkmans the best music. It may have worked a treat for marketing people keeping the ranges separate, but not for anyone who wanted a Walkman music phone with a Cyber-shot grade camera performance.

Best of both worlds

The W902 is an attempt to bring higher quality imaging to a Walkman phone. Its camera doesn't have everything you can get on equivalent Cyber-shots such as the 5-megapixel C902, let alone the 8-megapixel C905 flagship model, but it certainly packs more imaging punch than we've learnt to expect from a Walkman cameraphone.

Of course, music is still top of the charts for any Walkman device. The W902 comes with 8GB of Memory Stick Micro (M2) card storage in the box, plus high quality earbud earphones. It packs in the latest Walkman phone software, including Sony Ericsson's Shake Control gadgetry, with nifty side-mounted dedicated Walkman buttons for easy click control.

Besides the higher quality camera, the W902 doesn't push the boat out totally on higher-tier feature; there's no GPS satellite receiver built in or Wi-Fi connectivity, and it doesn't use a smartphone operating system or have touchscreen control. In fact, it has a familiar set of features as we've seen on many recent Walkman and other Sony Ericsson mid-tier handsets.

High-speed data connectivity comes courtesy of its HSDPA 3G mobile data, offering download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. It carries a decent mix of multimedia features, including good quality video playback, support for 3G streaming and fast downloading, video calling (using a secondary front facing camera), and has some tidy web-based applications such as Google Maps and YouTube, plus a full web browser. An FM radio also adds to the music entertainment factor.

Understated design

Like the C902, to which it has a family resemblance, the W902 is a slim candybar model with an elegant, refined look.

Available in smart looking black, green or red, it's a fraction under 12mm thin (vital stats are 110(h) x 49(w) x 11.7(d) mm), while its combined metal, plastic and glass covered display weighs in at 99.8g. The materials and well-balanced design make it feel reassuringly solid and tactile in the hand but also very pocketable.

Understated but attractively built, the W902 has a fine set of controls too. The excellent numberpad keys are stylishly small and thin, but are still decently spaced, easily manageable and responsive. While the control keys above these are arranged a bit closer together, they're still well defined for reliably accurate pressing.

As usual, a central navigation D-pad is the hub of the control set up, flanked by softkeys, regular Call and End buttons, plus a clear key and a hotkey for Activity Menu options – a set of useful features and apps arranged in easy to access menus. It's all familiar Sony Ericsson mid-range stuff, as is the user-friendly menu set-up, with an initial grid of menu option icons followed by tabbed sub menus.

Glossy screen

The W902 has a 2.2-inch, 262,144-colour, QVGA (320x240 pixels) display that's typical for one of Sony Ericsson's mid-rangers but not particularly large for a hot-shot cameraphone.