It doesn't have the touch-sensitive camera shortcut buttons surrounding it that the smaller screened C902 and other higher range Cyber-shot models employ, but it does have a scratch resistant mineral glass panel over the screen. There is too a motion sensing accelerometer built in which automatically flips the display between portrait and landscape modes in certain functions.

There's no Cyber-shot-style lens cap covering or slider protecting the camera on the back, though the lens is slightly recessed. There's an LED flash above it for low-light shooting – not that common for Walkman handsets.

Music player controls

Sony Ericsson has slotted in a set of dedicated Walkman player controls into the side of the phone (forward, rewind, play/pause). These sit discreetly between the contrast-coloured camera button and volume/zoom rocker. Although the normal D-pad doubles as music player controls when it's onscreen, the dedicated keys can usefully work the tune player when the Walkman software is running in the background.

On the top of the handset is a Walkman hotkey, which when pressed from standby takes you straight into the music player. While tunes are playing, it also activates the Shake Control. This enables you to switch tracks, adjust volume or shuffle playback by holding the Walkman button and moving the phone in a particular direction.

We've always thought it gimmicky rather than particularly practical way to swap tracks (what's so difficult about buttons?), on this phone it's positively awkward to operate, requiring an odd grip on the phone to press the Walkman button and shake without accidentally pressing the side buttons (which you could just press anyway) or sending the phone flying.

Decent earphones

Sony Ericsson still hasn't made standard 3.5mm headphone sockets the earphone connector of choice for its music phones. It sticks with the chunky regulation Sony Ericsson USB/charger/earphone multi-connector, which again fits into the side rather than the bottom or top, which would make it more streamlined in the pocket.

Thankfully, as usual with Walkman phones, there is a 3.5mm adapter socket included as part and parcel of the 2-piece headset. It's a particularly good set of earphones for a mobile phone package, and delivers a really impressive audio performance. It has plenty of depth and tonal range, with lots of wholesome bass in there too.

The Walkman player software is as slick as we've come to expect – user friendly, easy to navigate and attractive to the eye. A large spread of track listing categories includes albums, artists, tracks, playlists, genres, years, audio books, podcasts, and Sony Ericsson's SensMe option.

The latter option can generate automatic mood and tempo based playlists by using info you've added to tracks in Sony Ericsson's Media Manager PC software before copying tunes over to the phone.

8GB storage

As well as the usual USB and Bluetooth transfer methods, a card reader is included in-box to make copying tunes onto cards easier.

With the 8GB M2 card included in-box, there's a hefty amount of storage room for music tracks (MP3, MP4, M4A, AAC+, WMA and WAV formats are supported). This is welcome, particularly as the phone's own internal storage is a mere 25MB.

As well as the decent earphones, the loudspeaker on this phone isn't as grating as on most mobiles, and can be cranked up pretty loud. Bluetooth earphones are also supported.

Regular music phone apps, including an effective FM radio and Sony Ericsson's excellent TrackID song identification software, are included too.

Well-featured camera

While the Walkman player functionality is right up there with Sony Ericsson's best, the W902's imaging is a definite step-up from previous models. The 5-megapixel camera has a broadly similar set of features to the C902 (minus touch shortcut controls on the screen and face recognition shooting).