Aimed at cash-strapped younger mobile users or those on a credit-crunched budget, the Sony Ericsson T303 is an entry-level phone that majors on its dinky design and shiny sliderphone style rather than its feature run-down.

A small, compact handset, the T303 is styled to fit in small handbag or pocket spaces, and has a mainly brushed metal and chrome casing, in either silver or black, with a mirror-effect screen in standby mode that'll do for a spot of lippy adjustment.

It's not a phone that will grab you with gadgetry however. The features set-up is basic even for a budget phone nowadays, with little of of the photo-friendly gadgetry or music mobile chops of Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot and Walkman lineup. It has a camera onboard, but it's a rudimentary 1.3-megapixel shooter, with no video record facility. There's a music player too, though with a paltry 8MB of internal memory and no memory card expansion, track lists are going to be awfully short - as in, count-on-fingers-of-one-hand short. The T303 does have an FM radio, and is supplied with a set of earphones for listening in.

Design and handling
Designed as an eye-pleasing low-cost handset, the metal and chrome bodywork on the T303 is attractive enough, and it's rounded 83x47x15mm dimensions are small if not sleek - though at 93g it feels surprisingly solid at first grasp. The screen is limited; under the reflective display panel it's a small 1.8-inch, low res 128x160 pixels, 65K-colour panel, not offering a huge amount of detail for viewing images or mobile internet browsing.

Operating this sliderphone is straightforward, with a conventional control set up on the outside of the shell, based around a responsive D-pad navigation control, plus the usual softkey and Activity menu fast access buttons. Menu layout is standard Sony Ericsson style, and the limited functionality means you're not likely to get confused with options. Shortcuts on the D-pad can help you get around in typical mobile fashion too, though the Clear and Activity menu buttons surrounding it are a bit stiff to press.

The sllder numberpad buttons are a large, tappable size, and well-separated, though the plastic panel does feel cheap and creaky. Its action is a touch heavy for texting but okay if you're not worried about speed.

Features
The 1.3-megapixel camera used on this mobile is predictably low quality compared to the vast majority of current cameraphones. It doesn't try at sophisticated snapping - there's no flash or autofocus system, and no dedicated camera control buttons. The user interface is plain and simple, shooting in portrait mode with a central portion of the screen acting as viewfinder.

There are barely any controls or effects, but in truth, this is a basic snap'n'sender rather than one for camera album pics or showing off. MMS is supported on the tri-band GPRS handset, but there's none of the blogging options seen on most recent Sony Ericssons. On the plus side, the low-res pics you get won't eat too much into that tiny memory...

Which is just as well. Although there is a music player onboard, even in a high compression file format you'll be able to get only a bare few tunes onto the phone before you fill up the 8MB memory. For what it's worth, it sounds acceptable with the very average earphones supplied, but this is not a phone for listening to your own music - if you do want a decent budget music mobile, check out Sony Ericsson's low cost Walkman phone line-up, which aren't that much more expensive than the T303.

The onboard FM radio does an effective job at free on the go tune-playing, however, while Sony Ericsson's impressive TrackID song identification software is loaded up too. There's a typically tinny loudspeaker you can use for the radio or music (though as normal, earphones have to be plugged in as the antenna).

Sony Ericsson does manage to include a fair lineup of standard organiser features, including a calendar, tasks, notes, timer, stopwatch and calculator, and there's a sound recorder option. An entry-level Wap 2.0 XHTML browser is also included for basic mobile internet browsing. A couple of games - including old-school favourite, Asteroids - are onboard, too, and you can download more Java ones if you so wish.

With little high-end functionality to drain the power, the T303 does score well in battery performance. Sony Ericsson estimates it will deliver up to 9 hours talktime or up to 400 hours on standby, which should be enough for most users.

Conclusion
The T303 is very much a low-cost handset, with a sparse set of features compared to most of Sony Ericsson's current crop. Sure, its shiny casing and rounded design - and particularly its budget price - are going to appeal to some younger users, but for anyone looking for a bit of function to go with the form, it's certainly a lightweight. A younger tech-savvy audience will probably want something with much more in its music locker than this handset offers, which you can get for just a little extra cash, and obviously as a cameraphone it's extremely limited too.

Sony Ericsson T303 technical specifications