O2's great white hope

O2 was very chirpy about the new handset it previewed at the Wireless Festival and the excitement appears to be justified.

Rather than stick a logo on a seemingly generic model, as has been customary for some operator-branded handsets, O2 briefed a Dutch design company to combine the best aspects of a media player and a phone.

The result – 18 months in the making – is Cocoon, which is on one level a clamshell handset and on another a sleek, curved white thing which registers first as a design object, then a phone.

The most striking feature is a luminscent blue display that shows current track information while the handset is closed –  the media player is designed to be operated without opening the shell – and when it's charging, the phone rests sideways in cradle, showing the time like a traditional alarm clock.

(Here O2 – or the designers, an Amsterdam-based firm called Streative –  have tapped cleverly into the fact that although many people now use their phone to wake up, few configurations, if any, allow the time to be easily seen while the device is on a bedside table.)

The interface – and in particular the music player, which shows album cover art – appeared very usable in the Times' five-minute play with the device, and the "flat joystick" control seemed more manoeuvrable than on other devices.

Other handy features include a 3.5mm adaptor on the headphone cord which allows you to plug in your favourite pair, a 2Gb internal memory, which can be expanded with an SD card, and the fact that it's 3G. (A must for people who download music.)

It remains to be seen whether the target market – which appears to be that bracket of iPod users who a) are a bit sick of carrying a phone and a music player around; b) won't be able to upgrade to an iPhone when it comes out; and c) are in a position to jump ship to O2 – will be convinced.

Come August – when the phone and details of price plans are released – we'll find out.