The Sony Ericsson W880i is the slimmest Walkman mobile phone that the manufacturer have released to date, it features the latest Walkman software package for managing, organising and enhancing the music tracks stored in its memory.

So it comes as no surprise that a major UK network operator decided to strike a deal with the manufacturer for sole distribution rights for a new colour variant that seems to be making a presence in the mobile phone market.

Gold phones are a fairly recent colour addition to the mainstream blacks and greys, the first gold coloured phone was the Motorola V3i D&G (Dolce and Gabanna) designer handset, this particular model is still available today proving its appeal to the consumer audience.

The second gold model was the Samsung U600 which was not endorsed by any celebrities or designer labels but simply a new colour variant of the popular U-Series, again this handset still sees promotion from retailers today.

Then a different kind of gold handset was released by Nokia, the 8800 Sirocco gold edition actually featured an exterior casing manufactured from 18 carat Gold, this was a completely new development in the industry, encouraging other manufacturers to use expensive materials for their top of the range handsets, materials now include annodised aluminium, chrome plating and stainless steel.

With the popularity of gold coloured phones on the rise, Vodafone set about finding a new handset that already does well in the market place to brand as their own and they have found this in the new Sony Ericsson W880i.

This slim Walkman phone offers a 2.0 megapixel camera with a flash for poor light conditions, a digital zoom for close up photography and support for video recording and playback of short video clips.

The internal music player is a branded Walkman software product that can store up to 900 tracks and download, stream, store and play back music.

The Walkman software makes it easy to manage the music in the W880i. One click starts the Walkman music player, users can then play, rewind, fast forward, equalise, shuffle tracks and create playlists - just like in any other digital music player and the Walkman player supports several file formats including MP3 and AAC.

There is an additional piece of software called TrackID that helps users when they hear a song they like but do not know what it's called. The user can simply record a few seconds of the song and use TrackID to send the music to the Gracenote Mobile MusicID database for recognition. In seconds, they will have the name, artist and album sent to the phone.

Users can also transfer tracks straight from a music CD to the handset by just dragging and dropping files on the screen of their PC. Disc2Phone CD-ripping software lets them fill the phone with their favourite songs with little fuss. Another feature to the W880i is MegaBass, when bass frequencies are enhanced, you get a better overall music experience. Users can play their tracks loud and clear through high-quality headphones or external speakers whilst MegaBass adds depth, and stereo widening for a bigger sound. Let it thump.

The new Gold edition of the W880i only serves to enhance the appeal of the handset, the only downside to this agreement is that consumers will only be able to buy the phone directly from Vodafone either through their high street shops or from their website, however exclusive phones usually come with exclusive deals so the W880i Havana Gold should fit most peoples budget.