O2 Cocoon mobile phone

Nothing to do with pods, pensioners or swimming pools

O2 has provided the Cocoon with three decent Java games: The SIMs 2, EA Air Hockey and Tetris, and more can be downloaded. Other applications include standard fare like a calendar, notepad, calculator, currency converter, voice recorder, stopwatch and world clock. PC Suite 1.1 software supplied enables Windows PC users to sync Outlook with the Cocoon.

Stylishly curvaceous

In addition, the O2 Cocoon has a hidden bonus: If you happen to come within range of the O2 venue, cell ID technology communicates with the Cocoon to change the wallpaper, and offer maps of the location and other exclusive content.

Making and taking voice calls on the Cocoon proved generally acceptable, although sometimes there’s a clipped sharpness to speech or a slight hollowness in the earpiece. At the other end of the phone, speech came across clear and loud. The Cocoon didn’t grab on to signals quite as strongly as our reference Nokia in side-by-side tests, with 3G coverage slipping off more easily in marginal areas.

Battery life is quoted by O2 at five hours for GSM talk time, three hours of 3G usage, and 330 hours on stand-by. Or you have 15 hours' music playback. Obviously, those estimates change depending on other power hungry gadget-fiddling, but we managed to keep the phone going for over four days with ample time spent playing with all the goodies.

A flash-fitted camera is part of the package

Verdict

The O2 Cocoon is an impressive music player in a phone with enough quirky - and intelligent - features to justify O2’s claim to have produced something a bit different. It is distinctive, but the graceful lines of the design are let down by the phone's proportions. It’s not huge, but where it’s coming from music-wise, slim is king.

Nevertheless, with a capacity of up to 4GB with a memory card inserted, and at the price O2 is quoting, the Cocoon is a solid music phone. And it makes a great alarm clock too...