The Sony Ericsson Elm has the outward appearance of a simple candybar handset but is actually so much more. For a start, it has 3G, plus HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and a five-megapixel camera with LED flash. You can even expand the memory up to 8GB – a pretty impressive feature list for this deceptively simple phone. In fact, the only thing that seems to be missing is a 3.5mm audio jack – you instead need to rely on the supplied headphones.

Green credentials for the Sony Ericsson Elm

The Elm is one of Sony Ericsson’s eco-friendly Greenheart range of phones, which make use of recycled materials and have an electronic manual instead of a paper-wasting book. The latter would be a great idea if you don’t need to find out how to insert your battery and switch the phone on – as you can only find out how to do so by inserting the battery and switching the phone on!

The packaging is also environmentally kind, a minimal as possible and made with materials that don’t contain hazardous chemicals.

Style and handling on the Sony Ericsson Elm

We like the Activity Menu key, which includes a shortcut to the web, other shortcuts and running applications.

There are all sorts of ways to find programs. Pushing up on the dependable D-pad reveals five ‘ghost’ widgets. Choose any one and they’ll form a permanent screen backdrop. The widgets are for calendar, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and something called Walk Mate Eco, a pedometer that shows how many steps you have taken and how much CO2 you’ve saved. We can’t vouch for the accuracy – after all, how can anyone prove that a certain number of steps equal a certain amount of CO2? But we do like the little shadow figure that walks when you do and stops, with a hand on its hip, when you stop.

The 2.2-inch screen isn’t the biggest or brightest. Don’t get us wrong: it’s perfectly usable, but in a world of OLED and high-resolution screens, this one is somewhat underwhelming.

Feature set on the Sony Ericsson Elm

The screen is one of the lighter features that makes the Elm so reasonably priced, as is the processor, which is pretty slow. You really notice this when you’re trying to launch the Navigation program, for example. It takes a long time to load and while we’re used to waiting for complicated applications to load, this one is surprising because of the Elm’s outward resemblance to a GPRS candybar handset.

There is a range of navigation options including Sony Ericsson’s self-explanatory NearMe, Google Maps and WisePilot. It can take some time to get a location fix, but it remains consistent once it’s found you.

Sony Ericsson prowess with music and photography is on display in the Elm. The five-megapixel camera has a powerful LED flash, the usual SE image-fixing technology, and you can geo-tag your pics thanks to GPS. There is shutter lag in low light situations, though.

As for music, it’s a shame about the lack of a 3.5mm port for your own headphones, but you do get SensMe, which chooses tracks according to mood, and TrackID, which identifies tunes you don’t know from a clip.

The verdict on the Sony Ericsson Elm

The Sony Ericsson Elm is a deceptive creature, looking like a basic candybar and acting like a smartphone, with lots of good features and connectivity options.