Panasonic’s new entry in to the crowded mobile phone market may look somewhat uninspiring at first glance, but it doesn’t take long to uncover some nifty features.

The clamshell design is a little angular and brick-like for our aesthetic tastes, but at 18mm deep it’s not particularly fat – it’s more the size of a non-opening-standard-phone (NOSP – copyright Ben Mansill 05). You can quickly open it like a Star Trek communicator by pressing the button on the hinge and it automatically flipping open. It’s quite a pleasing action that you can find yourself fiddling with. Panasonic are adamant that it will last the life of the phone.

You’re instantly greeted with one of the best phone screens available – a very bright, high resolution, 2.2inch, 16million colour display. There’s quite a bit of deadspace below the screen and above the keypad but it otherwise looks good, if blocky.

What makes best use of the screen are the games: there’s an addictive 3D Soccer game and, best of all, Sonic The Hedgehog. The latter looks and plays brilliantly – just as fast as the original. This puts the VS3’s gaming ability ahead of excellent Sony Ericsson phones like the K750i. However, if you’re going to play the games be sure to mute the sound or play it with the wired handsfree kit – sitting next to someone playing the game (in all its beeps and pinging glory) on the train will be a mitigating circumstance in murder cases.

The camera supports 1.3 megapixels, and has a dial to switch to macro mode. There’s also a rapid fire mode which takes 15 frames in two seconds – albeit at postage stamp resolution. MP3s are playable and free online content is available from the Panasonic Box WAP portal. Of final note is the changeable facia which is done using a supplied mini screwdriver.

The box includes a travel charger, USB cable and wired stereo, handsfree headset. It all adds up to good value at $450 but there are some things missing: the most notable being BlueTooth. If you can live without this then it looks like a good buy. However, its omission keeps us favouring Sony Ericsson’s wares right now.