Sony Ericsson's shiny Z750i is one of a crop of recent phones granted a blue tick from Telstra. According to the Big T, this means that it is particularly suited to people living in rural areas that use the company's Next G network. If you're none too happy about being kicked off the CDMA network, these are the handsets that are designed to convince you of Next G's amazing incredible awesomeness.

Design
The Z750i shows that "country phone" doesn't have to mean "bulky and grey with a big honking antenna" (not mentioning any names, Telstra F165). The Sony Ericsson mirror-coated clamshell contours mimic those of the company's similarly shiny Z610i. In fact, you'd have trouble picking one from the other in a line-up - the 97mm by 49mm 20mm measurements of the Z750i differ from the Z610's by a paltry three millimetres. Their weights are identical at 110 grams.

The outer shell of the Z750i has a glossy coating, or what Sony Ericsson refers to as a "mirror effect". The surface is shiny and reflective, but not quite as mirror-like as the LG Shine. At the top of the shell is a 2-megapixel camera. An OLED display seems to float within the gloss -- it's visible when you close the clamshell, and shows the essentials such as time, battery life and reception level.

The combo multimedia/volume buttons on the left side of the Z750i are very small and scarcely distinguishable from their surroundings. It's a similarly stealthy affair for the Memory Stick Micro slot, which lurks on the right. Beyond these and the all-in-one connection port on the base of the handset, there's naught that mars the phone's smooth surfaces.

Flip the phone open and it's a slightly more retro affair; the number keys have a blocky look, and contrast with the small circular soft keys, send/end keys and shortcut buttons. All up, though, the Z750i is more quirky than daggy -- though all bets are off when you factor in the dorky suede pouch that comes in the box.

Our review model arrived with a bright purple coating, but the phone is also available in a more sedate silver version.

Features
The Z750i has a pretty standard features list apart from some nifty Web-focused inclusions. RSS feeds and picture blogging allow you to give and receive a daily dose of data, while a decent media player and stereo headset -- or A2DP Bluetooth, should you swing that way -- take care of your music needs.

Telstra has also ponied up the Web goods for the Z750i. Its My Place menu option offers mobile Foxtel, BigPond Music, directory search courtesy of Yellow Pages, and BigBlog, which allows you to trawl through angsty strangers' six-month-old ramblings from your very own phone. A GPS service from Sensis called Whereis Navigator is also in the list, but our repeated attempts to access it were met with a "Coming Soon!" message.

Performance
Unfortunately we didn't have time for a whirlwind trip to the outback in order to test Next G reception, but calls sounded fine within metro Sydney.

Telstra's My Place offerings failed to entice, with the Foxtel option being particularly puzzling -- is anyone out there actually paying AU$12 a month to watch a tiny, pixelated, battery-draining version of cable TV?

The Web browser is passable, but the default text size is quite small, and zooming in results in dodgy-looking images cluttering the screen.

Whereis Navigator's failure to launch was also frustrating, as it makes an entire menu section unusable. If you're keen to use location services on your phone, you could try your luck with the Java version of Google Maps Mobile.

The Z750i is not a bad phone. Though the included Telstra stuff is pretty naff, the handset coasts along on the merits of Sony Ericsson's standard solid menu interface and decent multimedia offerings. If your focus is on finding a handset that will keep you connected in the bush, there are cheaper options out there. Should you prefer a bit of flashy gadget flair, the Z750i is an acceptable, if overpriced, choice.