Once we had hopped aboard, we were offered a snack, and boy were we hungry. However, there was not a tasty treat in sight, nope, not a sausage! Instead we were briefed on the latest phenomenon to reach the UK – sound snacking, and for the test we were asked to ‘donate’ some saliva, which is a posh way of saying “spit in a bottle”.

According to Sony Ericsson’s boffins, research shows that young people are more likely to listen to snippets of songs for quick fixes rather than keeping it old school and listening to a song or two, let alone an album.

The research also tested how different types of music affect our moods, using the chemical make-up of said saliva (testosterone, IGA and Cortisol) to work this out.

Apparently Croatian pop is the best music to relax to, while Bulgarian Hip Hop is the most detrimental to our immune systems, and Spanish Latin causes the biggest rise in stress. The ladies might also like to know that short bursts of Brit Soul gets the boys in the mood…

The Sony Ericsson W350i handset itself is aimed at the ‘youth’ market and is competitively priced (£99 on an O2 prepay tariff).

Its 512MB M2 card holds up to 470 songs and the handset is an MP3 player first and foremost: with the music controls on the front, and a flip-down flap to access the phone functions.

The small-sized candybar also offers a 1.3-megapixel camera and lets you access your email, listen to the radio and make voice recordings.

A full review of the phone will follow, but right now I’m heading off to light some candles and put some James Brown on...