Sony Ericsson W580i Walkman

My Sony Ericsson W580i was purchased through mobiles.co.uk on the orange network as they were offering the best deal at the time. If you've read my review on my iron you will know that I love all things pink and my W580i is the pink version, they are also available in black, white and red. Orange was the only network I could find that were doing the pink W580i and I wouldn't go for a different brand of phone because I really like the sony ericsson range so after six years as a T-Mobile customer I changed networks, just to get my hands on this little beauty, how sad am I?!
The W580i was free as part of my contract but I believe you can buy them for around £140.

Description
The phone is a slider with a decent sized screen (1 inch x 1.5 inch). Above the screen sony ericsson is printed in silver then under the screen the walkman logo is in bright pink, the shade of the phone is a metallic baby pink. There is a silver dial on the front with the menu controls, shortcut button and walkman button. When you push the slider up this reveals the keypad in very light silver with little pink dots inbetween the keys. The keypad and screen light up automatically when the slider is pushed up. The top of the phone has a white plastic flap that pulls back to reveal the memory card, this particular model comes with the M2 memory card, which is tiny in size but holds more than adequate data for what I need! The back of the phone is also pink with the sony ericsson and walkman logo's on it. The back is quite difficult to get on and off for access to your battery and sim card. The left side of the phone has a silver volume key, this key also displays the time when the keypad is locked and shows you all your status information e.g. battery left, your phone number etc. The right side of the phone has the port for the charger to be plugged into. The camera is accessed by pushing the slider up. The W580i comes in a cube shaped box and includes a CD disc for your computer, handsfree/headphone set (colour co-ordinated to your phone) and USB cable.

Features

The menu setup was familiar to me as my last phone was a sony ericsson, there are a few new features on this phone that I have found quite fun and useful. The menu is a grid of twelve options; messaging, contacts, organiser, settings, camera, walkman, entertainment, internet, PlayNow, fitness, file manager and calls.
The camera is 2.0 megapixel and has video camera too. The pictures/videos you take are stored in the camera album and also in your file manager menu. The messaging menu allows you to access and send text and picture messages and also has e-mail capability, though I don't use it! Contacts is basically your phone book. The organiser has some very useful features, like calculator, calender, timer and alarms, without which I would probably be unemployed!! Settings allows you to customise your phones wallpaper, theme, ringtones etc. I particulary like that you can change the colour of the lights that come on when the slider is pushed up, these lights also flash when you have an incoming call/message or the alarm is going off. The vibrate function is switched on/off through the settings menu and as you go through the menu grid it vibrates each time scroll over a different option.
The walkman is a great little feature to have on any phone if your into music and you can set up playlists etc with this handset. There is also the new 'shake' technology on this handset which allows you to change track by shaking the phone! I can't say it's something that I use a lot or find useful but it's a bit of fun and can imagine that this function is aimed at teenagers and younger.
Entertainment is where the games, radio, video and photo DJ's are accessed. Video and photo DJ let you add music and effects to your pictures and videos. The only game I have been on is the Sims 2 and I was quite pleasently surprised that it had this, not that I have time to play often!
Internet and PlayNow connect you to the internet when you select them and you have access to google, e-mail, music downloads and gaming.
I love the fitness menu! There is a built in pedometer that also tells you how many calories you have burned through the day and a running setting that tells you distance etc and records your results. My boyfriend and I have found this very useful as we have recently started jogging, so we have the pedometer and phone in one when we're out to track our progress and ring for help in case one of us keels over!!
The file manager gives you access to pictures, music, videos and applications and finally the calls menu lists your calls made, received and missed.

Disadvantages
The disadvantages I have found with this handset are mainly the battery life. It is very poor in comparison to my old W810i, I could get nearly a week out of that before I had to charge it but the W580i is getting low after less than 48 hours depending on how much it has been used. The other thing is that one of the keys has cracked already and I have read on other reviews that this is a common fault. If one key is cracked after six weeks i'm wondering what state the keypad will be in after 18 months!

Conclusion
I love my pink phone! As far as i'm concerned it's sony ericsson and it's pink, a match made in heaven! There are some great little features on this handset e.g. the fitness function that I didn't have before. It has everything that I need like bluetooth for getting music off my friends and it will play the WMA files that my W810i wouldn't. It's been dropped a couple of times and nothings broken so I can say that it's tough, it's very comfortable to use and looks fab! Well I think so anyway! There are a couple of disadvantages that I can live with but will have to keep an eye on the condition of the keys. Another well made, stylish, up to date phone from Sony Ericsson.

Thanks for reading xx