This is the first Sony Ericsson phone I have owned and being so used to the Nokia layouts, menus and functions I was worried that I will need to spend hours learning the shortcuts, menus, functions and what have you. However, I needn't have worried. The W880i is just as easy to use as the Nokias. The menus are easy to navigate and the functions are pretty much the same as any other phone.
So saying that, why is this W880i such a great phone? Well for starters, it is what’s called a ‘walkman’ phone. It acts as a portable mp3 player as well. Great for all the music lovers out there. The phone itself has
14MB memory and thrown in is an extra 1GB external memory card. It suggests that with this amount of memory, it can store up to 900 tracks. More than ample enough memory for tunes and other stuff such as pictures and videos of nights out etc.
The phone itself is stylish, slim and very light. I put it in my pocket and sometimes forget it’s even there. This is quite surprising as it is a 3G phone, contrary to the stereotypical 3G ‘bricks’. The W880i is probably not only the smallest 3G phone but smallest phone overall. (I don’t think there is a smaller phone on the market at present).
The camera is a standard 2mega-pixal which has a zoom function though it doesn’t have a light/flash mode. There are some nice extra functions to play with, for example, shooting in black & white mode or even in negative mode. There is also a burst function which I like – multiple pictures in a second (like paparazzi cameras) and also panorama function allowing you to take several pictures and link them together to create a wider overall picture. Although there is a camera on the front face of the phone, this cannot be activated for self portrait picture purposes, which can be a bit annoying. This front camera is for video calling only.
The box comes with a USB data cable and software so that you can not only transfer music but other things such as your pictures and videos to save on your computer. The installation takes about 10 – 15 minutes but once you’re up and running, transferring files is as easy as copy and pasting. With the music transfer, you would run an application which will convert the tracks into the appropriate format before going onto your phone.
As with any product, now for the cons.
As you would expect for such a small phone, the extra small buttons can prove tricky at times, especially if you have chunky fingers and short nails. Texting is especially annoying and it would not please a text addict. Keeping with the issue of the buttons, I just do not understand why the person who designed the phone felt the need to have three separate buttons for the main menu. And they’re all next to each other! However, I do believe that the newer versions of the W880i have replaced the WAP and main menu buttons with a green call and red hang up button. Bit like the conventional Nokia layouts.
I had a bit of a strange problem with my phone in the beginning where the phone kept switching itself off. I did a quick search online and found that there are other people who have had the same problems. I called my network provider’s technical support and they advised to clean the battery contacts with a dry cloth. I just did not see how this was going to work but I did it anyway. However, it has not switched off since. So I’m still a bit sceptical on that one as I don’t know if it’s a fault that’s somehow corrected itself or whether it really was dirty contacts (even though it was a brand new phone).
The sound of the music on the phone’s speakers are not that great, however using the earphones you wouldn’t really notice the difference from a normal mp3 player. I feel the biggest criticism for the mp3 functionality is that it does not support DRM tracks. For those that do not know what that is, it is copy protected music that is downloaded and can only be put on DRM enabled mp3 players, and also to prevent people from sharing their music. This therefore means that I can’t really put many songs on my phone as most of it is downloaded via these other pay-sites. It also doesn’t have radio, which I’m not too bothered about but I do know that there are many people who would like this function.
Thanks for reading.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Slim, lightweight design, good screen, easy to use phone. Disadvantages: Some features in other walkman phones missing due to it being slim
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