Hmm, what could I possibly say here that you would find interesting...
Hmm, what could I possibly say here that you would find interesting...
Member since:31.08.2004
Reviews:41
Members who trust:18
I've always loved Sony Ericsson (henceforth referred to as SE) phones, as they have great features and are usually pretty reliable. One thing that's often let them down though is that they just ain't that pretty. Well, SE have finally woken up and begun to deal with this problem. The w880i is a lovely looking phone, with its brushed stainless steel silver front (or black if you prefer), and its matt black plastic back (say that ten times fast!) (Oh, if you get the black front then the back is orange). It's also only 9.4mm thick. Wow!
It's a walkman! Ok, so SE has come through on the looks department but what about the features? Well, the w880i is one of SE's walkman (hence the w) branded phones so it's designed to work as a music player as well as a phone. Let's talk about music first. This phone comes equipped with SE headphones, which connect to the phone via the side port used for charging. The beauty of these headphones is that they are in two pieces- the earpieces clip into the central cord (the one that connects to the phone) via a standard 3mm jack- which means that you can connect your own headphones, if you don't like the sound coming out of these. Personally I think these headphones give pretty good sound quality. The same unfortunately can't be said for the phone's speakers. I guess it's because the phone is so small, but when you play music directly from the phone,
the sound is quite tinny. SE however do sell speakers (MPS 70) designed specifically for the w880i so I guess those may be useful if you want to use your phone as a portable stereo. The SE speakers also solve the other widely criticised feature of this phone- no radio, as they include an fm radio antenna.
Right so it plays music, but how do I get it on the phone? The w880i comes with a 1g memory card, a nice touch I think. This is big enough to hold about 900 songs. I'm yet to fill mine up. However, you can buy a card up to 2g if you've got a lot of music you want to listen to. Transferring music to the phone is easy, using the supplied disc2phone software. It's a drag and drop programme that allows you to transfer any music on your computer to the phone. I found it to be fairly slow though, as it transfers one song at a time and each song took about a minute to transfer.
So, I've got my tunes, how do I play them? The w880i uses SE's walkman 2 software. This allows you to organise your music into folders, and playlists, and, of course to choose the music you want to play. I found this software easy to use, but a little tedious. Maybe that's because I am used to the simplicity of computer based file organisation, and a phone just can't give you this yet. Se makes much of the dedicated music player button, but all this really means is that you only need one touch to get to the music player, provided your phone is unlocked. This button is easily accessible, being placed on the top left hand (as you are looking at it) corner of the phone, and on the silver version, is bright orange so you can't miss it.
Hmm, but what about those tiny buttons? Ah yes, the number keys on this phone are miniscule, and to be honest, I'm not sure this was entirely necessary. At first I found them really tricky to use, but after a few months I've adjusted- I tend to use the edge of my fingernail to press the buttons rather than my finger. However, my texting speed is still not what it has been with other phones, and I find myself using one hand to hold the phone as I text with the other, due to the slightly awkward hand position needed.
Tell me more about the buttons. One thing I do like is that SE have gotten rid of the joystick button and replaced it with a D pad (actually it looks more like an O). What's a D pad you ask- it's a round button that circles a smaller button- the round button is used for up/down left/right navigation, while the central button is basically the select key. You can see it there on the picture above, sitting under the screen- it's the one with the orange circle in the middle of it. Anyway, I find this nicer to use than the joystick SE has employed on many of its other phones. There is also a shortcut button to the internet, which is a little annoying as I often find myself hitting it by accident. I've heard the same criticism of other SE phones, which have this button in the same place. Oh, before we leave the buttons, let me tell you about the nifty little volume button- it's a little black slide on the right hand side of the phone, which has at least 4 features- while you are in the music player, a quick light press will change the volume while a longer slide will move through the tracks in your phone.
Does it have a camera? Of course it does! It's not great however, and is unlikely to replace your regular camera, but it is handy for those times when you just want to take a shot, and only have your phone with you. To elaborate- the camera is 2mp. It doesn't have a flash, or autofocus, so the pics aren't that great. SE seem to have divided there phones into two categories the w series, which are music players, and the k series, which have the good cameras- perhaps soon the technology will be good enough to combine them. Oh, did I say it has a camera- I lied, it has 2- this is also a 3G phone so there is also a camera on the front for when you make those 3G calls. As video calls are still fairly expensive I don't really use this, and can't help but wonder if they could have left this off and put in a radio instead, but I think they wanted to be able to say "slimmest 3G phone". Oh, and of course, you can take video with the other camera, but the quality is pretty bad.
Hang on, aren't we talking about a phone? Finally we get on to the important stuff- well, assuming we still use our phones mainly for communication, don't we? So, calling is pretty standard, and the sound is good. I have occasionally noticed a bit of echoing, especially when I've called abroad, but I don't know if this is due to the phone or the line. I read that because of the small size of the phone that you can get a lot of wind interference. However, I made a call the other day in a very windy place and had no problems at all. As I already mentioned the small buttons do make texting slightly slower than with other phones (and if you have big fingers then this is definitely not the phone for you), however other than that it's great for texting. Seems a new version of T9 has been included that not only predicts the rest of the word you are typing, but will also predict the next word, based on what you have typed in previous messages. Oh, and my favourite feature, when you go to send a message you are given a list of the people you have most recently sent messages to, so you don't have to trawl through your address book to find, say your best friend, who you text every day.
Oops, almost forgot- battery life is surprisingly good. With standard use I get about 4 days (it's got me through a few festivals this summer with no need of charging). Heavy use (e.g., games, music player) does drain the battery, so if you are a heavy user you may find you need to charge it every day.
A few niggly issues Games- my phone came with just one game, called quadrapop, which is a Tetris style game with limited longevity in terms of playability. I've heard that on other networks you get demo games, which I think is pretty disappointing. With the large supplied memory card, you can, of course, download more games, but I think it should have been supplied with better games to begin with. There's some overlap with buttons- many features can be accessed by at least two different methods, and maybe this makes some of the buttons a bit superfluous. The back cover is quite hard to open, but at the same time can be a little loose, so that it moves under your hand as you hold the phone (but don't worry it doesn't fall off)
Oh, you want to know the price don't you? Well, it's free on Orange at the moment, on a variety of plans, whereas on t-mobile it ranges from free to £149.99, so it's worth looking around to find the best deal for you.
Overall I give this phone an 8 out of 10. As a first foray into the world of slim phones I think SonyEricsson have done pretty well. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Exceptional review. Huge amount of detail. A friend of mine has one of these. Very slim but the buttons are indeed quite small which annoyed me after trying to play on some of the default games.
eeyore220376 15.01.2008 22:39
Excellent review. Sony phones are very good.
manimal 04.12.2007 18:20
Excellent review. I have one of these at the moment. At first didn't like it but now i have got used to it i love it. Usually get nokias but this phone was far better looking than any nokia i saw.
exceptional by (26%):
very helpful by (72%):
helpful by (2%):
