Sony Ericsson has gone out on a limb creating the W800i's look -- its cheerful colours won't be everyone's cup of tea, but we do think it will go down well with vivacious music lovers. While it oozes funkiness, it lacks the sophistication of premium phones such as the Nokia 8800, which is what you'd more likely see a business executive pull out of his jacket pocket.
However, no matter who you are, you're certainly not going to miss this mobile phone if you walk into a store -- it comes in a fluorescent orange plastic box with grey pair of headphones dangling from within the see-through window. The phone itself is far less glaringly bright than its packaging, the majority of the handset is ivory-coloured, with an orange anodised-aluminium-looking band encircling its sides. It stands out next to most phones on the market and we feel that the target market this phone is aimed at might tire of the colour scheme -- especially considering the W800i doesn't feature removable covers. Yet the W800i does offer customisation options through wallpapers, themes, MP3 ringtones and screensavers.
The keypad layout is almost identical to other non-flip Sony Ericsson phones, such as the black and silver K750i. Navigation through an intuitive animated menu is provided by a tiny joystick that will irk some users with its fiddliness. A couple of slight differences to the norm include a dedicated Walkman shortcut key below the screen to launch the music menu, and a play button on the left side of the phone that starts songs stored on the W800i's memory card.
FeaturesThe W800i re-introduces Sony's Walkman brand, which for us conjures up memories of bopping down the street in the '80s with the latest cassingle blasting into our eardrums. While the brand might have evolved into Discman in the '90s as CDs usurped cassettes, Sony Ericsson has decided to use the original brand name for this music-centred phone at a time when we are waving goodbye to CDs and embracing MP3s.
Sony Ericsson bundles an burly 512MB Memory Stick Duo with the W800i, a format which has smaller in dimensions than the original Memory Stick, but is quite large compared to the miniscule TransFlash memory cards that are making appearances in Motorola's MP3-playing phones, such as the E398, E1000 and the upcoming Razr V3x and Rokr iTunes phone. An FM radio is also included on the W800i but like most phones, it can only be activated when then headset, which acts as an antenna, is attached.
While the W800i has a small switch that flicks the lens cover open and puts the display into capture mode, we prefer the slide open action of the K750i's camera. Sony Ericsson has again implemented a handy landscape orientation for the camera mode. Holding the phone on its side places the shutter key at the top device like a regular digital camera. It takes JPEG stills at up to 1,632 x 1,224 pixels and .3gp videos at 176 x 144 pixels.
Sony Ericsson has a range of accessories available for the W800i, including the MXE-60 detachable camera flash and the MMC-60 stereo line-out cable.
Bluetooth and infrared are onboard for transferring photos, music and contact information to other devices. Sony Ericsson also throws in a USB cable for fast PC transfers. Sony Ericsson's bundled software CD includes an application called Disc2Phone that can rip CDs to transfer to the W800i, and acts as an interface through which you can drag-and-drop existing MP3 files.
PerformanceIn our experience when it comes to sound, Sony is generally a top performer. It currently holds CNET.com.au's crown for the best-sounding MP3 player and we'd be safe to say that the Sony Ericsson Walkman W800i produces the richest sound from any phone we've heard so far. This is thanks in large part to the excellent noise-cancelling headphones bundled in the box. While not the high-tech variety with circuitry designed to actively reduce ambient interference, such as Bose's QuietComfort 2, the included set feature soft rubber domes which plug snugly into your ears to passively eliminate surrounding noise. With the equaliser set to Mega Bass, the pounding beats coming from the W800i's headphones are enough to keep any dance or hip hop fan bopping. Treble boost gives an extra bit of crispness to tunes while we found Voice to be good for acoustic songs.
One gripe we have with the W800i is the minor shutter lag when taking a picture. Granted, it does have an autofocus mechanism that takes a second to adjust its depth field, so photos are taken at a slight delay to when you hear the digital shutter "click" and can therefore come out blurry if you start to move away.
Overall, though, we'd recommend the W800i to anyone in the market now for an MP3-playing phone for four main reasons: its headphones provide exceptional sound for its class, it comes with a whopper of a memory card, it has a 2-megapixel camera, and it features Sony Ericsson-style ease of use. Whether it holds up against Nokia's upcoming N91 or Motorola's Rokr iTunes phone is yet to be seen.
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Flinch
04/07/2008, 02:52 AM
rating
9/10
Amazing phone. Sturdy and solid, pretty good camera, great sound quality, although headphone jack pops out at times.
Best battery life EVER.
Pros: Insane battery life, had it for about 1.5 yrs, can go 3-4 days without a recharge.
Simple yet nice keypad design.
Its just a simple, easy to use phone with all the features needed, and nothing useless to weigh it down.
Cons: Headphone jack comes out at times (especially when walking)
Phone sometimes switches off randomly (might be because i stored a sim in the battery compartment and made the connections slightly less in contact)
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SonyE
11/06/2008, 09:23 PM
rating
10/10
You may not be able to OR maybe able to change covers but you can certainly change housings
Pros: dunno but id like one
Cons: dunno dont have one yet researching cnet for useful info
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samsung d900
13/05/2008, 07:33 PM
rating
8/10
Best of the best mobile with cheap price that ever i see in my life with many great features. Camera is excellent and gives fast speed process.
Pros: Stylish orange color design walk man set format.
Good camera result.
Cons: Nothing.
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marto61
06/03/2008, 07:18 PM
rating
9/10
Had this phone for 2 years with no problems, good enough to replace my mp3 player and the camera is handy for quick pics .only thing is there still doesnt seem to be anything new out there that much better to justify the expense of replacing it !! still holds it own !!
Pros: camera , mp3 player ,inbuilt light.
Cons: Hard to replace
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ram
06/09/2007, 06:34 PM
rating
9/10
I have used this phone for one month than by mistake my phone was changed into Chiness or Japaness language by using factory settings. How do I bring it back to english langauage?
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Azajaz
10/08/2007, 10:00 PM
rating
10/10
i do no own this fown yet but i have researched it and it rox i dont no y some ppl say it looks crap but the looks on it is the best
Pros: everything
Cons: no speaker fone
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ali
31/07/2007, 09:20 AM
rating
7/10
it`s very good.
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vrx Boy
29/07/2007, 04:58 PM
rating
9/10
great phone its what you expect now from sony ericsson
Pros: great sound and headphones
Very easy to use
Cons: joystick can be a pain in the ***
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Niket Dave
10/06/2007, 04:44 PM
rating
10/10
This phone rocks amazing phone for a student, music freak
Pros: Amazing sound quality, very ver nice head phones and good navigation system`
Cons: the joy stick is a **** pain ...
camera shutter speed sucks
if the phone falls screen downwards and your joy sticks hits the floor thn you doomed ...
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rockcriedout
18/05/2007, 11:17 AM
rating
3/10
terrible joystick, excellent pictures.
Pros: navigation makes sense. good camera quality.
Cons: the joystick is a pain in the **** to use. camera lag is also irritating. software not great. headset connection not working as well as it once did a year later. also not scratch proof.
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