Photo gallery: Sony Ericsson W550iDesign
The W550i is a swivel phone similar to last year's Sony Ericsson's S700i. In fact Sony Ericsson is the only manufacturer we've seen to release phones with that distinctive design element in Australia. The 3G-capable W900i is also on the cards for release before the end of the year but we'll have to wait and see if they can deliver in time for the Christmas rush.
One gripe we had with the W800i was that there was no way to swap the blindingly orange case. Thankfully with the W550i, the orange front and back covers can be removed and swapped; the alternative faceplates provided in our review package were pearly white. Interestingly enough, changing these cases changes the entire feel of the phone, with the burnt orange cover giving a rubberised grip feel and the white a slippery glossed finish.
The 262K-colour screen is a large 1.8 inches (4.5cm) and displays images and text brightly in dark and light surroundings on its 176x220-pixel TFT.
Features
With the Walkman brand emblazoned on the front of the phone, it should come as no surprise -- for people who lived through the 80s anyway -- that this is a musical mobile. It has 256MB onboard memory to load your favourite MP3 or AAC playlists, or you can listen to its built-in FM radio (with eight presets).
If you want to listen to the MP3 player while you're on an aeroplane you can turn it on flight mode, which turns the transmitters off so it will not send or receive any radio signals.
As with most Sony Ericsson phones, the camera -- 1.3-megapixel on the W550i -- is housed on the back with the shortcut key on the right edge of the handset so taking photos with the screen acting as a viewfinder feels akin to a digital camera.
A USB cable is bundled for transferring files and the W550i also supports Bluetooth and infrared connections. An awesome set of stereo earbuds come with the handset, which fit comfortably in your ear and produce excellent bass. You probably wouldn't use them often, but there are also stereo speakers on the back of the phone.
Performance
As we've come to know with Sony-branded MP3 players, in terms of sound quality, the W550i is at the top of its class. We've got mixed feelings about the aesthetics of the handset, however. The swivelling design certainly had the "wow" factor when colleagues would spot it on the CNET.com.au test bench. A but something along the lines of "but it's so fat" would usually follow.
Photos taken with the W550i turned weren't quite as vibrant when taken in sunlight as we've seen on other camera phones. We also found there to be quite some noise when viewing them back on a PC monitor.
If we were given a choice between Motorola's iTunes-compatible ROKR E1 and either of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones, we'd choose the latter -- without question. We prefer using iTunes to sync music as apposed to the W550i's drag-and-drop method. But that said, the W550i is faster to transfer files from thanks to a USB 2.0 connection, and it can also hold more songs than the ROKR.
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