-
Pros
- Excellent sound quality.
- Two-megapixel camera.
- Small and light.
- Tons of features.
-
Cons
- Doesn't play WMA or DRM files.
- No support for music playlists created on PCs.
- No speaker-independent voice recognition.
Sony Ericsson W800i Specs
| 802.11x/Band(s): | No |
| Bands: | 1800 |
| Bands: | 1900 |
| Bands: | 900 |
| Bluetooth: | Yes |
| Camera Flash: | Yes |
| Camera: | Yes |
| Form Factor: | Candy Bar |
| High-Speed Data: | GPRS |
| Phone Capability / Network: | GSM |
| Physical Keyboard: | No |
| Screen Size: | 2 inches |
| Service Provider: | AT&T |
| Service Provider: | Edge Wireless |
| Service Provider: | i Wireless |
| Service Provider: | Other |
| Service Provider: | T-Mobile |
The cute, powerful Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman is the best regular phone we've ever seen, but despite its "Walkman" branding, this is no iPod-killer. So while an array of top-of-the-line features and a truly stylish body leaves other regular phones in the dust, its poor integration with PC-based music libraries leaves us wishing for more.
The W800i is a triumph as a phone. It's small enough to slip into a pocket, and the little 176- by 220-pixel color screen is sharp. The keys and navigation joystick are also small but have a precise feel to them, and they are relatively easy to use. We found that sound quality is excellent in both the earpiece and the speakerphone, and transmission quality is also good, though a lack of noise cancellation means that call recipients hear plenty of background noise. Battery life is spectacular; the phone achieved 11 hours 44 minutes of continuous talk time in our test. Ringtones are loud, but the vibrating alert is a little gentle for our taste.
As one might assume given the Walkman name, this device is devoted, in large part, to music—at least the playback of music. Hit one button on the side, and it plays MP3s, which sound as good as on any dedicated digital music player.
You can't leave out the camera these days, though. Flip a switch, and you're taking 2-megapixel photos. The camera has a real, mechanical autofocus, too, as well as an extra-bright LED flashlight. Pictures taken with the W800i weren't quite as bright or sharp as those taken with the 2MP
Behind the Music
Considering it's the first Walkman-branded phone, you'd expect the W800i to have superior music capabilities. It certainly has the best sound quality we've ever heard on a phone, on a par with that of a dedicated digital music player. Spectrum analysis of the phone's audio output was admirably flat from about 20 Hz to over 17 kHz, with some response as high as 20 kHz. Music sounded punchy, with full bass and clear midrange. A five-band equalizer lets you tweak your own sound.
It's easy to navigate by album or artist in the phone's music application and to create playlists. One-touch buttons allow you activate, pause, and control the volume. You can also turn off the phone functions to get more battery life from the music player. And there's a built-in FM radio that captures song titles from stations using the RDS protocol (you can't record songs off the radio, though).
The phone has an odd-size headphone jack, but the unit does come with a truly excellent pair of earbuds and an adapter that turns any pair of music-player headphones into a headset (there's a microphone built into the adapter as well). We wish the adapter had its own volume control, though.
You can fit plenty of music and photos on the included 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo; there's also 34MB of internal storage for PIM information, images, and applications. And you can buy additional Memory Sticks, with up to 1GB available right now, and 2GB sticks coming soon.
Unfortunately, the W800i has an uneasy relationship with PC music libraries. It plays only MP3 and AAC files that you've ripped from your own CDs, or that you've downloaded from services that do not use DRM, such as eMusic.com and some bands' own Web sites. It lacks support for WMA or Sony's ATRAC3
Sony, Motorola, Nokia, hear our cry: There are plenty of good jukebox packages out there, such as iTunes, Musicmatch Jukebox, and Windows Media Player. How about using one?
It's All About The Features
The W800i is completely customizable. You can use your own MP3s for ringtones; download Java applications, such as instant-messaging clients, from your PC; and move files back and forth at will. Java performance for games was excellent for a phone that's not a smartphone. E-mail and basic photo-editing, video-editing and loop-based ringtone composer apps are included on the phone, along with two games.
Sony Ericsson includes a USB cable and software to sync contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes with Microsoft Outlook. There's also an unusually good Bluetooth implementation on this phone; it's missing stereo headphone support, sadly, but it's fine for phone headset use, file transfer, modem use, and syncing with PCs or Macs. It even works as a PC or Mac remote control (the little joystick moves your mouse pointer).
From its inception, the W800i was designed as an international phone—not exclusively for the U.S. market. Though it lacks support for the 850-MHz band used by Cingular in some cities, it will get fine reception on the T-Mobile network nationwide. Cingular customers interested in the phone should definitely check to see that their area is covered by the necessary band before purchasing the phone. The phone also has a WAP browser and can be used as a PC modem on the GPRS network (at 30- to 40-Kbps speeds). Unfortunately, the phone doesn't work with the faster
We have to say that the W800i skins and eats other feature phones in terms of its feature set. Its closest competitor is probably the petite
The W800i is available direct from Sony Ericsson for $499; we also expect independent retailers to offer it with T-Mobile plans at a discount. Paired with better music software and support for online music stores, it could have been the definitive music phone. Instead, we'll say it's the best one currently on the market.
View the features and specifications of the Audiovox SMT-5600, Motorola E815, Nokia 6682, Sony Ericsson S710a, and Sprint/Samsung MM-A800
Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 11 hours 44 minutes
Jbenchmark 1: 3838
Jbenchmark 2: 313
Jbenchmark 3D: 123
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