Sony Ericsson seems determined to cover all bases with its Walkman
phone range, with the budget Sony Ericsson W380i its latest attempt to
corner the low-cost music mobile market.
Hot on the heels of
the up-market ultra-slim W890i and multi-gigabyte packing W960i, the
clamshell W380i delivers a more modest line-up of features at a
considerably more wallet-friendly price – initially around £80 on
pre-pay or free on contracts.
Even at this price, you get the
familiar Walkman phone basics of a good quality music player, decent
earphones, and a respectable 512MB Memory Stick Micro card to store
your tunes. There are compromises on the cameraphone front though, with
a basic 1.3-megapixel snapper included that doesn’t do video shooting –
a feature some target younger users may miss.
Eye-catching new designs
Sony
Ericsson has added a dash of individuality to its looks without going
all garish; it’s stylishly eye-catching, coming in a range of colours -
electric purple, magnetic grey and champagne black.
It’s quite
compact, at 92(h) x 49(w) x 16(d) mm and light in the hand at 100g. A
few design twists and novel gadgetry make it stand out from the budget
crowd too.
Music controls are subtly moulded on the front of the
shell, made from a Braille-like pattern of raised dots on the outside
of the phone.
These are lined up under a concealed external
display that glows out of the shell with track details in landscape
orientation when the music player’s active, or with caller ID info when
calls come in. A smart looking extra, it’s something we’ve seen before
but it’s nicely implemented here.
A mobile phone with plenty of gadgets
Another
new bit of gadgetry is Gesture Control - an option you can switch on to
mute incoming calls or switch alarm ringers to snooze by swiping your
hand back and forth above the phone’s camera. While far from essential
(apart from first thing in the morning, perhaps), it’s one more gimmick
other budget phones don’t have.
The shell of the phone is
attractive, with a Walkman-family look to the angled bottom of the
phone, and pimpled detailing next to the camera and the prominent
loudspeaker, plus some contrasting colour detailing on a couple of
buttons. These include a sliding key lock on the back to disable the
music keys when the phone’s playing tunes in your pocket.
The
keypad inside is unexcitingly straightforward – large keys that are
reasonably responsive and a set of D-pad based navigation and control
keys. The button arrangement isn’t the improved version used on some
recent Sony Ericsson handsets (such as the W890i), but it’s easy to use
none the less.
In addition to the D-pad, flanking softkeys,
back and clear keys, there are quick access buttons for the web browser
and the Activty Menu – Sony Ericsson’s useful speedy way to get to most
used and useful functions.
Walkman takes centre stage
The
display is an average 1.9-inch 176x220 pixel 262k-colour screen – not
as detailed as some Walkmans, and graphics aren’t presented as slickly
as some models higher up the range.
The external display is a
rather small 36x128 pixels OLED panel, with enough room to present
caller ID, standby status info, or music information from the Walkman
player or RDS-equipped FM radio.
Naturally, the Walkman player is
the main act here. One of the pre-loaded D-pad shortcuts is
Walkman-logoed, providing a quick route to switching on and tuning in.
The user interface has a familiar white-and-orange-on-black Walkman
look.
Music categories and options are more limited than on
the pricier Walkmans, as you’d expect, but you still get an impressive
user experience and all the essentials are well executed. It’s
intuitive and well signposted as you move through the options, so you
know where you are.
Intuitive interface
Tracks
are arranged in regular MP3 player categories – artists, albums, tracks
and playlists - and you can display album cover art (if available) as
well as track details when playing. Tunes keep playing when the
clamshell is shut; you can employ the gently glowing music keys to skip
through tracks, play or pause.
They do require a firm press
rather than gentle dabbing, but there is a bit of haptic vibrating
feedback to let you know the command button’s been pressed. The mini
front display appears to let you know what’s playing then fades back
behind the plastic until you touch buttons again.
The phone’s
musical performance is excellent, and particularly impressive at this
price point. The supplied earphones are better than the music phone
norm, and you get clear precise sound with a pleasing dynamic range
including a well-balanced amount of bass. You can adjust equaliser
settings too, or bump up bass with Sony’s Mega Bass software in the
settings.
Mixed sound quality
The classy
sound can be enhanced further by adding your own higher quality
headphones. Sony Ericsson has chosen again to put an all-purpose
charger/data/headphone socket on the side with no additional standard
3.5mm headphone socket.
While this is an awkward and socket
positioning when you have the phone in-pocket, at least Sony includes a
3.5mm jack adapter in its two-piece earphone set, so you can plug in
your own Sennheisers etc. should you choose to.
Plugging in the
supplied headphones also allow you to listen to the FM radio –
frequency info is listed on the external display, and you can scroll
through frequencies or stored stations with the external controls.
That
loudspeaker on the front of the shell a bit of a let-down; it’s sound
quality is tinny and poor, so unless you absolutely must share your
tunes (without discernible bass), keep the headphones in.
Synch with your PC
The
512MB Memory Stick Micro card supplied can be loaded up with tracks
in-phone in the regular Walkman way, using the supplied Sony Walkman
Media Manager software and USB cable connected to a PC. Alternatively,
you can drag and drop tracks onto the card’s memory in file transfer
mode.
You can also search for details of tracks your around you
or on the radio quickly and easily using Sony Ericsson’s neat TrackID
user-friendly song identification application.
While music gets a
big thumbs-up, the same can’t be said of the W380i’s disappointing
camera. With an entry-level1.3-megapixel resolution, you’re limited
with picture capture quality, and as you’d expect, there’s no autofocus
system or flash to improve matters. Results aren’t great, though you
can take reasonable snaps if you’re not intending to print them out.
Disappointing camera
Low
light performance, however, is very poor. You do need good light to get
the best out of the lens. The user interface is basic too – you have to
hold the phone in portrait mode and frame shots in a central strip of
the display.
Sony Ericsson does include a selection of settings
tweaks and effects you can use, plus a zoom option. And you can upload
images straight to a Blogger blog account. But this isn’t a phone for
someone who has imaging as a buying priority.
An attractive feature set
For
a budget phone, the W380i offers an attractive set of stock features.
Although it doesn’t capture video, you can play back video clips you’ve
downloaded or received as messages.
Stereo Bluetooth is
included, there’s email support, plus an xHTML browser, with support
too for RSS feeds, so you can get web-based info updates from your
favourite sites and blogs without having to spend time browsing using
the GPRS-speed browser.
There’s a voice recorder here, plus a
standard set of Sony Ericsson organiser apps (calendar, tasks, notes,
timer, stopwatch, calculator and a code memo app to store PINs and
passwords).
Strong battery life
The
music playing ability extends too to a Music Mate 2 app – a chord guide
for guitar and piano. Three playable games are included too, Extreme
Air Snowboarding, QuadraPop and SIMs 2.
As a non-3G phone with
limited power-sapping multimedia applications –the music player
excepted – the W380i delivers a decent power performance. Sony Ericsson
quotes best-scenario figures of up to 300 hours in standby or 7 hours
of talktime.
Our average usage trials gave us around three days
of calls and moderate feature play between charges, though users
playing the Walkman regularly will certainly have to power-up more
frequently. Call quality was reliable too with a no-nonsense
performance.
Sony Ericsson does good on a budget
This
budget Walkman phone package offers plenty for someone looking for a
decent music mobile on a very tight budget – provided they’re not too
concerned with fine imaging quality.
Despite the low cost, Sony
Ericsson has managed to come up with a fresh and distinctive design
that also includes a few talking-point features to grab its target
younger audience.
The camera here is disappointing for a mobile
maker that also boasts Cyber-shot branded camera-centric phones, and
some users may recoil at the lack of video capture and other missing
frills. Elsewhere, however, standard features are reasonably well
represented.
It may not have it all – you’d expect compromises at
this sort of price - but the W380i still manages to deliver where it
counts as a Walkman music mobile, with a fine quality audio performance
that’s astonishingly good for such an affordable handset.
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