Sony Ericsson W850i
The Sony Ericsson W850i is a Walkman-branded phone in a slide design. Sony Ericsson are new to sliders, but they have produced a very nice design that slides nicely, has a very easy-to-use keypad, a 5-way scroll key that's much easier to use than the joystick design of the K800i, and makes excellent use of the slide format to include a large screen. It's available in a choice of black or white. The white version has a real 24 carat gold Walkman logo for added bling! The keypad features a funky lighting effect that pulses to the beat of the music. On the outside, it's a beautiful phone.
Inside it's great too! This is a Walkman-branded phone, so we'll review the music features first. The Walkman series of phones have established a first-class reputation for music, and the W850i fully lives up to expectations. You can enjoy stereo sound from the music player or the FM radio with excellent audio quality and user-friendliness. The Mega Bass™ feature enhances bass frequencies and a good stereo headset is supplied in the sales package. There's plenty of room for storing music with a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo supplied as standard - this is enough for around 1,000 tracks.
Managing music is very easy with the CD of PC software supplied. The W850i supports USB mass storage, which means that files can be easily and quickly transferred with a drag and drop operation (USB cable supplied). You can also download music directly to your phone with the Walkman software, and the 3G connection makes this very fast. The W850i also introduces a novel feature called TrackID™. If you hear a song on the radio that you don't know, you can use TrackID to find the name, artist and album for you - impressive!
The W850i is also a camera phone of course, and is equipped with a good quality 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash. There's also a video camera that you can use to record or to make 3G video calls. The W850i's camera isn't in the same league as the Sony Ericsson K800i however, as there's no autofocus. The quality of the TFT display is very high - it's large (2 inches across) and as good as any of its competitors.
This has got to be the best of the Walkman phones released so far, and that's saying a lot! If there are any downsides to the W850i, we weren't able to find them.
Features of the Sony Ericsson W850i include:
* 3G video calling
* 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash
* Video camera with photo light
* VideoDJ™ software for video editing
* Display: TFT, 262,144-colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.0 inches)
* Music player
* FM radio
* Mega Bass™ for enhanced bass frequencies
* MP3 / AAC ringtones (64-voice polyphonic ringtones)
* Melody composer / MusicDJ™
* Speakerphone
* Lighting effects
* Sound recorder
* Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
* Wallpaper and animations
* 3D Java games
* Personal organiser functions
* File manager
* Flight mode
* WAP, GPRS, Web browser
* Connectivity: Bluetooth, Fast Port, Infrared, USB mass storage
* Memory: 16 Mbytes plus Memory Stick PRO Duo™ support
* Vibration alert
* Triband plus 3G (UMTS)
* Size: 98 x 47 x 21 mm
* Weight: 116g
The Sony Ericsson W850i is a Walkman-branded phone in a slide design. Sony Ericsson are new to sliders, but they have produced a very nice design that slides nicely, has a very easy-to-use keypad, a 5-way scroll key that's much easier to use than the joystick design of the K800i, and makes excellent use of the slide format to include a large screen. It's available in a choice of black or white. The white version has a real 24 carat gold Walkman logo for added bling! The keypad features a funky lighting effect that pulses to the beat of the music. On the outside, it's a beautiful phone.
Inside it's great too! This is a Walkman-branded phone, so we'll review the music features first. The Walkman series of phones have established a first-class reputation for music, and the W850i fully lives up to expectations. You can enjoy stereo sound from the music player or the FM radio with excellent audio quality and user-friendliness. The Mega Bass™ feature enhances bass frequencies and a good stereo headset is supplied in the sales package. There's plenty of room for storing music with a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo supplied as standard - this is enough for around 1,000 tracks.
Managing music is very easy with the CD of PC software supplied. The W850i supports USB mass storage, which means that files can be easily and quickly transferred with a drag and drop operation (USB cable supplied). You can also download music directly to your phone with the Walkman software, and the 3G connection makes this very fast. The W850i also introduces a novel feature called TrackID™. If you hear a song on the radio that you don't know, you can use TrackID to find the name, artist and album for you - impressive!
The W850i is also a camera phone of course, and is equipped with a good quality 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash. There's also a video camera that you can use to record or to make 3G video calls. The W850i's camera isn't in the same league as the Sony Ericsson K800i however, as there's no autofocus. The quality of the TFT display is very high - it's large (2 inches across) and as good as any of its competitors.
This has got to be the best of the Walkman phones released so far, and that's saying a lot! If there are any downsides to the W850i, we weren't able to find them.
Features of the Sony Ericsson W850i include:
* 3G video calling
* 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash
* Video camera with photo light
* VideoDJ™ software for video editing
* Display: TFT, 262,144-colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.0 inches)
* Music player
* FM radio
* Mega Bass™ for enhanced bass frequencies
* MP3 / AAC ringtones (64-voice polyphonic ringtones)
* Melody composer / MusicDJ™
* Speakerphone
* Lighting effects
* Sound recorder
* Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
* Wallpaper and animations
* 3D Java games
* Personal organiser functions
* File manager
* Flight mode
* WAP, GPRS, Web browser
* Connectivity: Bluetooth, Fast Port, Infrared, USB mass storage
* Memory: 16 Mbytes plus Memory Stick PRO Duo™ support
* Vibration alert
* Triband plus 3G (UMTS)
* Size: 98 x 47 x 21 mm
* Weight: 116g
