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Let us entertain you

With a large screen, expandable memory and high-quality camera, you’ll never be bored! Music, videos and 3D games are all at your fingertips.

The W900i is Sony Ericsson’s first 3G phone with the Walkman™ branding and is probably the best music player phone released at the time of writing (January 2006). This is a phone that simply does everything! It’s not a SmartPhone, so you can’t install additional software on it, but that makes it easier to use than the Nokia N91, it’s closest rival.

Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow™ software enables you to download music samples (via 3G) and listen to them before you buy - a nice feature if you’re into downloading MP3 tracks directly, rather than placing them onto the phone from your PC. There’s also an FM radio supplied as a snap-on accessory. This also serves as a remote control for the phone’s music player. This is perhaps the weakest feature of the phone - the radio seems to be an aftherthought, for example, you can’t see which station you’re listening to. Finally, there’s a useful “music mode” (sometimes called “flight mode”) which lets you use the phone’s music player functions with the cell phone functionality turned off.

the W900i still boasts an appealing swivel opening mechanism, where the top smoothly rotates 180° to reveal the handset’s hidden keypad. It’s a design feature that’s also been incorporated into Sony Ericsson’s W550i and with both phones, the manufacturer has cleverly added some extra bulk to the upper part of the underside of the phone so that it easily supports the display when it swivels open. As a result, the W900i feels solid and well-built, whether the phone is open or shut.

The W900i has one of the largest keypads I have ever seen - the alphanumeric keys measure 1.2cm x 0.6cm (0.47″ x 0.23″). Tactile feeling is toward the soft side, but much improved from the S700i. The white backlight looks very attractive in the dark, and the large d-pad glows in Walkman orange. The contour between the swung opened keypad and the d-pad is more leveled than on the S700i, and thus usage is much improved. The three shortcut buttons between the d-pad and the number keys are for internet, video calling, and the activity screen (similar to that on K750i). The sub camera is above the screen, whereas the main camera is next to the battery and the speaker grille holes at the back.

Camera
* Auto focus
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 8x
* Photo light
* Video record

Music
* Media Player
* MegaBass™
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Price Range: $299.99 to $345.60

Made for the actively mobile

An active lifestyle needs an active phone, and this one’s got it all: music, communications, imaging and all the essential active accessories.

The Sony Ericsson W710i is a Walkman phone in a clamshell format. It’s designed for an active lifestyle, with rubber inlays to improve grip, a belt clip and a sports armband. The W710i even has a motion sensor to measure time, speed and distance when you run, and a step counter for walking. Central to the W710i are its music player functions. The music player is stereo and can support a wide range of formats including MP3 and AAC. Audio quality is high, with Mega Bass™ to enhance bass frequencies. A stereo headset is supplied, which enables the RDS FM radio to operate. Alternatively a Bluetooth stereo headset can be used.

The phone comes with dual screens which allows the user to see what music they are playing when the phone is in the open or closed position. The external screen is a STN type greyscale display which has a screen resolution of 128 x 128 pixels. The W710i has a clear & colourful internal TFT display which provides 262k colours & a screen resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The Walkman™ music player is highly useable & provides the user with an extremely high quality performance & sound. The user can tune into their preferred radio station with the use of the built in FM radio with RDS. The FM radio RDS feature allows the user to enjoy having a text information service provided by the radio station. The radio station can provide information on the song that is being played, the current news & sporting headlines.

Sony Ericsson is still easing into the flip phone game, and the W710i is just the second Walkman flip phone after the Sony Ericsson W300i. But where the entry-level W300i skimped, the W710i delivers in both its high-end features and its accessible design. On that note, the W710i has a smart form factor with a unique white and gray color scheme. Admittedly it’s a tad boxy, but it’s not a design we’d grow tired of. And while it borders on bulky (3.4 by 1.9 by 1 inches; 3.6 ounces) it’s easily portable, it has a solid construction, and it feels comfortable when held to the face for talking. A small looped antenna juts out at the top of the handset.

Camera
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 2.5x
* Picture blogging
* Video record

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* MegaBass™
* Music tones
* PlayNow™
* TrackID™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Price Range: $293.85 to $293.85

It’s time to play!

Relax and unwind with a phone designed for fun! Exciting 3d games, advanced digital music player, an impressive camera with video recording and more.

As you’d expect from a phone carrying the Walkman logo, there’s a digital music player and a built-in FM radio. Putting music onto the W550i is easy, as CD-ripping PC software is supplied with the phone. Using the Bluetooth connection you can drag and drop MP3 tracks from your PC to the phone. Flight mode lets you use the music player whilst on an aircraft. The phone also has a good 1.3 megapixel camera plus a video camera. There’s an easy-to-use menu for the camera functions, and a dedicated camera button. The screen is large (1.8″) and high quality, with 262,000 colours.

The design of the W550i is a mixture of the bigger w800i and also the S700i, it is a pivoting phone with the keyboard appearing from under the screen with a swivel motion. This reveals the numeric keypad, while the main navigational buttons live under the screen on the upper surface. The screen looks good given its 176 x 220 pixel resolution and 262k colours, its the same screen used in both the K750i and W800i and works well in this model. Navigation is painless and those used to Sony’s now perfected user interface will not be disappointed by the few tweaks, like the ability to see if a folder contains new messages when at the top level.

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.

Camera
* Camera - 1.3-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 4x
* Photo light
* Video record

Music
* Media Player
* MegaBass™
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support