Sony Ericsson W850i - 3G
September 11th, 2006 - Posted in Sony Ericsson
The new Sony Ericsson W850i heralds the next phase in the Walkman phone evolution. As the eighth member of this successful musical family, this handset not only sports a Sony Ericsson first but also a more advanced Walkman player that hints at a far more exciting and enhanced experience for the mobile music fan.
The W850i is essentially the successor to the W900i. While we liked the W900i at 3G, there were some discrepancies that, thankfully, its inheritor has ironed out, and even ditched. Firstly, the W900i arrived from the old school 3G-camp; its hulking chassis meant it wasn’t matey with the trouser pouch. The W850i is far more compact, closely resembling the Nokia 6280 in size and weight.
The W900i also swung into action using a 180° swivel technique that revealed an ergonomic faux pas where the phone’s position finished upside down after opening. Not the most seamless of moves. The W850i, however, finds Sony Ericsson in unknown territory, becoming its first handset to vaunt a slide action. Having plied its stock mainly in candybars, it’s strange to see a slider bearing the Sony Ericsson name, but despite the manufacturer’s relative inexperience with the form, its first attempt is commendable. Although it’s not the most graceful spring-assisted action we’ve seen, it’s responsive nonetheless.
Along with the new direction, the W850i also mines a fresh look, most notably the way the navigation pad blends into the phone. But although this looks cool, useability seems to have suffered. Our review sample was a prototype so perhaps all the kinks haven’t been ironed out but we found the joypad keys unresponsive and stiff. At the other end of the scale, the rest of the soft and dedicated feature keys, including an elongated Walkman button, felt loose. But again this could be the prototype. However, we recommend you play before you pay.
The good news is that the user interface doesn’t veer from other Sony Ericsson handsets so even newcomers won’t struggle with its intuitive system while the two-inch screen ranks alongside the K800i for fantastic definition and brightness.
As a 3G phone the W850i is graced with two-way video calling capabilities. With a front-loaded VGA camera, the performance doesn’t really deviate from other similar specced 3G handsets. The inevitable pixelation and drag appears but it isn’t too shabby. As with most Walkman phones the strong built-in speaker redeems its performance. Conversation are very distinct through the rear speaker so you won’t need the headphones to hear the chit chat.
The W850i is also graced with a rear two-megapixel camera lens that shoots photos in a maximum 1600×1200-pixel resolution. However, a few omissions mean it doesn’t rank alongside the likes of the W810i and K750i. Admittedly, like the W810i there’s no lens cover but unlike its 2.75G compadre it lacks auto-focus and resolution has been down-sized slightly from 1632×1224 pixels. Merit points are clawed back with a built-in LED light that works okay in low-level environments but otherwise you’re looking at the V630i for picture quality comparison. While the snaps are of decent quality, alongside the likes of the aforementioned fellow Ericssons, they can appear a little washed out.
For storing your digital tunes and multimedia gubbins Sony Ericsson has fitted out the W850i with a MemoryStick ProDuo card slot instead of its new Micro M2. This is a distinct advantage for, say W800/W810i users, who want to upgrade to the 3G-model because they can use and swap existing ProDuo cards, saving money instead of having to invest in a new format.
The announcement of the W850i got us gibbering excitedly but in the flesh, we have to say the phone lacks the same allure as previous Walkers like the W810i. The improved Walkman music player has moved on and added enough new features and when the PlayNow music store is up and running the ability to download tracks over-the-air will be more convenient (see box).
The W850i is by no means a disappointment, perhaps just a little underwhelming, but it still remains another worthy addition to the Walkman tribe. Perhaps the tantalizing thought of the upcoming 4GB flash memory-toting W950i is nagging at the back of our minds and this is the next Walkman phone we’re really getting excited about.
New Proprietary Player
The W850i is the first Walkman phone to carry the new version 2.0 of its proprietary player. There have been some interesting developments from the original, not only cosmetically, but also in terms of new services and features. The first thing you’ll notice is the polished graphic icons and the neat family tree lines linking the sub-sections through the sliding screens. Hardly groundbreaking but it gives the player a slicker feel.
The core of the player’s interface is still built around the artists, albums, tracks and playlist menu system but the most noticeable addition is the access to Sony Ericsson’s new full-track download service. As part of PlayNow, this music shop will open its door on the launch of the handset in October. Sony Ericsson has claimed it will be updated each week with about ten artists and you’ll be able to search, browse and sample tracks before buying although download prices are yet to be finalised.
Another nice touch is the album art support, so that when you transfer your songs from the PC to the phone the available album artwork is downloaded, along with the song names from the online CD database.
The TrackID facility is also another boon. Like Shazam, this tags a few seconds of a song and then sends a message detailing the name of the song and artist. It will then let you download the track if it’s available.
As we’ve found with all of the range, the W850i is a consummate music performer sounding great through the supplied earphones but even more dynamic via our pair of Sennheiser cans. Plus of course, the W850i has the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) Bluetooth profile so you can wireless stream your music to a pair of compatible headphones.
Source: 3G