Mobile News and Phone Reviews

A cool-looking slide-design Walkman phone with funky lighting effects. It’s not the greatest Walkman phone ever (with limited memory capacity) and doesn’t have an exceptional camera, but it’s a good all-rounder and is one of the best lookers. We feel that it’s quite expensive for what you get.
The Sony Ericsson W580i is a Walkman phone in a slide design. It’s available in a choice of white, black or grey.

Physically, the W580i looks cool. It’s a nice slider, with a very usable 5-way navigation key. The keypad has sensibly-sized keys that light up in use and are easy to press. Dedicated keys are used to control the Walkman functions, so you can play music when the slide is closed. The screen is of good quality and can be viewed outdoors without too much trouble. Like the S500i, the W580i features very cool lighting effects and is a beautiful phone to look at and play with.

The W580i features a “shake control” - you flick your wrist when the music player is on and a random song is selected to play. Gimmicky but cool. Another gimmick is the built-in pedometer. It’s a useful feature if you do a lot of walking, but pedometers are cheap and readily available - do you really need one in your phone?

The main feature of the W580i (apart from making phone calls, of course!) is the music player. We’ve written about the quality of the Walkman music range many times on this site - take it from us, it’s good. The W580i has the new version 2.0, and is also equipped with an FM radio. A stereo headset is included in the sales package, and there’s also support for an optional Bluetooth stereo headset. The available memory is not generous - just 12 Mbytes built-in (enough for 3-4 songs) but the memory is expandable to 1 Gbyte (Memory Stick Micro™) or 4 Gbytes (Memory Stick PRO).

The phone also comes with a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, but this cannot compare with the autofocus-equipped cameras on the K800i or W610i.

With the release of the Sony Ericsson W580i, the Walkman phone range is beginning to look very crowded (we count 9 or 10 Walkman phones currently available). What does the W580i offer that the others don’t? Well, it’s a slider and has cool looks and lighting effects, so this could be its best selling point. The pedometer and shake control have been offered in phones previously and have never been popular. It’s actually very similar to the W850i slide phone, which is selling for a much lower price than the W580i and has the advantage of 3G too. With only minor improvements in the W580i, it makes the price of the W580i hard to justify. Is Sony Ericsson starting to get a little too greedy? Before buying, check out the W850i slider and the conventionally-designed W660i.

Features of the Sony Ericsson W580i include:

• 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
• Video camera
• 3D Java games
• Display: 262,144-colour TFT LCD, 240 x 320 colours (2 inches)
• Music player (Walkman 2.0)
• FM radio
• Megabass™
• PlayNow™
• TrackID™
• Polyphonic ringtones & music tones
• Speakerphone
• Sound recorder
• Pedometer
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email
• Animated wallpaper
• Personal organiser functions
• Flight mode
• Memory: 12 Mbytes plus Memory Stick Micro™ support (up to 1 Gbyte)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB mass storage
• WAP, EDGE
• Web browser, RSS feeds, picture blogging
• Vibration alert
• Size: 99 x 47 x 14 mm
• Weight: 94g
• Quadband (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900)
• Talktime: 9 hours
• Battery standby: 370 hours

This Walkman phone has everything you need from a music player phone: the latest version of Sony’s award-winning Walkman music player, a built-in FM radio, and a 2 megapixel camera. It also has the benefit of 3G video calling and comes in a classic slimline design with an ergonomic keypad and navigation key.The Sony Ericsson W660i is a nice addition to the Walkman phone range. It’s basically a 3G-enhanced version of the fantastic W610i with an improved keypad, although the camera isn’t as good.

The W660i is a great looker. It has a classic design, with lovely curves, and is available in two distinctive colour schemes: black or rose red. The phone is slim (but not superslim) and is a good size and weight to hold. The W660i has an easy-to-use navigation key and has nicely-sized tactile keys, which is a relief after so many recent Sony Ericsson phones have suffered from clunky joysticks or small keys - Sony Ericsson haven’t put a foot wrong with the W660i in terms of design. The display is a good size and, whilst not as high in resolution as the W880i or K810i, is typical for this price range.

The W660i has a good quality 2 megapixel camera and a video recording option. It can’t compete with the camera on the high-end K810i, and is missing autofocus and a camera light. Being 3G, it also supports video calling.

Naturally the W660i is equipped with the latest Walkman® player 2.0 and is an excellent music phone. Audio quality is excellent, you can easily control the music player, creating your own playlists on the move, and you can now view original album art on the screen as the music plays. Interfacing with a PC is very straightforward: using the USB mass storage interface you can simply drag and drop music (and other media) from the PC to the phone. The memory capacity of the phone is not as large as we’d have liked - onboard memory is just 16 Mbytes, which is enough for just a few MP3 tracks, so you’ll definitely need a memory card to make full use of the phone. Memory cards of up to 1 Gybte are supported (2 Gbytes using a special adapter). We should also mention that an FM radio is included.

Connectivity via USB and wireless Bluetooth is supported, including support for a stereo Bluetooth headset, but there’s no support for infrared. With 3G the phone is permanently connected to the internet, and the phone can handle web browsing, RSS feeds and picture blogging. Push email is also supported.

In conclusion, the W660i is a great phone. It has everything that the W610i has to offer (except for the camera), but with the benefits of 3G and a more conventional keypad.

Features of the Sony Ericsson W660i include:

• 3G video calling
• Video clip recording
• 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom
• Display: TFT, 262,144 colours, 176 x 220 pixels
• Walkman® player 2.0
• FM radio
• MegaBass™ - enhances bass frequencies
• TrackID™
• Polyphonic ringtones / Music Tones
• Speakerphone
• Sound recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Push email
• 3D Java games (pre-installed)
• Web browser
• Picture blogging
• RSS feeds
• Animated wallpaper
• Personal organiser functions
• Connectivity: Bluetooth (with support for stereo headset), USB
• Memory: 16 Mbytes plus Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support (up to 1 Gbyte)
• Flight mode
• Vibration alert
• Size: 102 x 46 x 14.5 mm
• Weight: 93g
• Triband (GSM 900, 1800, 1900) plus 3G (UMTS 2100)