Sony Ericsson W900i 3G Phone Review

Ericsson’s super group of Walkman-branded music phones has acquired another new member in the form of the 3G-enabled W900i.

And while you may see the occasional moody image of this powerful frontman dressed from top to toe in black, Sony Ericsson has assured us that, for the time being, the W900i will only be available in the UK in white, and will be exclusive to Vodafone.

It’s a touch ironic, therefore, that the trim of the W900i is orange rather than red. However, the more conservative among you will prefer this more subtle colour scheme to that of the W800i, where burnt orange is the dominant colour. Even so, while the white is striking and follows a recent strong trend among portable gadgets, we can’t help but think that black would suit this particular handset better.

As for the rest of the aesthetic, the W900i is a little bulkier than the other members of the Walkman family, but it is equipped with 3G, so that will be enough for most people.

That said, 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 handset is actually designed so that all functions can be performed while the phone is shut, from using the camera, the Walkman player, the camera and the video functionality, to accessing the menu.

Users will also find a dedicated camera button on one side of the phone and a dedicated Walkman key on the other side, along with a sliding key which both locks and unlock the phone and provides a backlight to the display.

On the front of the handset, the joypad doubles up as a music control pad, with play, forward and rewind keys all present. Music is undoubtedly one of the primary appeals of the W900i, which enables users to import, transfer, manage and play music from the operator’s over-the-air (OTA) music download service, which wasn’t available on the W800i.

As the W900i is currently only available with Vodafone in the UK, we logged on to the Live! service (click on Internet Services, More, Go To, Vodafone Live!) and picked up three tracks from the Music and Tones sub-menu for £1.50 a pop. Each track downloads to the phone in less than a minute – this is 3G after all – and the sound quality is pretty good.

Also available on the W900i is the Disc2Phone software, which comes in the box and enables users to transfer CDs from a PC or a laptop, which have been taken from your own CD collection.

Transferring your digital music files from a PC to your W900i is drag and drop, and the phone is compatible with user-copied content from most leading music management software packages. So if you already own a digital music player and you want to transfer songs from that to your W900i, it shouldn’t be a problem. The W900i has a hefty internal storage capacity of 470MB (compared to just 34MB on the W800i), which allows users to store between 120 and 240 songs, even without the insertion of a Memory Stick Pro Duo. Unlike the W800i, this does not come with the device, but they are now available in up to 2GB formats, which can store up to 1,000 tracks.

As for the file formats, all are on offer here, including MP3, AAC, AAC+. MIDI, WAV and XMF. And that’s not all, music lovers. The W900i also comes with a set of stereo HPM-80 headphones (3.5mm jack), which can be used to remotely control the phone’s music player functionality as well as doubling up as an FM radio receiver. Click the orange button once to turn the headphones on, then click again to switch between the music player and radio modes. The headphones can also be used to control audio volume.

Another of this phone’s major strengths is the fact that it’s 3G enabled, and a fine 3G phone it makes too, enabling us to download loads of content from Vodafone Live! quickly and smoothly. We made a video call to the new LG U880 and the quality was as smooth as any we’ve tried. However, it’s always worth bearing in mind that the picture of the person you’re viewing is only ever as good as the camera on their phone.

Along with 3, Vodafone has signed an exclusive deal with the Barclays Premiership to offer 3G customers the chance to download and stream football highlights to their handsets almost immediately after the game, so it made sense to test the service on this Vodafone 3G phone. We chose to download action from Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Wigan (downloading is better value than streaming because it enables you to watch the clip as many time as you like), and it was on our phone in no time. However, when we tried to watch the clip, we found that the action appeared in a box only two thirds of the size of the main display, which made the action, even that involving Liverpool’s beanpole striker Peter Crouch, very hard to make out.

Fortunately, if you do find that your video clips are too small to view, this is fairly easily remedied. Rather than watching them in the File Manager menu, go to the Walkman menu, scroll down and access the Video option, press More, and go to Full Screen. You’ll then be able to watch the clips in panorama on the W900i’s full screen, and a fine experience it is too.

We also downloaded the trailer to the new Peter Jackson-directed movie King Kong which wasn’t bad quality at all. You just need to make sure you watch it in Walkman mode in full screen format.

The only glitch we found occurred when trying to download games, and it’s an operator issue rather than a manufacturer problem. At the time of the review there were no games available on Vodafone Live! compatible with the W900i, although this may have been rectified by the time you read this review. Even if this isn’t the case, it’s no major problem as the games available on the W900i are enough to keep anyone entertained for a few weeks at least. The embedded Java games on offer with the W900i include two 3D games in the form of Asphalt Urban GT from Gameloft and Powerball Arcade, plus a 2D game in the form of Quadra Pop.

Both 3D games are gems. Asphalt is a high-octane driving game, which lets you race souped-up cars through urban landscapes a la Vin Diesel. Powerball Arcade requires you to roll, bounce and smash a ball through the 3D city streets in a diverse array of countries, including Japan, Egypt, China, Russia and the US, picking up power boosts, points and prizes before your time runs out. Gaining control of the tricksy ball will remind gamers of Super Monkey Ball. Finally, the 2D Quadra Pop is in many ways the most addictive. It’s based on the Tetris format and you have to match like-coloured musical symbols to make them disappear. There are numerous levels and it has that beat-your-last-score addictive quality to keep you playing.

With so much else on board, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the W900i also boasts a thumping two-megapixel camera with auto-focus. If you’ve used a Sony Ericsson camera phone recently, this works in the same efficient fashion. The phone is held and used so the display is in panorama mode and the shutter button is used to take pictures while the phone is held like a conventional camera.

Assuming the phone is on its side, click the joypad left or right to adjust brightness and up or down to switch between still camera and video mode. A dedicated key at the top of the handset and the camera settings controls zoom, and the camera’s full functionality can be accessed via the Settings soft key. It’s a very neat camera phone and, in two-megapixel mode, the print quality is great.

And let’s not forget the W900i’s organisational strengths. While this does not pretend to be a smartphone for business users, you’ll still find a host of business-friendly functionality, including calendar, tasks, notes, and easy synchronisation to a PC via Bluetooth or USB. It even has push-email for easy messaging.

All in all, the W900i is one impressive phone and one that can do a lot more than hold a tune.

This review covers the above mobile phone only and does not address the performance of any 3G Network. The score is based on a 3G mobile phone checklist.

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