3G Sweet Sounding Walkman
The W950i is the biggest, baddest, phattest Walkman phone ever and it’s set to be the music phone in everyone’s pockets. What could go wrong? We can’t begin to imagine.
Since we saw the Sony Ericsson W950i at the 3GSM Show in February we’ve got ourselves into a lather over this handset. Billed as the daddy of all Walkman music phones, we’ve had to wait what seems like a lifetime to get hold of this 4GB flash-memory-toting handset. But as the saying goes, ‘good things come to those who wait.’ Or so we’re lead to believe.
With all the hype that’s built up around the W950i it’s inevitable that when we come across any failings, the disappointments are going to hurt more. And we’re sad to report that the W950i has them in big, graveyard-digging spades. Ouch.
So is the W950i really that much of disaster? As a phone, yes, but as a music player we’re pleased to say it continues the Walkman’s winning track record, with its intuitive and great sounding player. If you’re in the market for the W950i then you’re most definitely looking to replace your stand-alone digital music player for this more convenient convergence device. But taking this leap is all down to whether you’ve got the stomach to put up with the phone’s flaws.
Essentially the W950i shares the same chassis as its more business-focused buddy, the M600i. However the keypad is quite different and it’s dressed up in a rather fetching Mystic Purple finish. Despite a wide profile, it’s still remarkably slimline at 15mm and lightweight at 112g. Compared to its behemoth arch-rival, the 8GB hard drive-loaded Nokia N91, it’s still just about pocketable without causing offence. But we do admit it looks highly desirable and, like the M600i, very stylish.
Abandon operation
The W950i runs off a Symbian UIQ OS, similar to the Sony Ericsson P990i and the M600i smartphone, with a pen-driven 2.6-inch touch-screen central to operation. For punters weaned on Sony Ericsson’s previous Walkman phones like the W810i and the W850i, this form of user interface will come as a shock. Without any soft keys or joypad, navigation is left to the stylus and the limited left-sided three-way jog-wheel.
For everyday operation, using the stylus is a pain but obviously you can use your fingers to tap the screen. This has two major disadvantages. Firstly, your greasy digits muddy the display and some of the icons are two small for your fat fingers to hit. Similarly the jog-wheel is not the most responsive of characters, stuttering as you trawl through the icon menu and music library. You find yourself always using two hands to work around the phone and because of its wide profile you’re continually manoeuvring to get a comfortable grip after using the various navigation methods.
Sony
Ericsson’s standard back key sits just underneath the wheel to ease
the stress. It seems a strange decision from Sony Ericsson to go down this
touch-screen avenue because its Walkman phone’s success has partly been
built on ease-of-use, so this UIQ interface, while fine in the business world,
may not sit well with the mainstream.
Key questions
Unfortunately, things don’t get much better with the keypad. It’s tricky to handle; the buttons are flush to the phone but not touch sensitive, instead relying on the standard click mechanism. The keys lie on a flat open plan design without any clear definition except a little dimple. Apart from being pretty unresponsive, you live in fear of encroaching on neighbouring keys. The flanking cancel and dedicated Walkman keys are also just as stubborn and this set-up is not geared up for speedy text input.
Thankfully, with its Symbian UIQ smartphone properties, you can turn to the touch-screen for text input if the keypad proves a little too irksome. With a full virtual QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition capabilities, the alternatives aren’t ideal for the text obsessive. Both work well, and in a tech-savvy business environment these features would be much appreciated. However, most of the buying public won’t care a hoot for its smartphone slickness, instead wanting a more simple-to-handle phone with that trademark Walkman music player.
Light, camera, no action
A built-in camera has been sacrificed for its music ambitions and this may dissuade those who now feel having a camera on hand is a necessity. Sony Ericsson has claimed it’s not a case of excluding a camera but rather including a 4GB Walkman player. And something had to give to keep the phone as slim as possible. But really the W950i is going to be your primary music player so it may not be much of an issue for some.
Elsewhere, the large QVGA display is perfect for full HTML internet surfing and the W950i uses the Opera 8 web browser to fit the web pages onto this screen footprint. You can switch between portrait and landscape mode, and viewing web pages on this phone is a pleasure and quite speedy over the 3G connection.
We were ready to love the W950i unreservedly but frankly we feel jilted. Making a touch-screen and jog-wheel the central operation techniques may not be one of Sony Ericsson’s canniest moves and these everyday handset usability grievances cloud the fact it’s one of the strongest music playing phones on the market.
But we’re pretty sure the W950i will sell like the proverbial hotcakes and if you’re well versed in the ways of the touch-screen and jog-wheel and can overlook the ropey keypad, the W950i is a superb music phone.
Player
power
If the W950i is going to replace your iPod then it’s got to have stellar
music playing credentials and performance. We take a look to see if it’s
got the X-Factor to become a hit
The W950i may shoulder
a few disappointments but you can’t fault its music player. Like the
W850i, it uses the latest Walkman 2.0 player version and its 4GB flash-memory
can store around 1,000 tunes if encoded at 128kbps in AAC format. Of course
you can cram more tunes in if you use eAAC+ but sound quality may deteriorate.
Sony Ericsson has chosen flash memory over a hard-drive because its lack of
moving parts proves to be more robust and minimises internal damage should
the W950i take a few knocks.
The phone’s music talent is never far away and you can fire up the Walkman
player via the front dedicated key, the right-hand side play and stop button
or from the shortcut icon on the touch-screen home page. In music playing
mode, the top 1,2,3 keys moonlight as skip track and play/stop buttons.
PlayNow
Once you’re in, the main menu features sections for artists, albums,
tracks, moods (happy, sad, energetic, chilled or no mood), playlists, auto
playlists (top rated, most played, least played, last played) and, lastly,
one for your own recordings.
When you’re spinning your tunes, all the player functions are easily
accessible on screen, including icons for shuffle, repeat and equalizer functions.
Coloured mood icons allow you to update and assign a mood to the track you’re
listening to. Similarly five stars sit in the opposite corner if you feel
compelled to update and rate the tune.
If the songs are recognised by the online CD database when you transfer them
from the PC to the phone, it will automatically download the album cover art
to accompany the song when you’re playing. There’s also a tracklist
button that shows you a shortlist of upcoming songs so you don’t have
to keep returning to the main menu to skip some way ahead. All these convenient
options make the Walkman player a pleasure to use.
Free transfer
There’s no change to Sony Ericsson’s intuitive Disc2phone software
for transferring your CDs or existing digital music library onto the phone.
It still handily dips into your computer hard-drive to fetch your music and
you can choose what bit-rate and format to import your CDs. We’ve said
this so many times but its worth repeating this remains the most instinctive
music software outside of iTunes.
Sound off
With a host of audio enhancements and a 3.5mm headphone jack adapter, the
W950i and Walkman family deliver a big sound. The handset is supplied with
a headphone remote control that connects to the 3.5mm jack adapter, and the
bundled HPM-82 in-ear phones give substantial deep bass sounds.
However, you can still connect your specialist headphones (the Sennheiser
PX200 are our cans of choice) for an even more dynamic, driving fidelity.
The W950i also supports A2DP (Advance Audio Distribution Profile) for wireless
Bluetooth streaming of music to compatible headphones or speakers.
Identify yourself
Pop along to the Entertainment section from the menu and access the Sound
Recorder function, you’ll find Sony Ericsson’s new free TrackID
service. This works exactly like Shazam, sampling a music track by holding
your handset near to the music source and then automatically going online
to retrieve the name and composer of the tune. We tried it a few times and
it was spot on.
This music recognition technology isn’t strictly free because you still
have to pay for data costs, but it can be priceless for identifying those
advert soundtracks.
Music store
One feature that appeared on the W850i but missing here is a link on the music
player menu to access Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow store. Our review sample
was a prototype so we expect the finished model to let you go online and download
Sony’s growing full-track music library.
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.
Copyright : You are advised that this material is the copyright of www.3G.co.uk and is our own personal view only. (C) All rights reserved 2005. Whist every care has been taken in the preparation of this review, the author nor 3G.co.uk cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of the information it contains, or consequence arising from it.
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