Latest Sony Ericsson W300i Review Posted

Since Sony Ericsson first delivered its Walkman cell telephone line remaining yr, song-friendly telephones have had combined achievement in the United States. Though they are lauded by customers and critics alike, together with us, U.S. Vendors, haven’t clamored to consist of the handsets of their lineups. Sure, Cingular offers the W600i, however it is the exception in preference to the guideline. Sony Ericsson no doubt has taken notice of this discrepancy, which can be a purpose behind the Sony Ericsson W300i. While preceding Walkman phones were filled with the maximum luxurious capabilities, the W300i pursuits to be a low-stop Walkman cellphone. Although you still get Bluetooth, a VGA digital camera, and the overall variety of Walkman track compatibility, the at the entire impact is a step down from models like the Sony Ericsson W810i. We weren’t crazy approximately a few design factors, but call quality changed into accurate, and we commend Sony Ericsson for bringing cell tune to the loads. No service became set at the time of this evaluate, so the GSM handset will run you $299.

So a ways, Sony Ericsson has stuck to swivel and candy bar designs for its Walkman phones, so we had been happy to peer the organization roll out a turn telephone in the series. From the exterior it is pretty stylish; our model came in black, however You can get it in white too. It doesn’t undergo an awful lot of a resemblance to the corporation’s few different flip phones; we just like the smooth strains, the looped antenna, and the textured protecting on the lowest of the the front flap. The phone is reasonably compact at three.5 through 1.Eight through 1.0 inches, so it’s without problems installed maximum wallet. It’s additionally quite light for its size at three.3 oz, however the alternate-off is that the all spherical production feels simply a bit flimsy. We didn’t have any problems whilst using the phone, however it felt nearly too mild in our palms.

In the center of the front flap is the postage stamp-size out of doors display screen. Although monochrome, it is quite vivid and displays the usual data, now not to say the date, time, battery existence, signal strength, and caller ID (in which accessible). You are not able to trade the backlighting time, however a quick flick of the quantity rocker will spark off the show for inspection. Above the screen is the VGA digicam lens and a self-portrait mirror (but no flash), whilst the speaker is at the pinnacle of the rear face. The aforementioned extent manage is at the left spine at the side of a manage for activating the track participant and gambling and pausing tune. The infrared port is at the right backbone, at the same time as the connection port for the charger, the wired headset, and the USB cable is on the lowest of the handset. One layout flaw of the new Walkman phone connection port is that you can’t connect two cables right away.

Inside the phone, you’ll discover the 1.Seventy five-inch (128×160) internal display. Sony Ericsson usually does a good activity with its presentations, and the W300i isn’t any exception. Radiant and vivid, it displays all 262, a hundred and forty-four shades superbly and is perfect for viewing photographs and videos, gambling games, and scrolling via the consumer-friendly menus. You can exchange the brightness however not the font length or backlighting time.

On the alternative hand, Sony Ericsson does not have an exquisite song report with navigation controls and keypad buttons. While it made advantageous strides with the W810i, the W300i shows a slip lower back to awful habits. The 5-manner toggle is big and doubles as a shortcut to four user-described features, however, it’s flush with the floor of the telephone and consequently takes the time to get used to. The flat soft keys, clean button, and back manipulate are spaced a ways from the toggle, but they’re quite small given the cellphone’s length. Also, while this isn’t a awful aspect, preserve in mind that maximum Sony Ericsson telephones do now not have committed Talk and End keys.

The keypad buttons are worse, then again. Designed similar to overlapping circles, they’re flat with the surface of the smartphone and slippery, which made for a few misdials. Enen greater, they do not lend themselves to quick texting. On the upside, they have got a shiny orange backlight. Below them are a dedicated strength manage and a button for activating the Walkman participant, but those are a good deal too little. The Memory Stick Micro slot is below the plastic battery cover, however fortuitously, you do not need to put off the battery, to get at it.

The W300i has a 1,000-touch telephone ebook with room in each access for 5 smartphone numbers, e mail and Web addresses, enterprise and home road addresses, a birthday date, and notes (the SIM card holds an extra 250 names). You can classify contacts into corporations, pair them with a picture for caller ID, or attach them one of 28 (40-chord) polyphonic ring tones. Support for MP3 ring tones is gift as nicely, but be informed that caller ID pix do no longer appear on the outter show. Other features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, voice dialing, a calendar, a undertaking list, a notepad, a calculator, a timer, a stopwatch, and a code memo for storing passwords and different comfortable statistics. There’s additionally a recorder for each voice memos and calls; duration is sparing with the aid of on hand memory. Although the W300i is considered an entry-level Walkman smartphone, it nevertheless comes with a pretty desirable variety of business-pleasant applications. Inside you will discover a speakerphone, PC syncing for contacts and calendar appointments, a newsreader for getting access to RSS feeds, USB cable assist, and complete Bluetooth for not handiest connecting to a headset however additionally for wirelessly replacing files and digital enterprise cards. And like many different Sony Ericssons You can use the smartphone as a modem and use the Bluetooth function as a faraway control to connect to other Bluetooth devices.

The W300i’s Walkman music participant doesn’t fluctuate an awful lot from the preceding handsets inside the collection. It helps a broad range of formats, together with MP3, MP4, 3GP, AAC, and WAV documents. Opening the participant takes you immediately to the principle menu, where You can arrange track by means of artist, track name, or playlist. Settings consist of album/music shuffle and loop, Sony’s Mega Bass, and an equalizer. Toggling between the cellular cellphone and the tune participant is seamless, as music automatically stops when you receive a call. Hang up and mash the devoted song key, and your tune picks up from the factor you left off. There’s an plane mode that lets you listen in your tunes in flight with the mobile smartphone powered off, and You can decrease the participant even as the usage of different functions. There are stereo audio system additionally but still no stereo Bluetooth profile.

Music capacity is sparing with the aid of the accessible memory. Internal area is relatively tiny–simply 20MB–and feature in mind, that due to the fact it is shared with different programs, your real garage area may be less. We sell making an investment in a Memory Stick Micro for additonal space; our check cellphone came with a 512MB card. Getting tune on the telephone is extraordinarily smooth. As well as the usage of the blanketed USB cable and Disc2Phone software program, You are able to send tunes via e mail, a multimedia message, Bluetooth, or infrared port. You also get an FM radio with 20 presets, While you need to use it with a headset, which acts as an antenna. You can set it to robotically scan and application Radio Data System information from stations that digitally broadcast their names and make contact with letters, and You are capable of use the radio as an alarm clock.

Since the W300i is supposed for a greater or much less common mobile smartphone consumer, Sony Ericsson included a VGA shooter as opposed to a megapixel version. You are capable of take pics in three resolutions (640×480, 320×240, 160×120) and choose from a selection of enhancing options, together with four colour outcomes, a night time mode, best settings, a self-timer, 19 fun frames, and a brightness control. There’s additionally a digital zoom, which varies through the pictures length–at the bottom decision it is 4X, but it is not handy at the very best resolution. Other special photograph outcomes include a burst mode for taking four pictures in speedy order and a nifty panorama desire. For audio results, You are capable of select from four shutter sounds, but there is no silent choice. The camcorder takes MPEG-4 videos in resolutions (176×144 and 128×96) with sound and gives a comparable set of modifying options. Clip period is capped at mins for multimedia messages; otherwise duration is sparing with the aid of the available reminiscence.

Although we realise the digicam is a VGA, picture excellent become rather inadequate. Shots were blurry and grainy and colours washed out. Likewise, video quality became run-of-the-mill. Still, the W300i does provide a few innovative applications for the amateur photographer. With Photo DJ, You can add considered one of six amusing frames; inverse the shot’s orientation; and use diverse image results inclusive of brightness, contrast, tint manage, and photo marking. There’s also a Video DJ, and if that isn’t pleasurable, more picture-, video-, and multimedia-modifying alternatives are at the software program CD, together with QuickTime, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition, and a multimedia message composer. Moving photos and films off the smartphone is painless. You are able to send them in a multimedia message, import them through Bluetooth, or the infrared port, or use the covered USB cable and software program.

You can personalize the W300i with an array of issues, wallpaper, and screensavers. As constantly, You are able to buy more alternatives and ring tones from Sony Ericsson via the WAP 2.0 wi-fi Web browser. Alternatively, the cellphone comes with a Music DJ software for making your personal ring tones and a quirky application referred to as Music Match that plays guitar chords and piano notes. Though it become a laugh, it wasn’t exceptionally proficient. Gamers can experience 3 Java (J2ME) titles, Neopets, QuadraPop, and PuzzleSlider, with additional titles available for buy.

We tested the quad-band, dual-mode (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Sony Ericsson W300i international telephone in San Francisco the use of Cingular’s carrier. Call excellent become pretty top with exquisite readability and volume. We had no hassle getting a sign and seldom had been met with static or interference. Callers reported the same conditions, and they may make out us beneath maximum situations. Speakerphone caliber became slightly worse–voices sounded hole, however it was honest as an entire. We connected to the Plantronics Explorer 320 Bluetooth headset and became met with admirable name quality too. The EDGE connection was sufficiently rapid for transferring small documents.

Using the blanketed Disc2Phone software program and USB cable, which additionally charges the smartphone, we tried loading song onto our W300i. Switch time become highly sluggish at 30 seconds for a 5MG tune, so that you’ll must be patient for a huge import. As an entire, alternatively, the software is straightforward to install and exhibited few of the quirks we determined on previous models. And any other factor, the telephone did not transfer off automatically when we disconnected the USB cable. Music satisfactory turned into on a par with that of different Walkman phones: clean and crisp, Though one transferred tune had a few very minor hiccups. The W300i may not update a stand-alone MP3 player, but it does the job admirably for quick stints.

Our one actual disapproval became that the smartphone had a bent to freeze throughout regular operation, which include whilst we have been going via a menu or whilst we have been the use of the USB connection. More than one time, we had to restart, however more frequently, the smartphone unfroze after a couple seconds.

The W300i has a rated talk time of 9 hours and a presumed standby time of 16.5 days. Our communicate-time test result got here in a little brief at 8 hours, but it really is nonetheless first rate. According to FCC radiation assessments, the Sony Ericsson W300i has a virtual SAR score of one.Forty two watts in line with kilogram.