Sony Ericsson W880i review

The W880i is the latest handset in Sony Ericsson's Walkman range. Unlike the W950i, which we reviewed in What's New, Shopper May 2007, it's not a smartphone but rather a slim and stylish music phone.

The W880i looks great, with a black metal front and Sony Ericsson's trademark orange on the back. At just 9mm thick, it's even thinner than Motorola's RAZR V3i. Like Sony Ericsson's K800i camera phone, the W880i has a fantastic screen with a high resolution of 240x320. Text is clear and colours are vibrant.

Like the RAZR, the W880i has a slightly unusual keypad that uses thin metal strips instead of normal buttons. As the keys are so small there is plenty of room between them, so you're less likely to press the wrong key or two keys at once. Most people in the office found texting easy, but those with very large hands struggled with the buttons.

The W880i works well as a music phone. It comes with a 1GB Memory Stick Micro card and in-ear noise-blocking headphones. The headphones sounded overly bright at first, but the phone has a five-channel graphic equaliser with preset levels and a manual mode, so you can tweak the sound to your liking. There is also very little sound leakage from the headphones, so you're less likely to annoy those around you.

The Walkman application is easy to use. You can organise your music by artist, album or individual tracks and create playlists of your favourites. Getting your tunes on the phone is simple using the supplied Disc2Phone software and USB cable. You can either encode an audio CD to MP3 and transfer it to the phone, or convert digital audio files to the phone's compatible MP3 format by dragging and dropping. The software can convert WMA and Wav files to MP3.

The W880i may not be a smartphone, but it still has some useful organiser functions. The calendar is fairly powerful. It has both monthly and weekly views, and you can synchronise your contacts and calendar with Microsoft Outlook and contacts with Outlook Express using the supplied PC Suite software. PC Suite also makes it easy to connect to the internet through your phone, as it can use the phone's GPRS or 3G data connection to get your Windows PC online.

The main drawback to the W880i's slimness is its camera. Unlike the K800i and W810i, which we reviewed in Labs, Shopper February 2007, the phone's camera has a fixed lens rather than autofocus, presumably because it lacks the room. There's also no flash or LED lamp for night shots. Picture quality is reasonable but not as good as the W810i's, and although the colours are vibrant, images appear out of focus. Call quality is also average, as callers sound muffled and slightly robotic.

Sony Ericsson's W880i is stylish and has a great screen, while the Walkman application is easy to use and the bundled headphones sound great. If you want a Walkman phone with a better camera, get the W810i; otherwise the W880i is a good buy.

Sony Ericsson W880i user guides, FAQs and downloads at Know Your Mobile