Sony Ericsson W980i Review - Fantastic Music Player
Among the busy and hard fought mobile phone market one manufacturer constantly takes things to another level, and that maker is Sony Ericsson, a true giant in the arena.
Consumers these days want phones to be more than just devices that they can make and receive calls on, and the days when adding a camera was an added selling point have also gone by the wayside. These days, mobile phones are expected to have a good camera, a media facility, music and radio and much, much more, and that’s before we even start to look at those that stand out in a crowd.
The Sony Ericsson W980 takes the non-calling features to a new level, and is practically marketed as a music and media device with telephone calling facilities. Clearly it is designed and marketed for the younger more media-savvy generation, for whom music is a major necessity.
The music capability of the W980 is clearly defined in that it is branded with Sony’s famed Walkman name, and as a clamshell phone – popular with some but overlooked for the slide variety by others – this phone is small and compact while packing a pretty serious punch.
A 3.2 mega pixel camera is a clue that sound is more the aim with this phone than pictures; the camera itself is very good, but there are better on the market if taking pictures is your priority.
This is a phone that is good to hold, too, and one that does not suffer from the flimsy and unsatisfactory feel of many rivals, and it looks great in its protective finish. Menu controls are sensitive to fingertip touch, and are very easy to use while the Walkman itself can be used without opening up the phone.
This is a great facility, and the entire cover lights up gently for a short while when you activate to ensure the user it is alive and ready. There is a convenient button on the front for starting, stopping and pausing songs, and a great facility is the ability to shake the phone and switch tracks – something that may sound like a gimmick but that is actually a very useful device indeed.
A massive 8GB memory allows the storing of a very great number of tracks, and downloading via USB makes things easier still for the music lover. The phone comes with a number of pre-loaded tracks, and these are identified with a tag in terms of mood and tempo.
The W980 houses an innovative feature that goes by the name of SenseMe, with which the user selects a mood – happy, sad, fast, or slow – and the device picks the music to fit your selected mood. Again, this may come across as a gimmick, but features such as these are what make individual phones stand out in a crowded market – and this one certainly does!
The downloading and updating methods are quick and easy to use – using the USB, you simply drag and drop – and the device updates in seconds. You can also store the artwork and details for display on the W980’s excellent screen.
The phone comes with Sony Ericsson headphones – as usual, excellent – and you can utilise the 3.5mm jack to use your own.
Like many of its ilk the W980 features a TrackID system that allows it to identify unknown tracks being played on the FM radio, and you can also ask it to make suggestions from the music playing at the time.
The W980 is an excellent phone, but this is almost a side bar – it is a truly superb music machine that will appeal to the younger generation of buyers who bypassed the original Walkman age.
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