Sony Ericsson W950i

The best Walkman phone

I am adding this review as I feel there are some important points that people are leaving out (Ps please excuse the typos, I'm rushing this at work ;).

Design:

It looks the business when you take it out of the box. It's slimmer and FAR lighter than my K800i.

Problems

-The back button on the side is wobbly. It actually feels like it may just come off in your hands.

-The touch screen appears flimsy, as if there's an accident waiting to happen. Also the top/ bottom of the screen aren't attached to the frame as such -there's a little gap that I'm guessing dust would get into?

-The touch screen is temperamental. It sometimes takes 3 touches before it responds.

- When I turned the phone on it was very slow. This became a pattern and it often took up to 2 minutes to start up.

Usability:

The most pressing issue is trying to use this phone for its intended purpose on the 3 network. This is a Walkman phone. My music tracks are almost all downloaded from 3. Their music files are '3gp' (and apparently have consumable access keys). Neither of these things have been an issue before. When trying to save the tracks (3 allows you to download tracks 3 more times after purchase), all seemed fine. Then I tried to play the tracks. At first they worked fine. But after about 4 plays they suddenly stop working. The tracks say 'error', 'sound not supported' and then get stop altogether. Heartbroken I tried again and again (pointlessly using up all my free re-downloads!). Then, I though I'd cracked it. The tracks started working I got to work before the walkman decided to start skipping past the downloads (again). Trying to be clever I thought better of it and decided to email the tracks to myself (my 3mail account). This was a bust as the downloads just kept re-starting once they got to 66% complete=( I know- why didn't I just use the software- USB provided? Because I don't have a decent PC at home. My work PC is the only decent one I have access to and obviously I'm not gonna be downloading software onto that! This essentially means that the Walkman can't be used as a Walkman!!??!! At least not on 3 anyway.

Another small annoyance was an irritating beeping every 10 minutes without fail when listening to the walkman. Although, the earphones/ sound quality were otherwise excellent.

Other usability issues:

-wouldn't let me open messages saying they were incomplete (they WEREN'T).

-the phone initially wouldn't let me Bluetooth/ download videos? Had to turn the phone off/on to get it to work

-POOR battery life. The battery barely lasts 1 day with minimal use (web/ walkman and 2 phone calls!)

-the phone turned itself off/on several times as I was trying to change the settings (in the control panel).

Features:

On first glance the phone is rather lacking in features. The sub-menus look half empty. In all actuality the phone is less impressive than the K800i. Speaking of which, I was eager to get back to using my old phone after only ONE day of using the W950i. The most noticeable absences were:

-The RSS reader (maybe just me?)

-The screensaver having no clock

-The screensaver not indicating whether you have any messages

-No dedicated OK button

-No save picture option (as with WAP)

-No instant access to either 'Play Now' or the '3 Music Store'-No camera

-The auto key lock/ inactivity lock kicks in FAR too early (a few seconds in both cases). In practice, this means the keys will lock when you are typing/ reading messages etc.

I'll try and balance the negative with some positives. The phone does (mostly) what it says on the tin. It's sleek and the techies out there would love it. It's far more similar to a palm top than any mobile I've ever seen. Think of it as a cross between an iPod and Blackberry. PS the onscreen QWERTY pad was a dream to use (and yes, that was all I could think of, but it's better than nothing).