Sony Ericsson W350i Walkman is a new budget music handset with a little retro design style.
Intro:
Sony Ericsson W350i has what many cell phones used to have in the late 1990s, namely a flip. It seems to me that then it was quite attractive and it looked good, but nowadays with touchscreens, sliders and the iPhone 3g the Sony Ericsson W350i is not as attractive as some of the phones from the 1990s. Still it has some features that may make the phone quite popular among youth.
Sony Ericsson W350i pros:
+ Loud Walkman
+ Solid feel
+ High quality screen
+ Comfortable keypad
+ Excellent reception
+ 3 different color schemes available
+ Walkman 2.0 on board
+ 512MB Memory Stick included in the box
Sony Ericsson W350i cons:
- Small – 1.9-inch screen
- The flip is too delicate, thin and flimsy
- Average battery life
- Poor headphones in the box
- Only 1.3 megapixel camera
The design:
Sony Ericsson W350i measures 104 x 43 x 10.5 mm and weighs 80 grams. The phone comes in a few different color schemes, but the orange with black one seems the most appealing. As I mentioned before the Sony Ericsson W350i is an old-fashioned phone with a flip. On the flip there are several buttons responsible for navigating the Walkman 2.0 music player. The buttons do the work very well and add to the phones neat looks, but the flip itself seems a bit too delicate. Below it you will find the keypad with a D-pad. All the buttons there are comfortable and responsive with rectangular design. On the left side of the phone is the charging port and the Walkman dedicated key, whereas on the right is the volume rocker. At the back of the phone you will find the 1.3 megapixel fixed-focus camera lens.
Performance:
Sony Ericsson W350i is loud and the reception is very good so making phone call with it is a pleasure. Unfortunately, because of the smallish screen the Sony Ericsson W350i is not really suitable for browsing the Internet. You can do it, of course, but the websites that are not designed for mobile devices will not look too good. Sony Ericsson W350i uses the NetFront web browser which compresses the pages to fit the screen bit it cannot work wonders.
The 1.3 megapixel fixed-focus digital camera takes photos in small resolution, but of surprisingly good quality. The photos are well saturated with good white balance and generally look very good. The Walkman 2.0 music player also does its job very well, but the headphones included in the box are of poor quality. It’s good that in the box you also get an adapter with a microphone thanks to which practically any headphones may work as a handsfree. The music control on the flip are OK and the only thing about the music player that is weak is the low bass level.
Menus / use:
Sony Ericsson W350i has the good old Sony Ericsson interface available, however, it is a slightlycut-down version, as the phone would not make use of some of the tabs anyway. So the interface is very usr-friendly, uncomplicated and it comes with five different themes. Customization options are also very good, as is the call log and phonebook. The phonebook can store up to 1000 contacts with up to 7 phone numbers for each contact and a few other fields such as: address, website, birthdate and some others. All in all, the Sony Ericsson W350i is a good phone for people who don’t feel the need to show off and use a cell phone to make calls and from time to time for some other purposes.
Key Sony Ericsson W350i features and specifications:
Network Technology
GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
Available colours
Electric black, Ice blue, Hypnotic black, Graphic white
Display
Screen Size
1.9 inch, 128 x 160
Screen Color
TFT 262k colors
Design
Type
: Clamshell
Antenna
: Fixed Internal
Memory
Phonebook
: 1000
Internal(MB)
: 14
Expansion
: Memory Stick Micro (M2)
Battery
Battery Type
: Li-ion
Stand-by (hrs)
: 300
TalkTime(min)
: 420
Entertainment
Ringtones
Polyphonic
Customization
: MIDI, AAC, MP3
MP3
Yes
A2DP
Yes
TV Receiver
Null
FM Radio
Yes
Video Record
Yes
Voice Support
Recording, Speakerphone
Messaging
SMS
Yes
MMS
Yes
EMS
No
Yes
Connectivity
EDGE
Class 10 (236.8 kbps)
Bluetooth
Yes, version 2
3G
No
GPRS
Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots)
Infrared (IrDA)
No
USB Port
Yes
Software
Java (J2ME)
Yes ,MIDP 2.0
WAP
Yes Ver 2.0
Platform / OS
Browser
XHTML/ HTML (Netfront browser)
Predictive Text Entry
T9
Personals
Themes
Yes
Caller ID
Photo Caller ID
ProfileID
Yes
Camera
Lens Type
CMOS, 1.3 Megapixel
Max. Resolution
1024 x 1280
Flash
No
Night Mode
No
Extra Features
Photo Format
Video
Yes
Sony Ericsson C905, Sony Ericsson G900, Sony Ericsson T700, Sony Ericsson G502, Sony Ericsson W980