Got this phone yesterday. RM1450 AP set

Like the form factor, very slim and good material. Overall design is great except that I feel they could have done better on the space utilization on the front panel. Sound quality from loudspeaker is unsatisfactory, but it's great as far as the headset is concerned.

It's a very fashionable phone I would say.

This post has been edited by samurai1337: Apr 10 2007, 08:40 PM

Hmm, yeah...less than RM50 difference if compare to the sellers in LYN. Some more it's near to my office and I heard from colleagues that their service is not bad

I'm going to write a review for this phone as soon as I have time (yes, really busy lately that I don't even have much time for LYN)

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Added on April 11, 2007, 7:26 am

Picture available too, but low res one coz I took it with webcam hehe

This post has been edited by samurai1337: Apr 11 2007, 07:26 AM

Seriously, one shouldn't expect much from W880i camera. If camera is so important to you please get a dedicated digicam or go for bulkier model like K800i

Even SE is able to go pass the technical constraint to fit in a 3MP camera with AF and xenon flash, you can't expect it to be RM1.4 anymore. It's important to be realistic - it's a walkman phone


This post has been edited by samurai1337: Apr 15 2007, 08:55 PM

As promised, I'm writing a review for W880i, the replacement of my lost K800i.

W880i is the latest addition to Sony Ericsson's famous Walkman family. Let's start with the specs of this phone - it has a 1.8″ QVGA screen, 3G Support, Walkman 2.0, unbelievable dimension of 103 x 46.5 x 9.4 mm, 2MP camera, flight mode, M2 support and interestingly, the package also includes a 1GB M2 (which isn't that cheap in retail). There are two choices of color for W880i - Steel Silver (the one I'm using now) or Flame Back.

Design

The form factor and build quality of W880i are probably the main reasons why I opted for this phone. At 9.4mm of thickness, carrying this phone in pocket is never an issue - it's so slim that I find it extremely hard to resist. The phone enjoys a metal faceplate, and the back of the phone utilizes soft-touched plastic, this clearly distinguishes W880i from the rest (which most of them have the "plasticky" feel). I personally feel the buttons look OKAY but maybe it's not for those with big thumbs, for me it's still acceptable. In short, Sony Ericsson W880i's design is revolutionary (compare to those phones like W810i, W800i, K750i that look almost similar) and targeting fashion-conscious users.

User Interface

UI of W880i is similar to other modern SE phones, other than that, it supports flash theme that allows you to see the visualization, artist and song name in the main screen when you're playing song with the Walkman 2.0. Navigation of menu items is pretty smooth, and I can see some major improvement in speed compare to K800i (for example, it takes shorter time when I copy all the phone contacts to sim card, or when I delete all the SMS).

Because of the overall similarities with my previous K800i, I find it very easy to adapt in operating W880i.

Display and Audio

With 240X320 resolution fits in the 1.8″ screen, the display is crystal clear. Of course it's not as great if compare to K800i simply because it has a bigger screen, but it's rather understandable because W880i is meant to be a compact phone. When maximum brightness is used, the display is still clear under direct sunlight (at the expense of shorter battery life of course)

Audio quality from the speaker is probably the major disappointment of W880i - playing a MP3 at maximum volume results in leaky sound from the speaker. However, when stereo headset are used (HBH-DS970 and HPM-75), the sound quality is great. In conclusion, though it's a "Walkman" phone, it's not ideal for playing songs directly from the speaker.

Camera

W880i has a 2.0MP camera - without flash, without macro mode, without auto-focus. You really can't expect much from the camera quality, it's unfair for me to compare it with the previous K800i which is a cybershot phone. While it's good enough for casual, outdoor photography under bright condition, it's not an ideal package for delivering quality picture especially under restriction condition like low brightness. The video camera has no surprise either, it only allows me to record at QCIF resolution.

The message from Sony Ericsson is clear - it's a WALKMAN phone, and not cater for photography enthusiasts.

Others

At only 9.4mm of thickness, one would expect that this phone will have limited functions, but this is definitely not the case. Not only that it's a 3G phone, it also supports stuff like RSS, A2DP, bluetooth, flight mode and comes with Netfront web browser - the functions of W880i is pretty comprehensive.

But if you think W880i has all the features that one could possibly expect, then it's wrong. Many would notice the absence of radio and infrared. As bluetooth is pretty common nowadays, it's acceptable not to have infrared integrated in it, but IMO everybody would like to have radio function in a Walkman phone.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about the battery life. It's reasonable for people to assume that W880i would have relatively shorter battery life because of its slim design, but this assumption is incorrect. SE claims a talk time of 6.5 hours (which is only 0.5 hour shorter than K800i). For me, a normal phone user (3-4 calls, 20-30 SMS and around 5 songs per day), the battery lasts around 3-4 days, which is really decent IMO.

The bottomline

Pros:

* Slim and elegant design, excellent build quality.
* Bundled with 1GB Memory Stick Micro (M2)
* Packed with features
* Decent battery life

Cons:

* Camera lacks auto-focus
* No FM radio
* Leaky sound from the speaker
* Small buttons (not for big thumbs)

My Rating: 8.5/10

Original article posted here
http://spherebox.com/2007/04/15/sony-ericsson-w880i-review/

TS: Please kindly share this out in the first post if you find my review useful :-)

This post has been edited by samurai1337: Apr 15 2007, 08:56 PM

Thanks dude...

Even AP set also comes with 1GB M2 wo unless the seller makan it. You're lucky the M2 1GB only 199, i bought 512MB M2 for 189! OMG! WTF!

I got myself an overpriced HBH-DS970 too

Sound quality is great, no problem with pairing at all but anyone has idea how to display chinese font on the screen?

The keypad is a bit too small for small thumb. But you'll get used to it anyway. While it's small, I find it easier to press if compare to K800i

Silver is more formal IMO... black is a lot funkier (wanted to get black but they didn't have stock), the striking orange at the rear is really cool!

As discussed with panasonic88, the phone seems to be heaty when the phone call is more than 15 minutes. I tend to pair it with HBH DS-970 whenever the phone call is long. Bluetooth rocks!

I'm using the original battery. Probably it's the metal body that causes the heat to be more noticeable.

Hopefully in the future we don't need to put extra fan/heat sink/water cooling to let go the heat of the phone

I'm using R1KC001 though, the previous one released by Wotanserver. Don't think I'm going to change to R1JE001 unless I get the firmware changelog

Lack bass when you use loudspeaker or hands-free? If it's the former one, you shouldn't change because W880i's loudspeaker is pretty disappointing.

The phone is slightly warm when I call for long (around 30 minutes), mainly because of the metal being a heat conductor if I am not mistaken

For a > 30 minutes call, I usually use handsfree

This post has been edited by samurai1337: May 17 2007, 04:00 PM

Plasticky? IMO W880i is best in term of built quality, the front panel is made of metal.

Don't think so...neither the look nor the feel is plasticky IMO

Got your black/orange W880i already? How's it so far?

I changed a new battery (under warranty) and the auto shutdown problem of my phone no more already :-)

Very happy with it despite the fact that the keypad is a bit too small. Otherwise it's rock stable

Wrote an article regarding how to use TrackID
http://leetlekid.com/2007/07/27/guide-to-s...ackid%e2%84%a2/