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Review: Sony Ericsson W580i Cell PhoneWhen it comes to finding the best cellphone, most of us are faced with a quandry. Most discounted cell phone hardware require a new 2 year wireless plan commitment, so when you get a new cellphone, you usually have to keep it for 2 years or so, though some people choose to upgrade their phones even more often. This is a problem because cell phone makers, including Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Apple, etc. often crank out new cell phone designs every 6 months or so, meaning you are constantly barraged with new features and goodies, but you can only pick from what is available around your 2 year window timeframe. If you are looking for a better cellphone TODAY, be sure to include the Sony Ericsson W580i on your list of phones to review. This is a quadband GSM and EDGE phone, meaning it works just about everywhere. The design is one we are seeing more and more - the slider phone, where the top half of the phone slides up to reveal a hidden keypad, shrinking down again when not it use. While this adds a little thickness to the phone (since there are 2 sliding layers), it makes for a generally more compact design, with more room for a screen and music controls on the front case instead of a number pad.
Sony Ericsson W580i FeaturesOn the surface, the W580i is a good looking little phone, and it fits nicely in the hand or pocket. Sony calls it a "Walkman Phone" (it even has the Walkman logo on the front), and music is a big part of this phone, from the music controls on the faceplate to the Bluetooth wireless headphone support. There is a built in FM radio in this unit as well, a feature still missing from all those iPods. Like all Walkmans, it plays MP3 and AAC files (amazingly enough, when the digital Walkmans first launched a few years ago, they supported only Sony's proprietary format and not MP3 files!). Overall sound quality is quite good, as are the music controls for selecting and navigating through music files. The phone comes with a "flight mode", allowing you to turn off all radio/phone functions and still use it in flight as a music player, a nice touch. A neat feature is the ability to give the phone a shake to make it select another random song - kind of cool! You'll need to buy your own Memory Stick to store your music though - none comes in the box. It comes with a wireless ringtone purchasing function called "PlayNow" - just press the green arrow button on the display screen to activate it. You can preview and listen to the songs before buying, with most ringtones costing about $2. If portable music on your cellphone is not your thing, we'd recommend looking for a different phone. We've becomed spoiled by the big Apple iPhone screen, but the Sony W580i has a large QVGA display screen (320x240), with bright colors -- easy to see even in the sun. The actual phone sound quality and reception is about what you would expect from Ericsson radio products - very good, no problems or complaints in our experience. One problem a lot of phones have is a low powered speaker, making it hard to hear your caller, but the volume control on the W580i was great - good loud sound, clear, no static problems. The camera is about what you expect for a 2MP cellphone cam - decent pics for fun use, problems when lighting is poor (no flash). The camera lens itself is hidden under the upper edge of the slide-out portion of the phone (basically on the top edge of the backside of the display screen), so you must slide the phone open to use the camera. It also takes small video images, making it more versatile than many other wireless phones. Our only complaint is on the mini-slide out keypad. Those buttons are pretty small and don't offer much touch or feel to them - don't try to dial without looking at the keypad. The keys do light up with a backlight, but they feel a bit flimsy to the touch. Also, Internet use is pretty basic and not very fast or super useful given the limited browser. If you want full Internet access, go with the iPhone. Email capability is built in as well for POP accounts, but again this is not a real product strength here. The tiny keypad makes typing slow and difficult -- go with the iPhone or Blackberry if email is your main concern. Overall, we were delighted with the battery life, phone reception and sound quality, and music capabilities (and sound quality), and we'd recommend this phone to anyone looking for a music player/phone combo. The price is right with a new contract as well - free (see below).
Sony Ericsson W580i Technical Specs
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