We take a look at the Europe-only W960i and the U.S.'s homegrown Apple iPhone to decide which phone is the one to beat this year. Will the old world prevail over the new?
Touch screen, musically inclined, loaded with gigabytes of flash memory and designed by one of the heavy-hitters in the consumer electronics industry. Think we're talking about the iPhone? You're only half right, as Sony Ericsson's recently-announced W960i Walkman phone has all those features and more. Whether its an iPhone competitor may be a moot point, as the W960i is going to be a Europe-only phone, while rumors have been circulating that European carriers have balked at Apple's stipulations for selling the iPhone. So the question may not be which phone to choose, but rather which continent. We size up both models, feature for feature, and decide which phone is the one to keep an eye on.
Interface
If there is one true innovation in the iPhone, it's the interface. Besides the multi-touch screen, the interface is filled with nice little effects that add up to a more visceral experience, made for the tactile navigation. The Sony Ericsson phone, on the other hand, will use UIQ, which is a Symbian-based interface. We last saw UIQ on the Sony Ericsson P990i smartphone, and, frankly, we weren't impressed. Many icons were abstract collections of spheres and cubes, with little relation to their actual purpose.
The one to use: Apple iPhone
Design
We are seriously concerned about the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone, for every aspect of the phone. In our experience with Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices, the touch screen keyboards, even simple numeric pads, just don't cut it. They can be inaccurate, insensitive and distracting to use, especially while driving. Still, just look at the iPhone and you want it. It has all the design appeal of the iPod, simple and clean with a symmetrical look and one-button design. The Sony Ericsson W960i is a very nice looking phone, very slim and glossy, and we're generally fans of Sony Ericsson's designs. Still, the iPhone is something completely different.
The one to hold: Apple iPhone
Platform
We were relieved when The New York Times reported, inaccurately, that Steve Jobs would release a software developer's kit (SDK) for the iPhone. Instead, Apple announced compatibility with Web-based apps, and simultaneously launched their preferred Web browser, Safari, on the PC. It's an intriguing step, but with Symbian OS support, the W960i is definitely going to have more third-party software available at launch, especially our favorite third-party app, SlingPlayer. Sure, Google's Web apps might work on the iPhone, so you might be able to open Microsoft Office documents, but proven apps for Symbian already exist, so W960i won't have to worry about possibilities.
The one to develop: Sony Ericsson W960i
Video playback
We're not exactly sure what sort of videos the W960i will be able to play, and though Sony Ericsson is touting "TV quality," we aren't expecting true DVB-H for mobile television. Assuming it will use a similar standard to the iPhone, which will play h.264 video files like the iPod video, we still think that videos on the iPhone will look better, for a couple of reasons. First, the iPhone's 480 by 320 pixel screen has twice the resolution of the Sony Ericsson phone. Second, the iPhone's screen is nearly an inch larger, diagonally, than the W960. Even with the increased size, Apple has improved pixel density to 160ppi, which is better than most computer monitors.
The one to view: Apple iPhone
Music playback
The iPhone has iTunes, with the accompanying music store, so it must be the one to watch for music, right? Not so fast. Sony Ericsson has a slew of interesting music features coming soon, notably the recently announced support for the MusicStation software. MusicStation is basically a subscription-based music store with over-the-air (OTA) downloads. An early criticism of the iPhone has been its lack of OTA access to the iTunes store, which always seemed to us a strange omission, as the iTunes software uses many of the same core elements as Safari for access to the massive catalogue. Eventually, we expect to see the iTunes store on the iPhone, but probably not until the device gets a 3G upgrade. Beyond MusicStation, we're interested in seeing some of the new music organization features on Sony's Gracenote-powered Media Manager software, like smart playlists that group songs by mood and tempo.
The one to listen: Sony Ericsson W960i
Camera
We're not going to make assumptions about the lens quality of the Apple camera, though we hope Apple doesn't go the route of other manufacturers by including a cheap, plastic lens that takes pitiful snapshots, albeit at a respectable, though uselessly high, resolution. We do know that the Sony Ericsson phone's camera will feature a flash, but more importantly will have auto-focus capabilities. In the past, we've been pleased with the image quality from Sony Ericsson's Cyber Shot phones, which use Carl Zeiss lenses, so the W960i is the one we're keeping an eye on, in terms of camera.
The one to pose: Sony Ericsson W960i
Web browsing
Opera is a proven, capable Web browser, so we have no doubt that the W960i will be a capable internet phone. Still, according to Apple, the version of Safari running on the iPhone is a complete version of the app, adapted from the desktop (like the phone's OS). It will support AJAX for some Web 2.0 fun, though Flash is still up in the air, and Steve Jobs nixed Java on the iPhone long ago. We've recently seen some pretty advanced mobile browsers. The Archos 605, for instance, can play flash videos from any site fullscreen. But cell phones have thus far lacked many capabilities beyond html and some basic scripting. Because of its advanced capabilities, and for the potential of Web-based apps on Safari, we're more curious about the Apple iPhone.
The one to browse: Apple iPhone
Battery life
Perhaps the most contentious issue with the iPhone, we're going to let history be our guide on this issue. Though Apple has no phone experience, Sony Ericsson certainly does, and even before the merger with Sony, Ericsson was pumping out handsets with impressively long battery life. Since the pairing, the company has continued to impress, and though they haven't reached BlackBerry levels, we've always been pleased with talk times on Sony Ericsson phones. Apple, on the other hand, has gotten more attention for poor battery life in the iPods than any other issue (save scratches on the iPod nano, perhaps), and though we've witnessed some dramatic improvements first hand in the various generations iPods we've owned, we still think battery life could be an early issue for Apple as they expand into an entirely new way of draining power with GSM/EDGE. Also, though aesthetically pleasing, the lack of a removeable battery is a flaw and an affront to consumers, who should be able to replace a dead battery, or bring along a spare. This may pass on iPods, which are more entertainment than necessity, but wait until your car breaks down and you're left stranded on the side of the road with a dead iPhone.
The one to turn on: Sony Ericsson W960i
Should I import?
Americans who import the Sony Ericsson W960i will find that it doesn't work on AT&T's UMTS network, so you won't get the 3G browsing, and even seems to lack EDGE, so data speeds are going to crawl along over GPRS. Also, the MusicStation software is available in Europe, but not in the U.S., and since billing seems to be tied to your carrier, we suspect it won't work here. iPhone importers in Europe will be even worse-off, as the phone is sure to be locked up tight. And, the non-linear voice mail capabilities require some heavy lifting by the carrier, so it won't work without European carrier support.
The one to import: Sony Ericsson W960i
And the one we're watching is . . .
Okay, we admit that we have a regional bias, since most of our staff resides in the greater New York City area. That doesn't mean we're not jealous of our European colleagues, because the Sony Ericsson W960i looks like it could be a very good phone. It has a nice mix of proven features and new attempts. Nothing earth-shaking, but as a successor to previous high-end Walkman phones, like the W880i, the W960i will be worth watching. However, everyone is already watching the iPhone, and speculation about whether it will reshape the industry is redundant, it already has. iPhone competitors are being released every day, with new touch screen controls and a focus on multimedia that was previously unheard of. Rumors and the trickle of official information about the device have created a cottage industry for pundits even as Apple has remained mostly mum. There are many ways in which the W960i, or a similar phone, could trump Apple's device, but in our opinion, the one to keep an eye on is obviously the Apple iPhone.
The one to watch: Apple iPhone
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