The long-rumored, ultra-thin W880i comes packed with a great music player and stereo Bluetooth. Will importers miss the lack of 3G networking?
Review summary of the Sony Ericsson W880i:
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 The Sony Ericsson W880i is certainly one of the best music phones we've reviewed, though the real question is whether or not it is worth importing. In Europe, this phone would be a multimedia phone, and not just a music phone, but because we weren't able to test most of the advanced multimedia functions, we didn't judge the phone in that category. If you want a multimedia powerhouse, you might be disappointed by the slow Web browsing, the lack of streaming audio and video, and the impotent video conferencing camera. As a music phone, however, the W880i is stylish, easy to use, and it sounds great -- everything you're looking for in a combo device. It could easily replace an iPod nano, though the Sony Ericsson music transfer software, admirable as it may be, doesn't live up to iTunes. If you are interested in importing the phone for its music capabilities, go ahead, you won't regret it. Release: February 2007. Price: $550.
Pros: Great, slim design. Best-in-class music player, with all the accessories you need. Bright, crisp screen. Very good camera, especially for such a small phone.
Cons: Tiny keys. No 3G support in the U.S. No pre-loaded IM options. No reception in subway tunnels. No video calling for importers.
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Full Sony Ericsson W880i Review:
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The Sony Ericsson W880i we reviewed came to us from our Norwegian office. We tested it using our Cingular SIM card in lower Manhattan. Though our SIM card allowed us to make phone calls and use the phone for GPRS data, since the phone relies on the 2100 band for UMTS, it wouldn't receive 3G signals here on AT&T's network. The phone also does not support EDGE. We therefore were unable to test some of the more exotic options, especially the Video Calls feature, though our review unit does feature a front-facing VGA camera for video calls.
Design:
The Sony Ericsson W880i began as a Sony Ericsson initiative to create a thin phone, presumably to compete with Samsung's waif-ish lineup. At 9.4mm thin (0.4 inches), it may not be the thinnest candy bar available, but it is the thinnest Sony Ericsson phone, and is satisfyingly tiny in your pocket. The phone has a beautiful display, a 1.8-inch, 262,000-color, QVGA screen. Colors pop, and the brilliant themes included with the phone are classy and dazzling at once. The phone's buttons are a sticking point for us. The number pad consists of tiny, rectangular buttons that protrude from the body. They aren't difficult to find with your finger, and offer more tactile feedback than many flat keypads we've seen, but they are so tiny that text input can be a hassle. With so much leftover space on the front of the phone, it's a wonder the keys couldn't be bigger. The function keys beneath the screen are laid out in Sony Ericsson's now-familiar circles, similar to the W810. Other buttons, like the Walkman key on the side, or the camera button on the other side, were also annoyingly small, and we had trouble snapping pictures without looking for the camera button each time. Still, the overall look of the phone is beautiful, with its brushed metal face that resisted fingerprints, and its soft-touch rubbery backing that made for an easy grip.
The user interface is very slick. The look changes with the various themes on the phone, but each theme we tried was animated and very modern looking. The phone has a need vibration feedback feature that gives a quick buzz when you flick through menu options, a very cool touch. The interface is also certainly helped by the bright, crisp screen. Menu options were animated and colorful, and every feature on the phone showed thoughtfulness in their design. Nothing was overly textual or unpleasant to gaze upon.
Calling: Very good
Calls on the Sony Ericsson W880i sounded very good. We had some trouble finding reception, probably radio frequency band issues on our local carrier. Where our domestic Cingular phones get reception in the subway and in Penn Station, the W880i dropped out completely. Still, when reception was available, it was usually four or five bars strong, and the phone always sounded clean. The W880i features Bluetooth, a good speakerphone and voice tagging, though we prefer speaker-independent voice dialing. Alert options on the phone are robust, with some good-sounding, unique rings included, or you have the option to use your own music tracks, and setting up your own rings is an easy process. The contact list was as good as we've seen on a non-smartphone, with plenty of fields, including e-mail, web address, company contact info and birthdays.
Our favorite: The robust contact list, divided into tabs for easy viewing
Our request: Video calling. Please, AT&T, let us have video calling.
Messaging - Good
Messaging options on the W880i are hurt by the lack of pre-loaded options and the tiny keys. Whereas we like pre-loaded support for popular e-mail and IM services like AIM, Yahoo and MSN, the W880i has only POP3 and IMAP support built in. We had little trouble setting up our Gmail account for the phone, with detailed instructions from Google, but we missed being able to use MSN for instant messaging. The keys are indeed small, but they aren't hard to find with your fingers, since they are raised considerably from the phone's face. Still, typing required some deliberate seeking, and though typos were uncommon, this is only because we constantly had our eyes on the keypad.
Our favorite: IMAP and POP3 support are useful tools on such a small and light phone
Our request: Pre-loaded options for popular e-mail and IM services AIM, MSN and Yahoo
Music - Very good
Though the W880i, as an import phone, lacks any options for streaming music or over-the-air downloads, the Walkman music player more than makes up for these shortcomings. The music player on the W880i is second to none. We even liked it better than the iTunes implementation we've seen on Motorola's RAZR V3i. It looks fantastic, it's very easy to use, and it has a great set of features. The interface comes with some preloaded skins, and all are easy to read and use. The music player was very easy to navigate, but didn't feel overly simple. In our first attempt, without reading the manual, we were able to create playlists and reorder our song choices. This is fortunate, because the manuals we received were printed exclusively in Scandinavian languages. Finally, the player has plenty of playback options. Besides the normal shuffle options, the player has some EQ settings, including Sony's popular MegaBass options that beefs up the low end. We would have liked to see DRM support for PlaysForSure files or, dare we ask, FairPlay tracks from iTunes.
The music transfer software was not as easy to use as iTunes, but was not nearly as complicated or overwrought as Samsung's media transfer software. It was easy to browse for tracks, and by simply dragging our existing iTunes folder from the folder tree menu, the software found all of our unprotected MP3 files and copied them easily. Not as quickly as we'd like, but easy enough. The phone also multi-tasks well, keeping the music player going in the background as you perform other tasks. When a call or message came in, the music faded out, and the player even knew to pause the music when we were flipping through ringtones, listening to each to decide which to apply to our favorite callers. Jumping back to the music player was also a snap with the dedicated Walkman button on the side of the phone. We didn't mind the lack of an FM radio, though the phone's older cousin, the W810, packs one. We've grown accustomed to a lack of commercials, but some music fans might complain about its omission.
Our favorite: The interface, with it's slick look and playlists that were easy to create on the go
Our request: DRM support, or maybe an FM radio (you know, for NPR fans)
Camera - Very good
Though we usually don't judge the cameras on music phones, it is clear that Sony Ericsson takes imaging more seriously than most manufacturers. The 2-megapixel camera takes very good shots, almost as good as our old 2-megapixel Canon digital ELPH camera. Though it lacks autofocus, shots came out looking clean. Also, Sony Ericsson includes some fun options, most notably a panorama option that stitches a batch of three photos together, providing an on-screen guide to help line up your shots. The camera shutter works quickly, and the interface was clean and unobtrusive. It would be nice if all phone manufacturers would take their camera options so seriously. Perhaps then cameras on phones wouldn't seem like an option tacked on at the last minute.
Our favorite: Panorama shots are fun to create with the phone
Our request: Beat up Samsung and make them understand how a cameraphone is done
Multimedia - Good
Because we lacked 3G capabilities, we weren't able to get a good sense for the Web browsing capabilities of the phone. Our infoSync World home page loaded completely, though our site logo suffered from some jagged edges. The New York Times reverted to the mobile edition, with no obvious way to load the full html version. Pages loaded very slowly, as GPRS is about as slow as an old dial-up phone modem. The Web browser did have the ability to recognize the presence of an RSS feed for a site, and displayed an RSS icon in the corner of the screen if a feed was available. Then, we could add the feed to the built-in reader. We liked this feature a lot, and would like to see it on more multimedia phones.
The worst part about importing this phone, though, was the front-facing VGA camera, used to make video calls, that taunted us continually. We wished we could see the video calling capabilties in action, and cursed every time we came across the menu option, but U.S. carriers have yet to implement the feature, for whatever their own reasons may be. It made us want to visit Europe, buy a SIM card, and start making random (though hardly anonymous) video calls.
Our favorite: The Web browser picks up RSS feeds from Web pages
Our request: 3G support, naturally
Accessories - Very good
American carriers need to learn from Sony Ericsson when it comes to included accessories. The phone not only comes with everything you need to use the Walkman features, it actually comes with quality goods. The memory stick micro packaged with the phone is a full gigabyte, the maximum capacity for the phone. The phone comes with a headphone adapter that accepts normal, 3.5mm headphones, and also comes with a nice pair of cans on a short leash, so the cord doesn't dangle. The included headphone most closely resemble Sony's MDR-EX51 in-ear headphones, and they perform similarly, which is to say well. With our Shure E3s plugged into the phone, it sounded even better. A USB cord is included, which is necessary because Sony Ericsson uses a proprietary connector for USB, headphones, and power, but at least the phone charges while plugged into a USB port.
Price and availability
The Sony Ericsson W880 is now available for approximately $550 US.
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