Sony Ericsson W550i

Design
The phone comes all decked out in shiny silver and bright orange, the color of choice for Walkman phones. If that isn't your shade, you can easily switch the original casing, for instance, with the additional white faceplate that came packaged with our test unit. Coupled with excellent build quality and solid feel, the phone is one classy handset. Despite being a tad thick, the W550i fits snugly in the palm. While we're not a big fan of any sort of antenna nowadays, the looped variant does give the W550i a unique look.

The external controls are sufficient and logically well-placed. On the right, you have the volume buttons, camera shutter and infrared port, while the left side boasts a music play/pause button and keylock slider switch. The top half of the phone houses two menu softkeys, back and clear buttons, as well as one for Web access and one Walkman button. Overall, we found the navigation keypad easy to use and responsive.

Instead of the manual swivel, we would have preferred a semi-automatic mechanism, like that of the upcoming W900i, where one little nudge springs the phone open. The contoured numerics of the recessed keypad light up with an orange backlight when in use. However, the top and bottom rows of keys are slightly too small for comfortable and speedy text messaging.

Thoughtfully, the phone connector at the bottom is covered by a rubber bung that doesn't detach totally from the phone and prevents dust accumulation. On the flip side, without a lens cover, occasional camera dusting may be required.