Sony Ericsson W300i Walkman

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Since Sony Ericsson first introduced its Walkman cell phone line last year, music-friendly phones have had mixed success. Though they're lauded by users and critics alike, including us, carriers haven't clamored to include the handsets in their lineups. Sony Ericsson no doubt has taken notice of this discrepancy, which may be a reason behind the Sony Ericsson W300i. While previous Walkman phones were packed with the most expensive features, the W300i aims to be a low-end Walkman phone. Though you still get Bluetooth, a VGA camera, and the full range of Walkman music compatibility, the overall effect is a step down from models like the Sony Ericsson W810i. We weren't crazy about some design elements, but call quality was good, and we applaud Sony Ericsson for bringing mobile music to the masses. The GSM handset will retail at S$398 (US$283.58) without plan.

Design
So far, Sony Ericsson has stuck to swivel and candy bar designs for its Walkman phones, so we were glad to see the company roll out a flip phone in the series. From the outside it's quite attractive; our version came in black, but you can get it in white as well. It doesn't bear much of a resemblance to the company's few other flip phones; we like the clean lines, the looped antenna, and the textured covering on the bottom of the front flap. The phone is relatively compact at 90 x 47 x 214mm, so it's easily placed in most pockets. It's also quite light for its size at 94g, but the trade-off is that the overall construction feels somewhat flimsy. We didn't have any problems when using the phone, but it felt almost too light in our hands.

In the center of the front flap is the postage stamp-size external display. Though monochrome, it's quite bright and displays the usual information, including the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID (where available). You can't change the backlighting time, but a quick flick of the volume rocker will activate the display for inspection. Above the screen is the VGA camera lens and a self-portrait mirror (but no flash), while the speaker is on the top of the rear face. The aforementioned volume control is on the left spine along with a control for activating the music player and playing and pausing music. The infrared port is on the right spine, while the connection port for the charger, the wired headset, and the USB cable is on the bottom of the handset. One design flaw of the new Walkman phone connection port is that you can't connect two cables at once.

Inside the phone you'll find the 1.75-inch (128x160) internal display. Sony Ericsson always does a good job with its displays, and the W300i is no exception. Bright and vivid, it displays all 262,144 colors beautifully and is perfect for viewing photos and videos, playing games, and scrolling through the user-friendly menus. You can change the brightness but not the font size or backlighting time.

On the other hand, Sony Ericsson doesn't have a great track record with navigation controls and keypad buttons. Though it made positive strides with the W810i, the W300i shows a return to bad habits. The five-way toggle is big and doubles as a shortcut to four user-defined functions, but it's flush with the surface of the phone and thus takes some getting used to. The flat soft keys, clear button, and back control are spaced far from the toggle, but they're quite small given the phone's size. Also, while this isn't a bad thing, keep in mind that most Sony Ericsson phones do not have dedicated Talk and End keys.

The keypad buttons are worse, however. Designed like overlapping circles, they are flat with the surface of the phone and slippery, which made for a few misdials. What's more, they don't lend themselves to quick texting. On the upside, they have a bright orange backlight. Below them are a dedicated power control and a button for activating the Walkman player, but these are much too small. The Memory Stick Micro slot is under the plastic battery cover, but thankfully, you don't have to remove the battery, to get at it.

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