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By Damian Koh
Jan 28, 2008

When it comes to marketing its wares, Sony Ericsson uses a very straightforward approach--Cyber-shot for camera-phones and Walkman for music-phones. In a way, that is great because it helps consumers to narrow down their choices. In reality, that's not always the case.

For example, someone who is buying a camera-phone may not use only the camera features. He probably might want to listen to music, too. That's where the line begins to blur and the average consumer's options start to expand. The newer range of Cyber-shots is now fitted with a more elaborate music player and the Walkmans with a better camera module. The W960i is one example of the latter.

Two years ago, Sony Ericsson launched the M600i and the W950i. Last year, it refreshed the lineup with the P1i and the W960i. Although the W960i succeeds the W950i by addressing the lack of a camera module and Wi-Fi, it is in fact more closely modeled after the P1i. That said, the differences are obvious--the P1i comes with a QWERTY. The W960i has dedicated Walkman buttons.

Coincidental or not, the W960i was announced at a time when there was a great deal of hype and controversy over the Apple iPhone. Many people compared the W960i with the iPhone because of their similarities: Onboard memory of 8GB, touchscreen LCD, and both marketed as strong multimedia devices.

So if one were to look at the legacy of the W960i, it's not difficult to see that the flagship music handset has big boots to fill. From being an all-rounded device to improving on what its predecessor lacked, to competing against a giant like Apple. While it's never built a phone before, the Apple community is rabidly loyal. In this review, we'll tell you if the W960i is worth the hype and the buy.

Design

To get a feel of the W960i, one just has to hold the P1i. The two devices have almost identical dimensions and weight, though the choice of materials used is different. The W960i feels lighter probably due to the plastic compared with the metallic finish on the P1i. At the back, the soft-touch plastic gives the handset a smooth velvety feel.

The W960i is predominantly black with a white strip running around the sides, which reminds us of a penguin. When we tilt the phone at an angle with the bottom edge toward us, the reflective coating of the numerals and letters on the keypad stands out significantly. It looks nice, but doesn't serve any practical purpose. We also noticed that the white backlighting on the keypad is uneven, with most of the light concentrated at the center column.

There are three touch-sensitive music playback keys between the keypad and the LCD on the W960i. These are visible only when the Walkman player is active. Unlike the LG Prada phone which uses a capacitive display, meaning it could register finger strokes but not stylus input, we could use both methods to control the three music keys on the W960i.

Above that is the 2.6-inch 240 x 320-pixel touchscreen LCD that is flush with the surface. The screen is protected by a layer of plastic, so you are not actually poking at the display. What we are more concerned with is the glossy vinyl black surface that catches smudges and facial oils.

One thing that left a bad aftertaste was the Back button at the front, which should have been at the side together with the jog dial. We couldn't find a better way to describe it other than that it kills the whole user experience. While we could still use one hand to operate the handset, our thumb has to move back and forth. That was counter-intuitive, occasionally awkward, and at times frustrating.

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