Sony Ericsson has finally jumped onto the thin-phone bandwagon when it launched its first sub-10mm Walkman phone, the W880i, a week before the 3GSM World Congress in February. (The company offered sneak peeks of the handset earlier in January during the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas.) What's impressive about Sony Ericsson's new offering, however, is not just its thin profile. Like the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4, the W880i comes with an extensive feature set that includes 3G, 2-megapixel camera, expandable memory card slot and Bluetooth stereo support. It is currently available for S$788 (US$0) with a two-year contract and S$888 (US$0) for just the handset.

Design

At 9.4mm, the W880i is possibly Sony Ericsson's slimmest phone so far and ranks among the thinnest 3G candy bars in the cellular market today. The Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4, which is currently one of skinniest 3G candy-bar phones, measures 1mm thinner, but sports a slightly wider and longer footprint..

Despite its thin form factor, the W880i feels solid, thanks to its sturdy construction and stainless steel front cover. The rubberized finish used for the rear casing also provides a firm grip, a thoughtful feature for slim models since there's a greater tendency to slip. Overall, we found the W880i lightweight at 71g and slim enough to slip easily into tight pockets.

Like most Walkman phones, the W880i is designed to stand out from the conventional grey or black handsets with its bright colors. The unit loaned to us, which sports the trademark orange and black tones, will appeal to those who want an eye-catching mobile. Those who fancy more subtlety and elegance will find the silver-grey edition more attractive.

Our biggest gripe with the W880i is probably its tiny keypad. Smaller than even the size of a rice grain, the buttons are not only hard to press, the sharp edges of the keys can be painful when texting for prolonged periods. Placing the buttons close together doesn't help matters, either, particularly for those with big digits.

We had similar issues with the navigation and various softkeys, which are a tad too small for comfortable use. On several occasions, we hit wrong buttons while scrolling through the menus, which added to the frustration. Nor did we like the tiny rocker switch on the right side panel as this requires a bit of dexterity to use for adjusting the volume or zooming into an image. For all their size, the Walkman and camera buttons on the sides proved surprisingly responsive, possibly because they are single buttons.

The W880i comes with two cameras: A primary 2-megapixel camera behind the LCD display and a second lens just beside the earpiece for video calls. We like that the Memory Stick Micro slot is located along the edge which allows for easy accessibility.


As with many other Walkman handsets, the charging port at the bottom left side of the phone multitasks as the connector for the wired handsfree headset as well as the USB cable. Previously, this meant users could carry out only one of the three functions. However, with the new dual connector on the AC adapter, you can either hook up to the handsfree headset or the USB cable while charging the phone.

The standard bundle of the W880i includes a USB cable, handsfree headset, AC adapter, 1GB Memory Stick Micro card as well as manuals and software CD.

Features

We can't help but notice the various similarities between the W880i and the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4. Both candy-bar sets are slim and come with 3G capabilities. Each sports a 2-megapixel camera, expandable memory and Bluetooth stereo support. Sadly, both handsets also lack FM radio, which would have given users an alternative music source other than the onboard MP3 player.

There isn't a whole lot of manual controls in the 2-megapixel camera, save for the standard white balance, filter effects as well as options for multiple and panoramic shots. In shooting mode, the phone has to be held horizontally like a regular camera, making use of the full LCD display for viewfinder and image viewing.


The key feature of the W880i, however, is still its digital music player which is easily accessible by pressing the tiny Walkman button on the right. It runs the Walkman 2.0 player which can be found on the newer Sony Ericsson handsets such as the W850i and the recently unveiled W660i. The second-generation music player features an updated, more user-friendly interface that allows users to add album clipart and manage playlists. It also adds stereo widening, visualization and skin effects on top of the equalizer and play mode functions. We like that the player allows you to run music in the background while performing other tasks such as SMS texting or surfing the Web, unlike the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4.

We were slightly disappointed to find HSDPA missing from the W880i's feature list, particularly since other major players such as Motorola and Samsung have already announced HSDPA offerings. However, most users will still find the Walkman phone fairly well-equipped with 3G, Bluetooth (with A2DP stereo profile) and USB. Also supported on the handset are Picture Blogging, PictBridge and Java MIDP 2.0. The flight mode can be activated when using the phone on a plane.

Sony Ericsson is including a 1GB Memory Stick Micro media with the W880i as a standard bundle. This should easily store around 250 MP3 files and more than 1,000 2-megapixel images, which should be more than sufficient for most users.

The W880i uses the Access NetFront Web browser for surfing the Web and supports RSS feeds as well as OMA DRM 2.0 for music downloads. There's also TrackID which is a music recognition application. All a user needs to do is record a few seconds of the song and send it to the Gracenote database. The song, artist and album name will be sent to the phone in a few seconds.

Performance

We tested the W880i in various locations around Singapore and found the call quality and reception generally good. The speakerphone volume was tad too soft at times, but the other party had no issues with the voice quality.

During tests, we were able to get around on two days of moderate use before the 950mAh Lithium-polymer battery powered down. Do note that for frequent use of 3G and Bluetooth, the battery life will expectedly be shorter.

Even without an autofocus function, the onboard 2-megapixel camera took pretty decent pictures when used outdoors during the day, but like most camera-phones in the market, the image quality suffered for low lighting and night shots. It didn't help that there was no built-in LED light to illuminate nearby objects. We didn't find any self-portrait mirror on the W880i, either. Video captures turned out relatively grainy but smooth.

When we played music through the speakers, the sound volume was loud but the audio quality was somewhat tinsy. The music sounded much better when we hooked the phone up to the bundled wired headset. We had no problems pairing and using the W880i with the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 Stereo Bluetooth Headset.

Images generally appeared sharp and bright on the 1.8-inch QVGA LCD screen which is capable of displaying up to 262,000 colors. At its brightest setting, the screen was viewable under direct sunlight.

If you have used this phone, please comment on your experience.