Sony Ericsson W705 vs Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

All about the music
First things first. Both the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and the Sony Ericsson W705 are targeted squarely at those who like a blower that lets them feed their appetite for choonage on the move. And both deliver what they say on the tin in that respect – no need for Trading Standards here, we’ll have you know.

Both handsets are more Walkman-esque in style than a traditional phone. That aspect – the ability to call and text – is secondary and hidden from primary focus by ensuring both devices are slider phones.

After all, those nasty number buttons can get in the way of true music lovers who get caught up in the moment and their fingers stray from the designated ‘play’ key.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson have responded to this with dedicated music control keys that sit below the displays on each handset. Nokia has opted for a more oblong approach to its keys, while round was the shape of choice for Sony.

Music controls on both are easy to use and nice to look at but Sony has a slight edge as its silver swirls and finish are a tad easier on the eye. Nokia does offer up customisable skins to add that personalised element to its user interface however, which should act as comfort for missing out on the control beauty pageant.

All the main music file formats are supported and both boast additional storage mechanisms (Nokia opts for microSD, while Sony goes for M2) to aid users in storing those all important tracks.

As you would expect, both Nokia and Sony Ericsson serve up the usual suspects when it comes to shortcuts. Sony’s W705 also features TrackID and SenseMe for mood music. Interestingly, it also links through to the radio part of the home screen on BBC’s iPlayer.

Sound quality is good through the headphones, but Nokia’s speakers do the job slightly better than Sony’s handset. Which is great news for you, but not so great news for the rest of the people sharing the bus with you on your way home from a booze-fuelled soiree where you can barely remember where you live let alone where your headphones are.

Sizing things up
Size-wise, there’s not really much in it. Both boast the same amount of pixels, but the W705 is a little bigger when it comes to screenage; with 2.4 inches compared with the 5610 XpressMusic’s 2.2 inches.

Nokia may not have the bigger screen of the two, but it certainly has more bulk, packing in an extra 13g (111g compared with the W705’s 98g). That said, both phones are fairly lightweight and unlikely to cause any pulled muscles trying to pick them up or fit them in your pocket/bag.

Camera a poor relation to music?
We do get annoyed when features take a hit at the expense of others. But we’ve almost come to expect that with feature-focused handsets such as camera or music phones.

Both the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic have 3.2-megapixel cameras, which puts them on a level playing field to start with. Both also feature zoom functions (8x smooth zoom for Nokia and 3x digital zoom for Sony). But that’s where the tit for tat photographic features stop.

Sony’s fixed focus lens isn’t bad but it isn’t amazing either. Nokia’s autofocus, however, does a much better job both in the usability and end results stakes. Video also played smoothly on Nokia’s handset. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be unfair to refer to video on the Sony W705 as average.

Web browsing is on offer for both mobiles, in addition to a host of other features, both useful and just lumped in for the sake of it – come on, admit it, has anyone ever really used every single feature on their phone?

Opera Mini and Yahoo! Go are also on board the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic – the former of which makes viewing sites on a mobile devices a much more pleasant experience - in addition to an installer to download Nokia’s widgets app WidSets.

Verdict
There isn’t really much to separate these two handsets. Both the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and the Sony Ericsson W705 scored 4/5 in our individual reviews and the only really noticeable difference is the colour of the casing.

Nokia’s funky black and red number is likely to appeal to the younger crowd, or those young at heart, while Sony’s offering could be described as higher up – just a bit, mind you – in the class stakes. We like both equally and therefore refuse to declare love for one over another!