Sony Ericsson W380i review

Sony Ericsson has been churning out some heavy-hitting Walkman music mobiles recently. Now it is the turn of the budget-priced W380i - a Walkman mobile that delivers some clever features and a stylish design in an cheap, flip package.

As a Walkman phone, the W380i naturally focuses heavily on music playback, a multi-format music player and an FM radio as proof. It includes with a 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card too, and good quality headphones. But the W380i also brings a sprinkling of new gadgetry to the lower end Walkman range.

Most visibly on the music side, the stylish casing features unusual external music player controls, comprising large forward/back/play/stop symbols made from raised buttons on the plastic surface. Next to these is a 'hidden' OLED display, which shows the tunes playing or track details when music is in session.

Sony Ericsson has also debuted Gesture Control operation on the W380i. With just a wave of the hand above a sensor on the shell, this enables you to switch an alarm to snooze, or silence an incoming call alert. It may be a gimmick, but it adds to the novelty factor that can make a difference at this price point.

Even at a budget price, the W380i's basic 1.3-megapixel camera is a disappointment, however, offering limited image quality, and there's no video shooting option. You can upload captured images to an online Blogger account direct from the phone (like with most recent Sony Ericsson handsets). But other multimedia capabilities are limited on the W380i; it's a tri-band GSM GPRS/EDGE phone rather than a 3G model, so there's no high-speed downloading or video call functions.

Design and handling
Sony Ericsson has done a fine job on the external design of the W380i. It's stylishly smart-looking, with a smooth matt finish in either 'electric purple', 'magnetic grey' or 'black champagne', with contrasting colours accenting the Walkman logo on the front and some buttonry. It's reasonably compact too, at 92(h) x 49(w) x 16(w) mm, weighing 100g.

External music keys are, of course, nothing new on mobiles, but the ones here add to the sharp look of the phone. Held in landscape mode, these glow faintly when music first starts playing or you touch the keys. The OLED display above it - a small 36x128 pixels screen - scrolls details of tracks across it for a few seconds, appearing from beneath the shell. It also shows caller ID info when you received calls.

This sort of 'hidden' display has been done before too, most recently on Motorola's MOTO U9 budget clamshell phone, and originally on Sony Ericsson's own Z610i back in 2006. It is elegantly done here however, despite the limited scope of what the small screen can show.

Activating the Walkman player is one of the fast access options on the main navigation D-pad. The controls and numberpad arrangement will be familiar to anyone who's used a Sony Ericsson phone. The numberpad buttons are large and well spaced, but aren't the most responsive we've pressed on Sony Ericssons.

The internal display is a not particularly detailed 176x220 pixels, 262K-colour array. Menus and the Walkman player on this phone look less impressive than the QVGA displays of phones like the W890i, but for a low-budget phone, it's perfectly adequate. The Walkman interface is intuitive however and follows a similar attractive look to its more expensive Walkman range-mates - though with not quite so many options. and categories.

Music major
The Walkman player itself puts in a fine performance,with good detail, plenty of bass and a wide dynamic range. It performed impressively well across a variety of music, demonstrating subtly and versatility. And there's plenty of volume without distortion too.

Sony Ericsson provdes above-average quality earphones, and it pays off in the quality sound. In addition, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack adapter on the two-part earphones, so it's simple to bump the quality up further by adding better headphones. It's a shame the headphone connector/charger/USB cable socket is on the side, though, as this makes the phone more bulky and awkward in your pocket. Stereo Bluetooth support also holds out the wireless option.

The loudspeaker on the front panel isn't great though - it delivers trebly, poor quality sound. Be aware, too, that the raised music controls on the front have to be pressed firmly to work. Thankfully, there is haptic feedback (a slight vibrating buzz) , so you know when you've successfully hit a button properly. A slider on the back of the phone enables you to lock the music controls to prevent accidental tune-skipping.

An FM radio is a welcome addition, and included here too is Sony Ericsson's clever track identification software, TrackID.

Camera quality
If you're after a phone for taking high quality snaps, the W380i isn't it. The 1.3-megapixel camera is lower quality than you'd expect even on a budget Walkman phone, and it's a shame that Sony Ericsson hasn't stretched to at least a 2-megapixel shooter - pretty much the default minimum on all but the cheapest mobiles now.

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