For Rs. 6,300, the Sony Ericsson Walkman W350i seems like quite a good deal. Why?
Let's consider,
An iPod nano costs around the same, but does'nt make calls
The next more expensive 'proper' music phone is the Nokia 5220 Xpressmusic, which costs around Rs. 7,700
The W350i is actually quite slim and looks, if you squint hard enough, at least half as good looking as an iPod Nano, in black
Sadly though, the W350i, though a good idea, falls flat on its face as an overall device.
Well, lets first look at the concept... make a cheap, slim, good looking Music Phone, with decent headsets, and people should lap it up, should'nt they?
Sounds nice in theory, but let me point out the many shortcomings of this device in the forthcoming paragraphs.
1. Looks: Possible one of the better aspects of the W350i, it is nice, small and slim (10.5 mm), which makes it one of the slimmest phones in the market today. Also, it is very light, and has a nifty design feature. It has a plastic flap, which covers only the keyboard. So, when you close it, you can access the Walkman Player controls, and when you open it, you can access the entire phones controls. Very cool, especially the fact that you can receive or end a call by simply flipping the flap open or shut. I have used the phone for a month now, and I find this way of receiving calls much more addictive than simply pressing a button. The W350i, at least in India, is available in a Black shade with orange accents.... the orange kind of detracts from the otherwise smooth look of the phone. The keypad is nice and big, but make sure that you are comfortable using it when the flap is open... it makes typing SMS's a bit more difficult.
2. Build Quality: Oops, here is where it starts to come undone for the W350i. This phone is plasticky and flimsy. The flap, which is oh-so-cool, I suspect, will break after a year's usage. The phone's material is totally soft plastic with not a hint of metal, and the screen guard peeled off with 2 days of usage. But, the worst aspect of the build quality has to be the keypad. It feels like its got foam or thermocol under it. Every time I run my hands around the edge of the keys, it makes a creaking noise. And the keys themselves feel brittle like paper. Utterly useless.
3. Sound Quality and Signal Reception: Another dissapointing aspect of the W350i. First of all, the signal strength and reception is not as good as some other phones that I have used. It loses signal many times and the person struggles to hear you. The volume of sound is also bad. The person at the other end would struggle to hear you in a crowded area. Likewise, you would also struggle, since the max volume on the earpiece, is still very low. Every other phone that I have used (SE k300i, K750i, Nokia 1100, E51, 5310, have delivered a better sound quality that the W350i). So, if you are using the phone for a lot of talking, especially in crowded areas, steer clear of the W350i.
4. Features: Not bad at all for its price. The w350i has a nice 1.9" display, with 256K colours, but it pales in front of Nokia's and Samsungs superior 16 million colour displays. The phone has all the usual features you exepct, with Bluetooth, Games, Internet Surfing capability (though not 3G), a Radio, and of course, the Walkman Player and a 1.3 MP Camera. But this phone is like a jack-of-all-trades. No one feature stands out.
In the package we also have a 512MB Memory Card, which can hold around 75 - 100 songs max, and also, the nice walkman earphones, and an adapter for a 3.5mm socket, which means that, if you have some other good quality, expensive earphones, you can use it with the W350i.
The user interface is the standard SE Grid system. Nothing new to report here. One nice touch is the backlight sensor. One imrpovement over older SE models is that you can set upto 5 alarms now, up from 2. Useful in case you are a sleepyhead :).
5. Music Playing: The W350i's selling point will be its music playing capabilites, and in this respect, the W350 is good. It comes with with the good earphones (which, unfortunately, are too big for my ears), and it comes with the walkman player. You can create playlists bases on album, artist etc. But, it is still cumbersome to use, especially if you have used an iPod's user interface, which I personally find to be one of the easiest to use.
The attached external speaker is very poor, delivering poor volume. In contrast, the earphones deliver good, crisp, loud sound. Sound quality is pretty acceptable, and since you can use better earphones, it is bound to improve.
6. Camera: The camera attachement seems to have been an afterthought with the W350i. It is a basic 1.3MP camera, with no flash. Picture quality is barely adequate. If you want a phone with a good music player and good camera, be prepared to spend a bit more.
7. Battery Life: With a 900mAh Bettery capacity, the W350i should, in theory, deliver good battery life. Sadly, using all the features and all makes it drain it's battery rather quickly. I maanged to squeeze around 2 days max, with around 1.5 hours calling and 30 minutes of music listening.
mind you, that is still slightly better than the Nokia's, which chew up their batteries faster due to their crisp 16-million colour displays.
8. Competition: The biggest problem for the W350i is that, in this market, it is outclassed by its comeptitors which cost a bit more than it.
a. The Nokia 6300 costs around Rs. 6,900, but comes in 4 different colours, looks and feels very well built, and now comes with even a 1GB memory card and 2 Mega Pixel Camera. It is a very good phone for the style concious, but has a worse battery life.
b. The Samsung L700 looks staid, but is also feature packed and costs around Rs. 600 - 800 more than the W350i, depending on which shop you buy it from.
c. The Nokia 5220 Xpressmusic is more expensive, at around Rs. 7,700, but comes with a proper 3.5mm Jack, the same good screen as the 6300, and funky looks. It is also quite slim, and built a bit better than the W350i. It enjoys a 2MP Camera too.
Conclusion:
If you looked at the spec sheet of the W350i and its flappy cover and thought... hmmm.... looks good, may I implore you, please, spend a bit more and buy a proepr well built phone with good reception. Or else, if you just want music, whats wrong with the iPod Nano?
Package Contains:
1 Sony Ericsson W350i Handset
Battery
512 MB Memory Card
Bundled Earphones
Charger
Required Documents
