Sony Ericsson W300i review – an inexpensive music phoneThis quite small and quite nice folding phone managed to win the hearts of Russian users. Despite the fact that W300i has been on the market for some time, it’s not that easy to buy it.It does not lie in the stores for too long. And I am not talking about a $100 child prodigy or about a $500 elite device that is packed to the max. Sony Ericsson W300i is truly a budget model that took two niches at once – the budgets with developed additional functionality and solid middles. The phone won’t set the world on fire, but you can’t call it simple either. It does its main job well – the phone is good as a phone. But W300i also works its second function – music player – to the fullest. The phone sounds quite good. What about complaints? I have some. A weak photo module with a VGA sensor is installed into the phone. It photographs unexpectedly poorly for its loud name. The lack of definition, noise, faded colors – all that other phones with VGA sensors are know for. But I got a feeling of some kind of defectiveness from the W300i photographs. Although, I have to note that this is a budget model with an excellent Walkman-functional device and is not positioned as a camera phone. You can find more interesting devices for photographing in the model range from Sony Ericsson, for example – Sony Ericsson K800i (CyberShot 3.2 mega pixels). Anyway, I got more positive feelings from using this device. As I remembered the W710i – W300i looks like its simplified version. And it really is. First the younger one paved the way for its older brother. Then came the W710i itself. And all became clear. It is unclear if there is sense in buying the simplified W300i today. It’s worth thinking about... However, killing the suspense, I’ll tell you – yes. No doubts. The phone is wonder. A small affectionate device Many days of phone testing result in this lyrical subtopic. It just happened so that the phone lingered on my table. And I got used to it very fast and took fancy to it. A similar thing happened with W710i, but they took it away very fast. I still have this one, though… It’s white. There are other frame versions and people say that they are better. But I like this one (although, I am not excluding the possibility that I would the black one as well, but I haven’t seen it yet). The frame material is white and silver plastic – very nice to touch. Rough, with metallic sparkle, suffused. Painted? So what? There are exchangeable panels produced for W300i that let alter its appearance. You can make an old one – new. Sometime ago exchangeable panels were a popular Sony Ericsson article. Everything falls back into place. The form frame is so that the phone fits well in your hand. It is very comfortable even if it seems to be a bit smaller and simpler compared to its older brother. There are less buttons and that’s a disadvantage, of course. I like the rubber player buttons on the sides of the W710i front panel. There are none here. One multifunctional button does it all – you can press it as well as rotate. It was uncomfortable, as I am not used to it. But you get used to it very fast. But the way, its size while folded is 90õ47õ24 mm and the weight is 93 grams. So, it turns out that it’s not smaller than the W710i, but the subjective impression does not change.      So, the upper panel of the folded phone. There is a window of the lens with a silvery plastic framing on its upper part. There is no metal. But it looks nice (photographs bad, but that’s another thing). There is a spherical mirror for shooting a self-portrait set into the lens framing. It seemed completely superfluous to me, as you have to work blindfolded – the display and control buttons are turned away from you. The camera does not work when two halves of the phone are folded. A tiny monochrome external display in a black semi-transparent framing is located below the lens. It is similar to the one W710i, but is smaller in size and resolution (101õ80 pixels). It’s also orange and is well seen in bright light. The orange “drops”, the brand logo of the Walkman series diversify the appearance of the phone; make it more light-headed and… tamer, so to speak. Round, proportional and cozy – those are the adjectives that come to mind when I again and again hold the phone in my hands. Some people don’t like the rectangular influx of the external (that is considered built in) antennae, which is characteristic of all latest SE folding phones. But I like it. It’s the trustworthiest loop for a neck lace. And a comfortable support for the index finger of the right hand. The phone will never slip out of your hands. There is nothing on the upper edge of the folded phone. There is a system adapter (new format, all new 3-rd generation accessories fit) on the lower edge. It connects the charger, audio adapter (that in turn connects great earphones, will talk about them later on) synch cable that is included. You can notice a slit under the batter cover. And it is the neck lace fastening! Why? Why do need this weak difficult device here when we have the external antennae arc? No, that’s not it. It’s just a cover fastening. That was a scare, though… You can notice an IR port window on the right edge on the upper part on the folded phone. Well, that’s a good place. Better than on the bottom or anywhere else. An IR port is a “vestige of capitalism”. There is Bluetooth and it’s more than enough. Nevertheless, an IR can connect the phone to another device that might not have a Bluetooth. By the way, the IR connection is excellent – steady, clear, without any additional settings. Just turn on the IR port and transfer the photographs to any other phone or portable PC. An orange shiny player control button is located in symmetry with the IR port sensor window. It has a few working positions. A short pressure up (on the upper part of the button), a short pressure down, long pressure up and long pressure down. Finally, a pressure to the central part of the button – like to the joystick. So, the volume is controlled by short up and down pressure. Long pressure lets you change tracks back and forth. The central pressure starts the player (program), plays or stops the track. Besides that, you can rotate the button to open the phone settings – like in all SE phones. Is it comfortable to use the button? Only after you get used to it. In the beginning, I constantly got an acoustic shock instead of forwarding the track (and the W300i sounds very loud due to the included ear phones) I stopped the player, to be short, I suffered. But after a week of these crazy experiments everything came into place. And now the finger fits where it is supposed to. And I can control the volume. And forward the tracks. Although, there is still enough of confusion.          The battery cover… The fastening is simpler than in the W710i (although, I read a lot of W300i reviews and thought that it was the same). , ïîëàãàë, ÷òî îíà òî÷íî òàêàÿ æå). Nothing opens, nothing falls out. You have to move the cover back to the lower edge of the phone and take it off. The memory card slot for a Memory Stick Micro (another name for an Ì2) card is located to the left under the cover (if you look at the front panel). The phone has 20 MB of memory and there is a 256 MB card included. A memory upgrade problem arises right away. 256 MB is approximately four hours of music (MP3 files written 128 kb/s). It’s not that much considering the autonomous work duration of the phone. The battery with 900 mAh volume lets the phone work for 9 hours (400 hours in the waiting mode – excellent characteristic). You’ll have to buy another card. What to do with the included card? The costs of the budget type… You can simply fasten the SIM card by putting it under the metal rims. Nothing more in the battery compartment. Let’s put the battery in its place and open the phone. I like the picture. A quite large active matrix screen (TFT) with a standard SE phones resolution of 128õ160 pixels. Shows 65 thousands color shades. But… the picture looks grainy. I have to remind myself again that this is a budget phone. The screen is covered with a transparent plastic panel that has three phone speaker holes on the top part. The second speaker is located on the back panel right under the antennae. The sound is loud and at the high volume will wake even the dead. I’ll write it in with the advantages of the phone. All the buttons are located on the lower part of the open phone. They are large and comfortable. However, there is a “but” here as well. The joystick is made as a large round puck with a central button in the middle. And this button is set deep below the puck’s level. As a result I always do something wrong. I press the central button with edge surface of the puck. And I can’t get used to it. The phone buttons are lit orange. The soft and phone buttons of the under-the-screen block are a good space apart. A pair of tiny buttons is located below the phone keyboard – the right one switches on the phone (and it turns it off, when you apply quick pressure, it opens a profile list and the volume off option – very comfortable if your shooting in secret). The left one turns on the player. There is no built in browser switch and that makes me very happy. The main keyboard buttons are original. They are round with carved sections in the places where the buttons go onto each other. All in all, it looks beautiful and it’s very comfortable to work with such a keyboard. But the buttons have a short stroke and look very simplistic (I mean the material that they are made from). The phone halves open easily, but there is no gap between them. A plastic elastic buffer is located on the lower part of the base. It has a microphone slit. It turns out to have a dual functionality – protection from sharp slam of the folding phone and a small lug with a microphone hole. System There is nothing new here – the W300i repeats all the features of Sony Ericssons that were made this year. A program for reading RSS news appeared. It’s a Java applet so you can try starting the program on other phones (if you can find it anywhere on the web). Organizer, alarm, timer, stop-watch, a few games. As I said no bright new developments. But everything works, as it should. I especially liked the Bluetooth and IR port. The first one for its availability and the second one for the chance to send a whole pack of photographs to a PC, not one by one as viaè Bluetooth. I’ll have to add that I didn’t install into my PC any programs for synch with the phone. And I didn’t use the USB cable as it wasn’t in the box (costs of the test version and the commercial version has it all – the cable works without any bugs). But there weren’t any problems. I transferred everything that I needed via wireless interfaces. Sony Ericssons, in that sense, are almost perfect.                                     Player Yes, it is a real Walkman. And it cannot be any other way. It’s a nice gadget. And the sound is excellent. Thanks to the included earphones. Tiny drops with compliant rubber lips. They are inserted into the acoustic duct and produce a full frequency specter – from deep bass to shrill high notes. With these earphones I, for the first time, noticed the simplifications of the MP3 format – all those remote pauses, high sounds collapses after the louder ones, slight rustling during contrasting sound passages. In short, I realized the difference between MP3 and uncompressed sound. Camera I wouldn’t talk about the W300i at all. To some (of my colleagues) it would seem OK. But tastes, as you know, differ. That’s why I am just sending you to the below photographs. And to the video that I would call somewhat conditional.         Video sample, 3gp, 308 KB >>> No, it’s not a photo phone. To my regret? Not really. Look at its price. Conclusion It turned out to be quite an ambiguous device? In that case – would I get it? For this money? Surely, yes. I recommend it with full responsibility to those who are looking for a good music phone for an acceptable price. You won’t find any better for three hundred (cheaper!). Another thing is that really the Sony Ericsson W300i should cost less. It is due to the high demand for this model (the people won’t waste away their money). I am placing this phone into my favorites list. I.e. in a long list of dreams (that I love… to dream). And I will get it as soon as some things take place. Which things? Well, if you are interested… First, if I have three homeless hundreds in my pocket. Second, if I get completely tired of my present phones. Third, if the Swiss-Japanese alliance won’t produce anything sweeter. And the fourth and last, if I won’t go crazy over the abundance of these awesome digital toys. © Nikolay Nadezhdin, Mobiset.ru reviews Translated by Olga Mexina (info@mobiset.ru) Published — 06 march 2007 |
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