Sony Ericsson W800 review: Walkman, camera, phone

Work with messages

W800 works with SMS, EMS and MMS as well as emails and instant messages. It offers a bare sound MMS recording as well. T9 dictionary is possible deactivate for good. But if you decide to use it, it will make writing easier. It offers the words you use most often as first.

Creating SMS • there are four lines available • incoming message

Font is large, but not utterly black. The black nuance used here is somewhat brighter than the common one. At the same time it is bold and very easy to read. The W800's font is far much better than the thin letters used in older Sony Ericsson models. Writing is quite fast. The phone reacts immediately. The speed of writing does not fall even when a message of 20 sections is being created.

The message editor alerts you of the end of each section when you come to write its final characters. It does not count from the beginning of the message. When you try to send it, a list of people from the phonebook, whom you have recently sent messages, appears on the display. To send the message simply select the contact you need. The MMS editor is well organized too. A MMS can contain a maximum of 300 kB. Pictures, sounds or videos can also be attached to it.

The same calendar and alarm clock

The Sony Ericsson W800's calendar is very logic. Use the keys on the keypad to search into different years, months and weeks. The calendar offers month, week and day views. However, it has only one type of events for all records. Each event can be assigned an alert for particular time, but the phone does not allow their repetition. The latter becomes possible after synchronization with the computer has been initiated.

Month • week • and day view at the calendar

The alarm clock can repeat on selected days. Its alarm plays even if the phone is off. The phone is able to wake you up using a classical bell ringing mode, radio broadcasting signal, or a favourite music piece of your own you have saved into the memory card.

Further on, phone's organizer offers tasks and a check off option. All functions are simple to execute - notes, stopwatch or countdown. In the menu you will also find a calculator as well as code memory protected by a four-character access password and a control word. W800 lacks measurement converter.

Task editor

The fastest games

JBenchmark testing applications run on W800's display as fast as a lightening. The orange Sony Ericsson did as best as its forerunner K750, which makes these two mobiles the fastest classical phones in terms of graphics on the current mobile market. Here are the results of W800:

• JBenchmark 1.0: 3900 points
• JBenchmark 2.0: 332 points

Fun section offers two java games. The first one is called PuzzleSlider. It breaks down a selected picture, or even a photo, into 9 to 36 squares, which you then have to then put together. The second game is QuadraPop. It is a standard Tetris, featuring colorful notes.

PuzzleSlider • QuadraPop • setting the size of the application window

The Fun folder also contains HID profiles. They help you manage Media Player or other computer programs through Bluetooth.

HID profiles

VideoDJ is an internal application for video modification and montage. PhotoDJ is another application that allows you to modify photos with the help of several different tools. MusicDJ works with music samples, with which you can compose your own music.

VideoDJ • PhotoDJ • MusicDJ

Sony Ericsson W800 features a dictaphone, which can be used alone or as a background for a running call. The opposite side knows it is being recorded thanks to a peep sound that comes out every 20 seconds. When activated in a standard way, the dictaphone starts recording promptly. The record length is limited by the free space on the memory card only. Sound is ordinary and is usually saved in an AMR format. Although the dictaphone is nothing special, it is quite a helpful tool for making notes.

Dictaphone is much too simplified

Data flows

Sony Ericsson W800 suffers from the same nuisance K750 was rebuked for - it does not have EDGE. This disadvantage may disappoint some customers. Others will not even happen to think about it. Anyway, the absence of EDGE is probably the only defect this new mobile beauty could be blamed for.

So if you need to get connected to the net, you will need to manage with CSD and HSCSD, or GPRS Class 10. I did several tests with GPRS through a data cable. Thanks to the guide of the Mobile Networking Wizard program setting proceeded fluently. Connection was good. It was announced as 115 kb/s, but the real transferring speed was about 40 kb/s. There is no doubt that if the phone had been equipped with EDGE technology, my contented smile would have shined even brighter.

Data USB cable

Communication programs are fully identical to those of K750's PC Suite. So let me, please, insert here an extract from Marek's review of Sony Ericsson K750:

File Manager: provides access both to the phone's memory and the memory card. The memory card is also accessible directly from any common file manager, which is basically the only available option if the phone is connected through a cable. In a cable connection the File Manager displays the capacity of the inner memory only.

Image Editor: an application for work with pictures - it helps create wallpaper on the display.

MMS Home Studio: designed to help you create a master form for your MMS. The multimedia messages are saved into the phone and then sent to the addressee.

Sync Station: a program, which synchronizes data with the computer, i.e. with Microsoft Outlook or the address book in Windows. The first synchronization I started was not only quite slow, but also led to an error in the middle of the process. Synchronizing became much faster as soon as the phone was loaded with data and only information alternations had to be transferred.

Mobile Networking Wizard: its purpose is to quickly set up data connections. Even if my first impression was that the Wizard was not able to detect the network correctly, in the end everything worked properly, even in a standard setting. I just had to ignore the options that were being offered.

All programs are available to download for free in Sony Ericsson's official internet site.

Even better than Sony Ericsson K750!

I dare say this, even if this should mean the start of a passionate discussion. In my opinion, any comparison between K750 and W800 speaks in favour of the latter. The new Sony Ericsson model costs about 100 euros more, which is not that much if you take into account the fact that it features a MP3 player with 512 MB memory card. Its numerous applications and stylish design are definitely worth the price. If you find it too expensive, simply wait! There is no doubt that its price will soon start to fall.

If you have already decided to buy it though, then be sure that you are going to pay for a first-rate mobile phone equipped with brilliant and fast applications. There is little to miss here. In addition, do not forget that W800 offers the best mobile phone camera on the current market and what is even more important - it features a MP3 player of excellent sound and a broad range of setting options.

Standard package contains

• Mobile phone
• Memory card Memory Stick Pro Duo 512 MB
• Earphones HPM-70
• Memory card reader adapter
• USB data cable
• Charger
• CD with software
• Documentation