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With the upcoming Nokia N96 and Apple iPhone 3G packing mammoth 16GB dollops of storage, top end music phones are making a strong case for you to ditch your iPod Nano in favour of their many charms.
On first impressions the W980 looks, at half the capacity, woefully short of these two stadium fillers. But 8GB of storage (enough for 2,000 average quality MP3 tracks) isn’t to be sniffed at, especially when it arrives inside a compact clamshell that puts both of its portly rivals to shame.
Budget looks, solid build
While it’s undeniably pocket-friendly, the W980’s design divides opinion. Its mirrored fascia is a fingerprint-magnet and the lightweight frame initially feels quite budget, though it’s certainly nicely constructed. But after a week in its company we’re still undecided whether its design is cool or just plain tacky.
The W980’s Walkman player is easily the friendliest we’ve handled. The sizeable hi-res display on the front and receptive touch-sensitive music keys allow you to completely control the player without needing to flip open the phone.
A dedicated side button also lets you neatly toggle between phone info, FM radio and the music player while adjacent lock switch stops the music controls unexpectedly going off when nestled in the trouser pouch.
Stunning equaliser
You could never criticise Walkman phones for sounding anaemic but Sony Ericsson has nonetheless revamped its equaliser modes with a new streamlined ‘Clear Audio Experience’. This claims to minimise the sound leakage between the left and right channels, while Clear Bass technology aims to clip and sharpen the bass range to eradicate distortion.
And with the help of with the above-average in-ear headphones, the low-end is certainly less overcooked and more dynamic, easily making it the most flexible and slickest sounding Walkman we’ve heard. You can also manually tinker with the five individual frequency bands or plump for one of the other nine-presets to adapt the audio.
True to Sony Ericsson form, there’s still no sign of an integrated 3.5mm headphone socket, so expect a tangle of wires via an adapter instead. On the plus side, an FM transmitter to stream your music to a free FM radio frequency has been added and it worked fine over the car stereo, despite a heavy loss in sound quality.
Camera clanger
Just like the recent W760, the 3.2megapixel camera takes a back seat to its Walkman chops, with the lack of autofocus and flash proving crushingly disappointing. Just to add to the frustration, the lens is poorly positioned above the battery cover so a stray finger sometimes accidentally encroaches when taking a snap via the centre navigation button.
Based purely on its mobile music moves this W980 is impressive but its alarming lack of other stellar features mean it’s still not the all-singing, all-dancing multimedia handset we hoped for, and the lack of a memory card slot to boost storage is frustrating. Let’s hope the forthcoming Xperia X1 or W902 are better equipped.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Dedicated MP3 player software
- Yes
- Dimensions
- 92x46x17mm
- FM radio
- Yes
- Main camera resolution
- 3.2 megapixel
- Memory card slots
- No
- Quad band
- Yes
- Screen resolution
- 240x320px
- Standby time
- 360 hours
- Storage
- 8GB internal
- Supported music formats
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WAV
- Weight
- 100g
- Wi-Fi
- No
- Xenon flash
- No
Comments
shutternut
4 years ago
Sony Ericsson W980 is a great mobile! It has 3.1megapixels camera, shake control and 8 GB memory.I t can play music up to 20hours. The best price i found is ikit.net. They also sell plenty of sony cameras and mobiles. Share with u guys: http://www.ikit.net/mobile-phones/sony-ericsson/sony-ericssion-w980-violin-red-p-3423.html
ataraxia
4 years ago
The Stuff review has it broadly right - the Sony Ericsson W980 is a high-spec, quality phone with particular emphasis on music capability (as you'd expect from the Walkman brand!) The sound quality is great, with some especially decent noise-cancelling in-ear headphones as standard. There's plenty of different ways to organise and choose your music, including the SensMe application where your tunes display on a spectrum of moods (happy/sad, fast/slow) so you can instantly generate a playlist to suit your mood. Another useful feature is the radio capability - not only can you play radio channels through your phone, you can transmit the music stored on your W980 to another radio device e.g. your car stereo. The quality of the sound and amount of music storage comes in handy elsewhere too e.g. fantastic scope for your own ringtones, message tones and alarm tones (plus there are plenty of alarm volumes to select - I certainly welcome 'discreet'; early mornings are bad enough without shock and heart failure as well!) I agree that the camera could be better, but that's not to say that it is bad. It does its job - 3.2 megapixels certainly isn't to be sniffed at and it captures candid shots when you're out and about. And I mean decent shots, not rubbish pixellated photos of your own face that most people seem to get from their phones! Of course it's not going to replace an SLR, but it isn't claiming to be the Sony Cybershot phone, is it!! All in all, it serves exactly the purpose I wanted it for - it replaces both my iPod and my camera on a day-to-day basis. Oh, and it's pretty good as a phone too... :)
jamie_hill_22
4 years ago
I have had this phone for nearly a month now and i actually love it!! The price is in the £250-£300 range on PAYG and free on many £30 contracts, which is well worth what this phone has to offer! The 3.2MP camera is more than sufficient on a music orientated phone, alongside 8GB of internal memory; enough space for 2000 songs! The vibration feature on the outer touch controls is perfectly refined, and the controls are not fiddly or temperamental like many touch-controlled handsets. Sony Ericsson have even added a sliding 'hold' button on the outer casing, like many mp3 players, so you cant change the song in-pocket. the 'walkman on top' feature makes th phone act as if you have both a phone and an mp3 player conjoinedallowing full walkman access without opening the phone. The motion sensitive game, Need For Speed Pro Street has offered me many hours of fun, steering the car by tilting the phone. On a more practical note, the main buttons inside the handset are very large, indented and with about 5mm between each, allow for very fast texting. This phone is a marvel of Sony Ericsson's W series, with no bad points whatsoever. I would strongly recommend you buy this phone!!!