Ben
2nd December 2005, 05:49 PM
Well, it's here, and it has to be the most curious phone that I have ever come across to date. Whether curious amounts to be a good or bad thing I'll leave to you to decide.
First off, the packaging. Wow. Encased in a plastic shell, the W900i and headset were positioned inside for ultimate drool appeal. I'd challenge anyone to gaze their eyes across the precision packaged Walkman in its casing and not proclaim 'Wow!" It gets the user experience off to a good start to be sure, but Sony Ericsson have other plans for ensuring a smooth start.
On first turning on the handset I was greeted by a wizard that set up basics such as the language and time and then went on to give me a brief tutorial on how to use the phones key features. Very reassuring given the amount squeezed into this black and shiney piece of delicious design, large as it may be. I also immediately noticed the weight of the thing - or lack of it. Considering the size of the handset it feels very light indeed.
Ahh, the opening mechanism. Firstly I can only imagine how disappointed S700i users were that their phone did not have a similar assisted opening mechanism to the W900i. It's clumsy enough to open the thing without having to do all the work yourself. I certainly hope I warm to the opening mechanism more than I have thus far, but all I can say for the moment is that it's fiddly, but usable.
Now the camera - that's impressive. Pushing and holding the camera button brings up the camera in fullscreen landscape mode, like it should be. The massive and vivid screen makes the viewfinder. The softkeys become options buttons, giving access to a huge array of digital camera functions while still in landscape mode. The lock slider switch (love this, very easy way to lock the keypad!) on the side of the phone becomes a switch for turning the light on and off and the directional pad becomes zoom and brightness. Like any good digital camera, autofocus can be frozen by slightly pushing the shutter button. Pushing it all the way takes the picture. A very nice setup indeed, and very easy to use.
Another commendable area is the Walkman. Again, pushing and holding the Walkman button launches you into the application, and it'll keep playing your music regardless of what else you decide to do on the phone (Nokia's really SUCK at that part). Mega Bass is absolutely fantastic (as are the supplied headphones) and the inline remote, though appallingly basic, does what it should. The supplied headphones are also fantastic and I was quite honestly blown away by the sound quality.
Games. Wow! The W900i has a dedicated graphics chip from nVidia, the GoForce if I'm not mistaken, that allows the phone to display beautiful 3D games. I'm not much of a gamer myself, but the silky smooth 3D worlds impressed me somewhat!
Vodafone live appears to work without any problems on the handset after downloading the V600 settings for GPRS and MMS. The WAP settings (a la W800i) don't appear to work, but luckily the V600's did. Vodafone TV works in glorious widescreen (without having to reconnect as on the Nokia) and the handsets built-in speaker is acceptable, but not great, for listening.
Signal wise, The Sony Ericsson W900i holds on very well. It appears far more optimistic than my Z1010 is. The OS is also smooth and quick, and you'll be glad to know the phone has full-blown web access - albeit noframes from what I can see so far :S
Impressively, the W900i prompts you once in a while (once a month or on startup... or not at all, up to you) to check for a software update. The prospect of OTA firmware updates is absolutely brilliant. Obviously mine detects no newer versions of the software at this time, but it's a truly great feature provided it works when the time comes.
If the phone were the depth of the top section (containing the screen) then this would be revolutionary. However, as it is, given the depth of the device, it's more of a concept at this moment in time. It's a little like a supercar - bloody gorgeous and exciting but probably not all that practical.
First off, the packaging. Wow. Encased in a plastic shell, the W900i and headset were positioned inside for ultimate drool appeal. I'd challenge anyone to gaze their eyes across the precision packaged Walkman in its casing and not proclaim 'Wow!" It gets the user experience off to a good start to be sure, but Sony Ericsson have other plans for ensuring a smooth start.
On first turning on the handset I was greeted by a wizard that set up basics such as the language and time and then went on to give me a brief tutorial on how to use the phones key features. Very reassuring given the amount squeezed into this black and shiney piece of delicious design, large as it may be. I also immediately noticed the weight of the thing - or lack of it. Considering the size of the handset it feels very light indeed.
Ahh, the opening mechanism. Firstly I can only imagine how disappointed S700i users were that their phone did not have a similar assisted opening mechanism to the W900i. It's clumsy enough to open the thing without having to do all the work yourself. I certainly hope I warm to the opening mechanism more than I have thus far, but all I can say for the moment is that it's fiddly, but usable.
Now the camera - that's impressive. Pushing and holding the camera button brings up the camera in fullscreen landscape mode, like it should be. The massive and vivid screen makes the viewfinder. The softkeys become options buttons, giving access to a huge array of digital camera functions while still in landscape mode. The lock slider switch (love this, very easy way to lock the keypad!) on the side of the phone becomes a switch for turning the light on and off and the directional pad becomes zoom and brightness. Like any good digital camera, autofocus can be frozen by slightly pushing the shutter button. Pushing it all the way takes the picture. A very nice setup indeed, and very easy to use.
Another commendable area is the Walkman. Again, pushing and holding the Walkman button launches you into the application, and it'll keep playing your music regardless of what else you decide to do on the phone (Nokia's really SUCK at that part). Mega Bass is absolutely fantastic (as are the supplied headphones) and the inline remote, though appallingly basic, does what it should. The supplied headphones are also fantastic and I was quite honestly blown away by the sound quality.
Games. Wow! The W900i has a dedicated graphics chip from nVidia, the GoForce if I'm not mistaken, that allows the phone to display beautiful 3D games. I'm not much of a gamer myself, but the silky smooth 3D worlds impressed me somewhat!
Vodafone live appears to work without any problems on the handset after downloading the V600 settings for GPRS and MMS. The WAP settings (a la W800i) don't appear to work, but luckily the V600's did. Vodafone TV works in glorious widescreen (without having to reconnect as on the Nokia) and the handsets built-in speaker is acceptable, but not great, for listening.
Signal wise, The Sony Ericsson W900i holds on very well. It appears far more optimistic than my Z1010 is. The OS is also smooth and quick, and you'll be glad to know the phone has full-blown web access - albeit noframes from what I can see so far :S
Impressively, the W900i prompts you once in a while (once a month or on startup... or not at all, up to you) to check for a software update. The prospect of OTA firmware updates is absolutely brilliant. Obviously mine detects no newer versions of the software at this time, but it's a truly great feature provided it works when the time comes.
If the phone were the depth of the top section (containing the screen) then this would be revolutionary. However, as it is, given the depth of the device, it's more of a concept at this moment in time. It's a little like a supercar - bloody gorgeous and exciting but probably not all that practical.