Posts Tagged walkman phone

After owning the portable music market for years with Walkman cassette and CD players, along came the Apple iPod to topple Sony’s domination. Now, Sony Ericsson tries to regain some of its mojo with a media-friendly cell phone and wireless stereo headphones.

The Sony Ericsson W760i is billed as a Walkman phone, positioned somewhere between barebones cellular sets and feature-packed smartphones. If you don’t need all the capabilities of a Blackberry or iPhone or HTC device to stay in touch while you’re on the road, this phone offers features that deserve a serious look.

The W760i handles the basics extremely well. In my hands-on testing, call quality was excellent. The slim, lightweight slider design hides the keypad when not in use. Battery life is respectable, easily lasting two or three days of normal use.

Diving into the features, built-in applications let travelers track appointments and keep up with contacts. Mobile e-mail setup is easy for accounts such as Yahoo!, AOL, Windows Live and major Internet service providers. Some models of the phone allow instant (push) e-mail from Exchange servers.  But curiously, the Exchange application is left out of AT&T’s version of mobile e-mail.

You can play your favorite MP3 tunes from an optional memory card (up to 4 GB is supported) and the phone also has a built-in FM radio. For an added cost, more music is available from subscription services such as Napster and eMusic.  And MusicID will help identify the title and artist of tunes you don’t know.

With high-speed 3G data, the built-in web browser handles mobile sites and cellular video surprisingly well. The browser even does a credible job on websites not optimized for mobile devices. The screen is not a touch screen, but I found it easy to navigate through the menus with the keys, even when clicking on links and filling in forms.

A built-in camera will record video and 3.2-megapixel still images for sending back those vacation pictures. The unlocked version of the phone will operate with GSM carriers worldwide, which should also be of interest to travelers.

This phone was one of the first to include a shake control, letting you shake or tilt it to advance to the next music track or control some games. The screen auto rotates when the phone is turned sideways. Travelers will also appreciate the flight mode, so applications can be used on airplanes with the phone radio turned off.

There’s also a built-in GPS. But if you want to use it for guided navigation, you’ll pay a monthly fee. My preference is for other GPS apps that are free or involve a one-time cost, such as Garmin Mobile XT which I recently reviewed.

That brings up one of the limitations of this Walkman phone. The operating system means doing without the wide range of applications available for other phones running Windows Mobile, Apple or Android.

A useful companion to the Walkman phone is Sony Ericsson’s HBH-IS800 Wireless Stereo Headphones. Since they are stereo, the two earbuds help block out the roar in crowded airports and other noisy locations. Conversations were understandable on both ends. Several people I called heard a faint static noise in the background.

For listening to music, the bluetooth headphones were not as crisp and clear as wired earbud and microphone combinations such as the V-Moda Vibe II. But the bluetooth headset would be convenient for music listening if you’re moving around a room or taking a jog.

The list price for the wireless stereo headphones is $179.99. The street price for the unlocked phone (if you don’t want to be tied to a specific carrier or contract) is around $250. Currently, AT&T is almost giving it away with a rebate and two-year contract.

Some of the more-demanding, hardcore business travelers—or music lovers who need more than 4 GB of storage—will want more than what this phone has to offer. But overall, the Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman phone has a lot of built-in features that should meet the needs of many road warriors.

Get the headphones at Amazon