Posts Tagged ‘phone reviews’

Phone Review: Nokia 6600 Fold

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

The 6600 Fold makes no bones about the fact it’s selling itself primarily on looks rather than stacks of high-end technology. Its regular clamshell design is spruced up by the use of bold colours (two-tone purple and pink or a shiny black for the more conservative) and a botox-smooth mirror finish, complete with hidden screen for added exclusivity.

Basic spec. It’s a 3G handset with standard issue Nokia Series 40 software onboard, including music and video players and a decent sprinkling of web-based applications and organiser functionality. It’s also equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, plus a secondary video call camera beneath the flip. But the 6600 Fold also has incorporated some stand-out design features to grab attention.

Sleek design. Tap the mirrored front twice, for instance, and an external display consisting of a clock (analogue or digital – your choice) along with any missed calls or received messages glows through alluringly. It also serves as a way to mute incoming calls or reject them altogether. Furthering the 6600 Fold’s design credentials, a side button activates an electromagnetic flip so there’s no need to break a nail opening the handset. It’s not exactly new technology, but there’s still something satisfying about it nonetheless. The action is smooth enough, but you get the feeling that it’s not built to last and we regularly got the message “Open fold manually” appearing through the opaque glazed front. Another area of concenrn is the back panel. Achieving a seamless look has its drawbacks, one of which being there’s no discernable way to remove the back so you tend to resort to brute force.

Generous keypad. Open up the handset and it’s a far more standard, conventional clamshell affair. But if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, because the large buttons and generously spaced keypad are a delight to use. Our only criticism would be that the central select button of the D-pad could be a bit bigger – but being a bright metallic purple on our review sample it stands out like an embedded jewel, so is not that easy to miss. The 2.13-inch QVGA screen is similarly eye-catching, with its 16-million colours and OLED technology making for excellent menu legibility. Like most Nokias, the menu itself comes with a choice of views depending on whether you prefer the grid or list layout, as well as the quick-access Active Standby option.

Back to basics. A standard Series 40 interface means the 6600 Fold isn’t graced by the presence of an extensive high-end feature-set – there’s no Wi-Fi or GPS recever, for instance – but getting around the decent standard set of features is nice and speedy. Among the familiar mid-tier menu options ia Nokia’s Maps app, which allows you to find your location by postcode, search for addresses and services, and get route information. But with no built-in GPS it isn’t capable of integrated satellite navigation. Opera Mini is another pre-installed app we’re getting used to on Nokia Series 40 phones, and is likely to be welcomed by fans of mobile web surfing. The browser reduces the size of web pages making them faster to load, and combined with 3G makes the whole process more bearable. It’s no HSDPA, but still quick enough to avoid a frustration-induced meltdown.

Disappointing photos. Multimedia features are rather sparse, with a basic 2-megapixel camera putting in a disappointing showing. Photos are grainy and colours muted, with the added problem of the lens being too close to your supporting finger – which often makes a guest appearance as a result. There’s also no dedicated shutter button. An 8x digital zoom and double LED flash make the specs sound more healthy, but the overall effect is unchanged. The poor quality of the camera is particularly frustrating given Nokia has pre-installed a Flickr app to make uploading images to the site quick and easy. But this handset simply isn’t geared towards imaging, and video fares similarly badly.

Impressive music player. Music is a different story, and Nokia’s adeptness in this field shines through with a decent player and FM radio including RDS. Good all-round functionality is enhanced by comprehensive format compatibility, including MP3, MIDI, AAC, AAC+ and WMA. There’s also a graphic equaliser to tinker with the bass and treble, a stereo expansion feature and A2DP support for Bluetooth stereo headsets. Nokia includes as standard a 512MB MicroSD card, as the 15MB of built-in memory won’t get you far. Naturally, higher capacity cards (up to 4GB) can be slotted in.

Reliable performance. Nokia is a pretty safe banker – even in the current rather chilly economic climate – when it comes to phone performance. Yes, the 6600 Fold may not be bursting at the seams with high-end features, but what it does it does well and ultimately what’s more important? Call quality is great tonally – if occasionally on the quiet side – and gaining a decent 3G signal was never a problem during our time with the phone. Messaging options are plentiful and well laid out, with an email client, Yahoo Instant Messenger, Voice messages and Video messages all on offer. If it’s an eye-catching, reliable handset you’re after and you don’t care about the latest business apps and high-spec functionality, the 6600 Fold is definitely one to add to the list. It’ll get you noticed and won’t let you down when you need it. Job done.

Looks: 8/10
Ease of use: 9/10
Features: 6/10
Call quality: 9/10
Value: 7/10

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Phone Review: Nokia 6650

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Joining a rare breed of mobile phone – Nokia clamshell smartphones – the Nokia 6650 is a tidy-looking flip phone with some neat functionality onboard.

As well as the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system underpinning it, this device features high-speed HSDPA 3G connectivity and A-GPS Sat Nav functionality. But this T-Mobile exclusive also has an impressive supporting cast – though there’s also a few less than standout performances.

Reliable build quality. There’s more than a touch of the Motorola RAZR about the 6650’s design but Nokia hasn’t managed to achieve quite the same slimness. Actually, the 6650’s a bit of a bulky beast, measuring 99(h) x 47 (w) x 16(d) mm, but for all that it does have a strong, dependable build quality. The keypad, even with its nifty multicoloured lights, has a reassuring ‘Nokia‘ feel about it and is intuitive and responsive.

The fold design enables Nokia to include two screens: the main one being a 2.2in TFT QVGA (240×320) display that’s crisp and precise. The second – on the front of the handset – is a 1.36in TFT version, and can be used to browse the menu and activate features, including the music player, thanks to controls on the front of the shell.

Multimedia features. Handset spotters might also notice that Nokia has had a bit of a recycling moment, the 6650 model number having already been used once before – on the company’s first 3G phone, released in early 2003.

Mobiles have certainly come on somewhat since those early Third Generation days. The combination of Nokia’s S60 OS and HSDPA (with download rates of up to 3.6Mbps) provides the 6650 with strong multimedia functionality, allowing fast downloads of video and audio content, speedy web browsing, plus customisation of the phone’s software with numerous third-party applications available to download.

Along with a first-rate music player you also have S60 standards including RealPlayer for watching video clips, various web-based applications, plus a main 2-megapixel camera.

The Nokia 6650 only has a 30MB internal memory, but fortunately a hot-swappable microSD expansion slot means you won’t be stuck for extra storage space. A 1GB microSD card is included in-box, so you should have ample room to be getting on with anyway.

Headphones socket. A 2.5mm AV connector allows you to connect the supplied in-ear ‘phones to enjoy your music, videos or the FM radio. The quality is acceptable, though it would have been more elegant to have included a standard 3.5mm jack socket to allow you to plug in your own headphones without having to source an adapter. Nokia does this on some but not all of its higher end devices.

On a positive note, stereo Bluetooth does mean that you can ‘go wireless’ with a suitable headset.

Limited camera. However, the inclusion of a mere two-megapixel camera (with LED flash) casts a downer on things – a mood not helped by the pictures it produces, which suffer from over-exposure. Detail is limited too. A video clip resolution of 320×240 isn’t impressive, though a nifty video clip editing app does provide some much needed flexibility. It’s worth noting that the 6650 doesn’t include Wi-Fi either.

One further connectivity addition comes in the guise of the 6650 as a USB modem. Just plug it into a compatible PC and you’ll be able to benefit from mobile broadband over T-Mobile’s network. Nokia’s PC Suite software comes bundled with the handset.

GPS guidance. The 6650 features integrated A-GPS (Assisted GPS), which uses network based assistance to speed up the calculation off the coordinates of your location when your device is receiving signals from satellites. First time around GPS proved slow in establishing our position but in terms of maintaining it was very reliable.

In keeping with other entry-level Nokia handsets you’ll find that Nokia Maps aren’t stored locally, instead they are downloaded when required. The map software is a touch fiddly but persistence pays dividends as this is a solid, dependable app.

Naturally with the web browser, you get fast access to T-Mobile’s web portal, so you can download tunes and videos and check out other t-zones content and services; of course you can also browse the full web using the rather nifty S60 browser, which is pretty efficient thanks to the HSDPA connectivity.

Exceptional call quality. Over our test period the 6650 maintained an impressive call quality, with superb clarity and definition. Interference is minimal and it was often a genuine pleasure to use the handset to make and receive calls.

Battery life was perhaps a little disappointing. The quoted standby is up to 350 hours, but after a handful of calls, the download of two full-length music tracks and 20 minutes of web browsing our test model packed up after around 60 hours.

While from a design point of view the Nokia 6650 might not set the world alight, it’s reasonable enough. But there’s more than enough multimedia functionality to keep most people happy. The camera remains a disappointment but elsewhere there’s plenty to be played with and enjoyed.

Network availability: T-Mobile

Looks: 3.5/5
Ease of use: 3.5/5
Features: 3.5/5
Call quality: 4/5
Value: 4/5

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Phone Review: Nokia 5220 XpressMusic

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Compared with Sony Ericsson’s rapid-fire succession of Walkman phones, Nokia’s XpressMusic roll-out has been distinctly low-key, with just a handful of models sporting Nokia’s music-majoring label. Now, with the launch of Nokia’s Comes With Music unlimited music download service, and its soon-to-arrive 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen smartphone, the spotlight is starting to shine on Nokia’s mobile music line-up. But as well as the top-of-the bill devices and services, Nokia is continuing to plug away at the lower end, with the 5220 XpressMusic one of Nokia’s latest low-cost newcomers.

Budget music mobile phone. Like the 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia’s debut Comes With Music device, the 5220 doesn’t have a wow-inducing set of high-end features – it lacks 3G connectivity, for instance, and has a pretty ordinary 2-megapixel camera built in. Instead, though, the 5220 XpressMusic’s appeal is based on getting the tune-playing performance right in an attractively slim design, and throwing in some decent additional features.

Slim design. The XpressMusic family look is obvious on this model, with the usual black bodywork with sharply contrasting electric blue or red trim, plus dedicated music player controls lined up the side of the display. But Nokia has given the 5220 XpressMusic a very distinctive twist. The body has an unusual asymmetrical design, with a sloping top and bottom that gives the phone a kind of funky retro-modern feel (Sagem did something similar with some of its phones back in the late 90s). It’s skinny too. Those variable sloped-shoulder dimensions work out at around 108(h) x 43.5(w) x 10.5(d) mm, and weighing a mere 78g it will slip easily into the tightest pockets. Another design touch is a strap hole in the bottom corner of the phone, for those who want to dangle rather than pocket their handset.

Handy headphone socket. It has an adequate 2-inch, 256K-colour QVGA (320×240 pixels) display, and the numberpad is well designed, with well spread, slightly raised buttonry that’s pleasingly responsive. It feels quite solid too, despite its glossy plastic fascia. One very welcome touch is the inclusion of a proper 3.5mm headphone socket on the top of the phone. While this should be normal practice for any would-be music phone, it’s often overlooked, but it gives you the scope to improve audio performance significantly by simply adding better earphones.

Nokia user interface. The 5220 XpressMusic runs on Nokia’s commonly used Series 40 user interface, so will be familiar to many Nokia devotees. Its standby screen has a row of changeable Active Standby shortcut icons that at a click give you fast access to key features and applications. There are also separate information updates lined up on the screen, plus music player and FM radio status info, so you can operate these from standby with the music buttons – play/pause forward and rewind – on the edge of the phone. Other softkey shortcuts are to hand as well, while the main menu system is typical Nokia, too, operated mainly with the phone’s nicely usable central navigation pad, and with an icon-based grid structure leading you into a host of sub menus.

Easy access music player. It’s an XpressMusic phone, so the music player is of course the headline act. It can be fired up and worked by pressing the illuminated control buttons on the side, or (the long way around) by popping into the menus. When it’s playing onscreen, the central navigation pad doubles up as a control panel, in a way that’s standard across Nokia handsets. The main benefit of the dedicated controls is when the music player’s running in the background; it’s easier to use these than keep tapping back into the menus.

Excellent audio performance. The music player doesn’t break new ground for Nokia, but its menus are sensibly constructed and work efficiently. You get familiar music player track categories (artists, albums, tracks, genres, videos, playlists), which you can scroll through to find tracks. It’s easy to create your own playlists, or to tweak sounds using the equaliser functions. Onboard storage is limited to 30MB of memory, but MicroSD cards are supported and Nokia includes a 512MB card in-box. And if you want to carry more tunes in the phone, cards of up to 2GB can be slotted in to the side. For any music player, it’s what’s in the grooves that counts and the Nokia 5220 XpressMusic is capable of an excellent audio performance. With decent earphones sound is rich and detailed, with plenty of bass.

Invest in better headphones.  Its supplied earphones don’t hit the top mark though – they’re reasonable for a phone at this price level, but not exceptional. But swap these for a higher quality set of headphones (plugging into the welcome 3.5mm socket) and sound quality is really lifted, making the most of the audio processing gadgetry Nokia has built in. It’s well worth trying – you don’t have to spend a fortune for decent earwear that will make a big difference. Stereo Bluetooth headphones are supported on this model too if you want a wireless option. On the other end of the tech scale, you can play back tunes surprisingly loudly via the in-built loudspeaker – though quality is typically bass-light and abrasive at higher volumes. You can listen to the FM radio through this as well, provided the earphones are plugged in; it puts in a decent performance.

Fully-featured camera. Less impressive than the 5220 XpressMusic’s tune-playing abilities, its camera is a run-of-the-mill 2-megapixel shooter. There’s no autofocus or flash but there is the usual tick list of standard phone tweakery and settings adjustments – white balance, colour effects, multi-shot options, and so on. It does a reasonable shooting job within its quality limitations; colour rendition is quite good, although picture detail is limited. Indoors, image quality deteriorates and low-light performance is poor, restricted by lack of added illumination. An option is available to upload snaps – and video – straight to online Flickr accounts, should you wish to. Video capture quality, however, is limited, with maximum shooting resolution restricted to 176×144 pixels, giving low resolution, typically stilted footage.

Additional application. For a low-range phone, Nokia has given the 5220 XpressMusic a good set of additional features – with a typical bundle of pre-loaded applications and tools. Although there’s a Nokia browser onboard, it has also pre-loaded the excellent Opera Mini browser, which provides a fine way of checking out full websites. Other familiar Nokia Series 40 phone added applications include Yahoo! Go – an app that provides information updates, news, online entertainment services, mapping info and email on one homescreen – and Nokia’s own WidSets widgets application – pulling together updated widgets from favourite websites and blogs on one screen.

Nokia maps. There’s no GPS capability on this handset, but thanks to Nokia Maps software, you can look up maps, search for routes and look for places of interest, with information updated over the air to the phone. You can also download maps from Nokia’s website to add to the phone’s memory card, if you prefer, via Nokia Map Loader software and a USB cable supplied. And if you connect it up to an optional Bluetooth-enabled GPS module, you can use the 5220 XpressMusic for precise location finding and routing. A Search facility – using Yahoo! or Windows Live Search engines – is another handy extra embedded in the phone’s software. In addition, the usual supply of organiser tools are in place, with a calendar function, to do lists, notes, various clock and timer options, calculator, world clock and voice recorder application. For a bit of added fun, Nokia has lined up four Java games and embedded a wallpaper creator tool.

Battery performance. Music may be the major key for the 5220 XpressMusic, but for voice calling it also puts in the a solid, high quality performance. Its power usage is also not bad; Nokia reckons that in best-case network coverage users can achieve up to 5.25 hours of talktime or 406 hours of standby time. Alternatively, using the music player alone, it can run for up to 24 hours between charges. In our tests, with average levels of usage, we managed a decent three and a bit days between charges, though naturally this declined faster if we listened to more tunes.

Looks: 3.5/5
Ease of use: 4.5/5
Features: 3/5
Call quality: 4.5/5
Value: 4.5/5

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Phone Review: HTC Touch HD

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Fully-featured phone. The HTC Touch HD comes packed with all the goodies familiar from recent HTC models, including Wi-Fi, HSDPA 3G (with up to 7.2Mbps downloads, speed fans), A-GPS with Google Maps, microSD memory expansion, easy web browsing and of course Windows 6.1 Professional working away quietly in the background, with the sensitive user protected from most of its oddities by HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface. This offers a practical yet fun menu set that can be manipulated with one thumb. There’s a 5-megapixel camera on board too but the HD’s biggest draw is surely its phenomenal touch screen.

Impressive screen. The biggest available on any Windows Mobile device, it’s 3.8 inches and packs in 480×800 pixels, which makes the iPhone’s 480×320 pixels seem measly by comparison. It’s ideal for viewing downloaded video files though it’s not to be confused with true HD, and though it’s capable of delivering very good pictures in full frame mode, you’ll probably need to experiment with your sources, as it can be quite unforgiving of poor quality compressed files. There isn’t much room for these in the 512MB onboard memory but if you get your HD from Orange they’re throwing in an 8GB microSD card (it will take up to 16GB).

Sluggish camera. The camera, with 5 megapixels is at least a serious photographic instrument, unlike the iPhone’s effort, but it suffers with comparison to the likes of Nokia’s Nseries and Sony Ericsson’s C-series big-hitting cameraphones. Speed is an issue, since it takes the best part of ten seconds from accessing it on the menu to taking a pic but the results are decent enough if taken in good light. There’s no flash, so low light isn’t really an option, though there is autofocus. Video fares rather less well however and tends to look blurry if there’s any fast movement involved. There’s also quite a bit of screen drag when you move the device around, which never looks good. Viewing pictures is a fun experience though, as like other HTC models you can zoom in or out by twiddling your finger on the pics and move though your albums by brushing your finger across the pics.

Easy browsing. Browsing with the HD is probably the best on an HTC Windows device so far and equal to that of the iPhone or the T-Mobile G1 (which incidentally is made by HTC). There’s a stylus which clips magnetically into the casing but there’s really no need for it, since you can operate all the HD’s onscreen controls by finger touch. The browser (Opera by default, with no Explorer on board as far as we could tell) flips the screen from portrait to landscape automatically when you turn the device on its side and there’s a zoom button in the corner. When you press it, a scroll bar pops up which allows you to adjust pages to any size you like and you can also move them around by brushing them across the screen with your finger.

Great battery life. The music player allows you to view album art and sorts your tracks in the usual way, but this time, thankfully, there’s a 3.5mm jack plug so you can replace the deeply average supplied ones. There’s an FM radio on board too with 20 presets for your favourite channels. Battery life was impressive for such a highly specced phone giving us two days of average use, though as with all Windows Mobile devices you can also stretch this by switching off non-essential apps and reducing the screen’s brightness.

Other devices might offer better cameras, and better data input facilities (there’s only an on-screen keyboard) and even fit better in the pocket, but all-in-all, and while the first generation Android device comes very close, the HTC Touch HD is the best alternative iPhone we’ve yet seen.

Looks: 3.5/5
Ease of use: 4.5/5
Features: 4.5/5
Call quality: 4/5
Value: 4/5

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Phone Review: Sony Ericsson W980

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Leading the line for the Walkman phone range, Sony Ericsson’s flagship W980 comes with plenty of music mobile firepower. Boasting 8GB of built in memory, the W980 is loaded with the latest Walkman player gadgetry, plus a hefty shot of multimedia functionality, boosted by high-speed HSDPA connectivity. Presented in a slick clamshell design, the W980 is a step-up model from recent stylish Walkman phones, such as the ultra-slim W890i, rather than a direct descendent of Sony Ericsson’s previous 8GB-packing Walkman phone, the W960i. The W960i was a Symbian UIQ-powered touchscreen smartphone, whereas the W980 isn’t – it’s a more conventional high-end Walkman handset.

Walkman phone. Still the features onboard are good value for a music phone. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera, video calling capability with a secondary camera inside the shell, an FM radio, plus a full web browser, and Google Maps software preloaded for approximate location finding and route planning. But the Walkman player is, of course, where W980 buyers will be most interested. In conjunction with the latest quality Walkman player software, using motion-operated Shake control to change tracks and offering a SensMe automatic tempo/mood based playlist option, the W980 has an FM transmitter built in. This enables users to play tunes, podcasts and so on any FM radio within an approximate 10-metre radius. That means you can transmit any of your 8GB of tunes while they’re playing onto a car stereo, home hi-fi or portable FM radio. It’ll even work on friends’ radio-equipped phones.

Eye-catching design. Sony Ericsson has made an eye-catching design feature of the W980’s external Walkman controls. The glossy plastic front panel has an indented circular pattern through which touch-sensitive music player controls appear when the Walkman player or FM radio is active. These are more functional than most, allowing you tab back through menus, select track categories and scroll through track lists – which appear on a display above the controls that’s also hidden when inactive. This 176×176 pixels 262K-colour screen and the touch buttons – which provide vibrating haptic feedback when pressed – mean you can easily operate the music player and radio with the phone flip shut. Much like a standalone music player, in fact. Along the side, a slider lock stops pocket mis-pressing, and another buttons allows you to flick through music, radio and standby screen modes.

Svelte styling. The front panel gives the W980 a slick look when closed – although that slab of plastic is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. The design is no svelte W890i-alike, measuring a solid 92(h) x 46(w) x 17(d)mm and weighing 100g, making it feel sturdy without being too bulky. Flip it open and there’s the main screen, a 2.2-inch QVGA 262K-colour display that looks slightly small against the large flip. The motion sensing accelerometer onboard automatically switches the screen’s orientation between landscape and portrait in the media player and photo gallery. A see-through section on the tip of the flip is not just for show – it can glow in time to the rhythm of your tunes or ringer. If that wows you as little as it does us, it can easily be switched off.

The numberpad is reasonably large and finger-friendly, with circular keys keeping that circular design motif going. The large round navigation pad is fair enough, but control keys surrounding it are a touch too squeezed together for our liking – as they’re almost flush to the surface, fingers can easily stray onto adjacent buttons, particularly in low light. With 8GB of internal storage for user to play with, there’s a substantial amount of track-room for the Walkman player (up to 8,000 tracks, depending on file format used). It could have made this even heftier if it had memory card expansion – but alas, there’s no Memory Stick Micro slot on the W980. A shame, particularly as cards are now a very affordable way to add extra GBs of capacity and swap around your music. Still, if 8GB is satisfactory tune storage for your mobile, the Walkman player itself does a fine job. The media player user interface is straightforward, and intuitive to navigate. Tracks are organised into familiar music player categories, including slots too for podcasts and audio books.

The SensMe function allows you to compose playlists according to predefined tempo and mood ratings, which may appeal to some users. The Walkman Shake control is a much more tricksy bit of gadgetry, using the W980’s in-built motion sensor technology to change tracks or volume while you press the external play/pause button and shake the phone in a particular direction. It’s very much a gimmick, as it’s far less hassle – and more reliable – to simply press the back/forward buttons. It’s nonetheless an impressive-sounding player, and is boxed with good quality ear-bud earphones to provide a good dynamic range with decent bass thump. A 2-piece set, it has a 3.5mm headphone adapter too so you can upgrade to better ear-gear if you prefer, or use stereo Bluetooth wireless headphones.

Average camera performance. Complementing this ear-pleasing music player is a decent, easy to operate FM radio and that FM transmitter – equally straightforward and effective to tune into a nearby radio. Sony Ericsson’s TrackID song identification software is loaded too. The main camera is more standard issue stuff – similar to the W890i’s rather than Cyber-shot phone quality. It’s an unexceptional 3.2-megapixel shooter with no flash, no autofocus, and no dedicated camera button or photographer-friendly user interface. Frustratingly, the positioning of the lens on the back panel near the hinge means that when you’re holding it in portrait shooting mode (there’s no landscape snapping), your fingers naturally stray over the camera. You usually end up rebalancing the phone when framing – which should really be unnecessary. Pictures are reasonably good for this level of camera, with a fair amount of detail present, plus bright and accurate colour rendition in good lighting conditions – but they’re not the best you can get for a 3.2-megapixel cameraphone. Without any additional illumination low-light shooting isn’t so good and images taken in darker situations are poor. Video capture is average mobile phone quality – not great, shooting at 15fps in QVGA quality. Both snaps and video clips can be directly uploaded to Blogger accounts, in standard Sony Ericsson fashion.

High speed browsing. There’s a standard issue NetFront web browser at work in the W980, so you can browse the internet as well as download content at HSDPA speeds (up to 3.6Mbps is supported). It works reasonably well, with a variety of viewing options, giving a typical Sony Ericsson mobile web experience. RSS feeds are supported too on what is a mostly appealing user interface. The handy Google Maps makes an appearance too. There’s no onboard GPS receiver on this phone, but using automatic cellsite triangulation and over the air mapping information, you can get your approximate position shown within a few hundred metres in seconds. Usefully too, you can do searches, and get routing information, as well as check out satellite images of your area. It’s a potentially valuable extra feature to have in your pocket.  Sony Ericsson has also equipped the W980 with a typically solid array of personal organiser tools, email support and voice apps, while motion control makes it into one of the games and a step counter application. It makes for a decent mid tier package.

Decent battery life. When it comes to the back-to-basics of voice calling, the W980 hits the mark with a reliable, top class performance, with no network issues at all. With a Walkman player at the core of this 3G handset, battery life is important, and Sony Ericsson reckons you can get up to 16 hours of continuous music playing from a charge. As a straightforward phone, it posts a fine-looking optimum standby time of up to 370 hours (360 hours on 3G) and talktime of 4.5 hours on 3G networks or 9 hours in GSM coverage. In our average usage tests, with some music playing mixed with other gadgetry, we reached for the charger every 2-3 days, which is acceptable.

More phone or MP3 player? The W980 isn’t a do-it-all mobile, as it’s shy of some of the latest must-have high-end gadgetry such as built in GPS, Wi-Fi support and smartphone flexibility. It could do with a more Cyber-shot-esque camera too, making do with a reasonable – if poorly positioned – mid-ranger. And we’d have liked memory card expansion too. The flagship W980 though is first and foremost a Walkman phone that flexes its music mobile muscles with its hefty 8GB of onboard memory and a high quality set of Walkman features – including the useful FM transmitter – that take it into standalone music player territory. It may not replace your iPod just yet, but it’s certainly a classy performer.

Looks: 4/5
Ease of use: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Call quality: 4.5/5
Value: 3.5/5

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