Sony Ericsson W300iWe check out Sony Ericsson’s flipper of an offering, the W300i. Looking at the unit, it looks pretty damn chic, with a black rippled front and orange highlighting; it fits in nicely with SE’s new branding strategy for their music phones. The keypad is nice to use, and feels firm when pressed. As with all SE phones there’s a dedicated back and on/off buttons. My only slight gripe is that the M2 card (where you store your precious tunes) is stored under the rear fascia, which can make it difficult if you’re swapping between several different cards. The screen is a little on the small side, comparable with one of a lower-end candy-bar phone rather than a flipper, however, the mini-screen on the front makes up for it with size and clarity for displaying of current track info.The menu system is easy enough, and you can choose to boot it up in phone or a standalone music mode. Although since most people will be using this as a phone, it might be as well to boot it up into the normal mode at start-up. When a call comes through whilst you’re bobbing your head to some banging tunes, the music will pause rather than stop, so as soon as you hang-up you can get that head a-bobbing from where you left off. The quality is decent enough to be enjoyed on a bus or on a commute where these kinds of gadgets are useful, but the really long cable to where you have to plug in your headphones is a nightmare when stuffed into a pocket. Good phone, and a brilliant music player, could do with a native headphone jack and a larger screen, but apart from that, pretty good value if you can sniff it out for about £150 with M2 card. Make: SE Model: W300i RRP: £150 Buy!Rating: 8.5/11 |
