The unique chance to spend some time with Sony Ericsson W910 – the newest Walkman phone of the brand, announced just a week ago at
[Keep in mind – this is a prototype, and there will probably be a lot of changes in the final version that will hit the markets in Q4 this year. We won’t do an in-depth review, just a preview due to the fact this is not a final product.]
Design:
When we first saw the W910, we immediately took it for a slider-W880 – just like it, the new one is very slim (12.5mm/0.5”), has small keys, and aggressive but sexy look, thanks to the deep red color of the housing. Another version replaces the red with black, and looks calmer, but in our opinion less attractive.
You can carry the slim slider in a pocket with no worries, and you will appreciate the weight of 3 oz (86 grams). It also sits comfortably in the palm, and sliding it up to open is a real pleasure – the spring assisted mechanism is very strong and its only drawback is the sound it produces – a relatively loud bang, as the one of a Nokia E65.
The display is with size of 2.44 inches, has 262k colors and QVGA resolution. It is very bright unit, and put next to the 6120 classic makes the latter look as a phone from a previous generation – it is darker and the colors are not that vivid, the image doesn’t look alive, as they on the W910. But this display also has drawbacks – the colors. In the Nokia display with 16 million colors we can see graceful transition from one hue to another; with the W910 we have choppy frames. That lack of colors can hardly be noted looking at normal images – as we’ve said, they look very well. The preloaded images with the phone make its display look superb!
The keyboard, with the navigation keys on the upper slider and the 12 numeric buttons on the bottom one. All of them are in red color, merging with the look of the phone as a whole, but the silver directional pad, with the music functionality shown on it. The two soft keys are combined in common shape with respectively the answer/reject keys. They are very small, but are pressed softly and have good relief. If you have big fingers – it would be a problem, but otherwise, they work fine. Still, we don’t encourage making some of the most used keys that small.
The shortcut and clear keys, which are a step bigger.
The numeric keys on the bottom slider are totally flat but we may live with this, if they were not hard to press and lacking any tactile feedback. We hope those problems will be changed in the commercially available unit, but it is not sure.
The right side houses holes for a strap, volume rocker, slot for M2 card and the camera shutter key. On the left side, alone is the standard Sony Ericsson multi-purpose connector. We are not very happy with this, as some accessories designed for most phones of the brand won’t work, as it is with the W880.
Interesting solution is the battery cover, which has a Lock, in order to be stable. It is small and thin piece of plastic, but thanks to the locking mechanism it stays still, doesn’t wobble.
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