Sony Ericsson W890 Review

Introduction:

The stylish Sony Ericsson W890 is the successor of the first truly slim model of the manufacturer (W880) and it was announced in the end of 2007, 9 months after the first edition. In contrast to its predecessor, the new phone has few changes in the design, as well as in the functionality. Its appearance is no longer aggressive, but youthful and is characterized by a clear, stylish image. The interface has also been modified and it now uses software of a newer generation, identical to the one seen in W910 and K850. The new Walkman has an FM radio, the lack of which was one of the biggest drawbacks of the music W880. The phone is also quad-band, which makes it capable of global roaming and can compete with Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.

In the box you will find:

• Sony Ericsson W890
• Standard charger CST-75
• Wired stereo handsfree HPM-70
• 2GB Micro M2 memory card
• USB cable
• User guide
• Manual
• PC Suite CD

The good thing is that Sony Ericsson has decided to include a 2 GB M2 memory card in the set, which makes up for the insufficient integrated memory. Otherwise, it would have been very disappointing to purchase a new music phone and to be able to upload a few songs only.

The manufacturer has taken the time to design the stereo headphones in the same color as the phone, thus making them fit the overall look of the phone. Even though on the official site, there are only a black and a grey version of them offered, we got a mocha brown review unit.

The silver version of the phone, which is also available, looks more common and is less attractive.

Design:

In contrast to the previous model, the appearance of W890 has suffered many changes. We can hardly say that this is the successor of the W880. The most notable innovations are the rounded edges and the aluminum, which most of the phone is made of. The back panel of the device is fully manufactured from the material, unlike in the previous model, where it was made of rubber coated plastic. These changes result in the entirely different vision of W890, now having a more stylish and clear design, as opposed to an aggressive and youthful one. That is what makes the new entry in the Walkman series attractive for a larger audience.


With dimensions of 4.1 x 1.9 x 0.4 inch (104 x 46.5 x 10 mm) and weighing at 2.8 oz (78 g), W890 is slightly heavier and thicker from the previous model and its rival Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. Being so thin and light, the new member of the W-series is pocket friendly and sometimes you can even think that you have lost it. Listening to your favorite music while running, with the phone hanging on your neck, is also an option.


The 2.0" display on the front panel catches the eye. It has expanded a bit, in contrast to the W880's (1.8”), but it has the same specifications – TFT type with resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 262K colors. Exposed to a direct sunlight, the screen turns into a perfect mirror and you can easily check yourself out and fix your hair if you have to. In a darker environment, the colors are well saturated, bright, and real without irritating the eyes.

The video calling VGA camera is located over the display next to the front speaker, the light sensor of the screen and the Walkman logo. Standard for a candybar, in the lower part we have the navigational buttons and a numeric keypad. The 5-way D-pad has the same unique shape, and the buttons surrounding it are more compact, in the form of a half-eaten moon. They are positioned too close to the D-pad and sometimes pressing them can be quite difficult.

The numeric keys also have a totally different design. They are not small, uncomfortable, and hard any longer, but are large and thick. Their new image fits the modern design very well, and they also have a good tactile feedback, making them very easy to use.


Looking at the left side of the W890, we can see that the Walkman button and the charger/connector are at the same place, as seen in the previous model, but the memory stick-slot is now located under the back lid. There are notable changes on the right as well – the volume rocker has replaced the small uncomfortable slider, but the camera shortcut key is unchanged. The most interesting innovation is that on both sides there are two lockers for the back lid. This new system holds it tightly, without any play and it will prevent it from self-opening in the future. The sad part is that you have to unlock them one by one when opening or closing the lid, in order to get to the battery or the memory slot. It would have been a lot more convenient if at least when closing it, the locks were automatically engaged.

The aluminum lid takes almost the entire back of the W890 with only the 3.2 MP camera, its light sensor, the speaker and the manufacturer's logo in the upper part. Under it, we find the battery, which we have to remove in order to put the SIM in place. In the bottom part of the device, we see a strap hole, where you can attach a piece of mobile phone jewelry or a neck chain.

Interface:

There has been a major upgrade in interface of the W880’s successor. W890 runs on the same software, which is used in the rest of the high-class phones of the manufacturer, including W910 and К850. If you have experience with those two, you will be sailing in familiar waters.

The Home screen has not been changed; the functions of the two soft buttons and of the D-pad central key can be seen in the bottom part. Here we have the cool option for background animated GIF support as well.

The menu is also the same, displayed as a 3x4 grid of icons with a vertical list for the sub-menus. By the way, this one features Flash themes for the main menu, which can change its icons and the overall appearance of the phone.


Phonebook:

You can save up to 1000 contacts, while each of them can store several numbers (up to 7000 numbers in total), e-mails and web addresses, as well as a personal picture and ring tone, or video-tone for indication when you have an incoming call. You can add contacts to groups, but you cannot set a common ring tone or a caller ID for a given group. Overall, this function is planned to be used only when you want to send a message to more than one contact for example. Finding a contact is done by directly entering letters from the keypad, but unfortunately, only the first word of the name is considered during the search. An option we really liked was to sort the names both by first and last name. However, if you’ve done it by last name, you will not be able to search by First name, which now appears as second word.

When you start dialing a number directly from the standby screen, you will find one of the tweaks, coming with the new firmware. The phone will search the phonebook and the calling history for matching results (for both numbers and names), just as it is with any WM6 or BlackBerry device. The convenience here comes from the fact that it searches the names as you type them, by using a predictive input system. For instance, if you want to dial “Neo”, you have to dial 636 (6-MNO, 3-DEF, 6-MNO) and almost immediately the phone will show you all matching names. Unfortunately, like in the contacts menu, the system won’t search through the second word of a name.

Organizer:

Just as the Contacts, the Organizer menu has its own icon in the main menu. Its options include calendar, tasks, notes, alarms, calculator, timer, stopwatch, code memo, applications links, and synchronization option.

The Calendar can be viewed for a month, week, or a day; the latter option shows the events, set for the particular day, and it enables you to add new options. When you want to add appointments, you select the starting time, duration and the reminder’s time. You can include details about the venue of the event, as well as a description. You have the option of setting it as an All day event (all birth dates from the contacts list are added as such) and to include recurrence options (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).

You can also save simple Tasks (reminder for Task or Phone Call) or write a plain note. The menu houses a Calculator with basic functionality, a Countdown timer, and a Stopwatch capable of storing up to nine results, as well. We think that the Code Memo option is useless and we will prefer to have a “safe” where we can save text information, LOCKED (not coded) by a password.

Additionally, in this menu is the file manager, which was found in the main menu of phones with the earlier software version. It sorts the content by type and offers an option to filter either the phone or the card memory, or to view both at the same time.

Instead of the manager, the main menu has icon for the five alarms. Each of them can be set on its own and has fields for time, recurrence, and signal type.


The voice commands are activated by holding down one of the volume keys, and if you don’t have any voice-tags recorded, the phone will prompt you to enter one. We think that this system is useless, since you must read what it says on the screen, but shortly after that hold the phone to your ear, as it has sound notifications but doesn’t utilize the speakerphone. This makes voice-tags absolutely inconvenient to use and we had a problem even with one contact saved only. There's no room for making a comparison with the system used in Symbian S60 phones or any other that have speaker-independent voice commands for making calls and opening applications. To sum it up, the one here simply does not work.

The phone has about 28 MB of internal memory that can be expanded through Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards.

Messaging:

Besides SMS and MMS, the messaging menu also houses an e-mail client. Its presence makes it easier to send and receive large files not suitable for MMS, like full-sized pictures for example. Entering text is aided by T9, which increases the text input speed. The preloaded templates are also intended to help you save time, typing in frequently used phrases and sentences. The W890 lets you manage your messages, categorizing and saving them in the phone or SIM memory. Texting fans would definitely appreciate these options.

Similar to the K850, here we also have the RSS Reader in the messaging menu, which is quite strange, because RSS requires an Internet connection. This application is used to browse through web content, without having to fully load a given page. We opened PhoneArena’s news almost instantaneously, with no trouble.

Connectivity:

Sony Ericsson W890 follows the trend in the high-class W-series and is also a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), which makes it capable of global roaming. The single-band UMTS/HSDPA (2100 MHz) capability, gives you a high-speed 3G, but unfortunately, you will be able to take advantage of it in Europe and Asia.

For local connectivity, you have the option of the Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connection or via the USB cable, found in the set. The device comes with the standard for all Sony Ericsson phones PC Suite CD, but you can by-pass it and connect the phone as a mass storage device, in order to transfer files to and from its memory.

Internet:

Similar to other new models of the company, the W890 is equipped with full HTML internet browser that loads pages, as you’d expect to see them on a PC. The heavy phonearena.com homepage loaded without any problems. While you are surfing, the following options are available: Full screen mode, Landscape or Portrait view, Text only, Zoom, Pan & zoom and Zoom to normal. There also are additional settings on the browser, such as clear cache or delete cookies.

Multimedia:

Being a Walkman phone, the main purpose of the W890 is, to play music. No wonder why the manufacturer has focused on that. The phone uses Walkman 3.0, which is the upgrade from the 2.0 version. The interface is not any different from the one seen in the rest of the phones using the same version. In the upper part of the screen, we have the visualization and the set option, and in the bottom, we can see the now playing track info, accompanied by the indicator for the D-pad functions. You can also use landscape mode, but due to the lack of an auto-rotation sensor, you will have to adjust it manually from the settings menu.

The good thing is that you are able to minimize the player to the background and use the other functions of the phone, while listening to your favorite tunes. Just like the rest of the models from the W-series, the W890 lets you change the songs (the player has to be open, but can be minimized) by pressing and holding the volume buttons (up = next, down=previous). The ShakeMe option, seen in the W910 and even the W580, which is a mid-level device, is not present here. According to information, supplied by the manufacturer, the Walkman player supports the following file formats: MP3, MP4, M4A, 3GP, AMR, AAC, AAC+, еAAC, WAV, WMA, Real Audio 8.

In the Music menu, you can sort the tracks by Artist, Albums, Tracks (list of all), Playlists, SenseMe, Genre, Year, Audio Books and Podcasts. You can create or edit playlists directly on the phone, and you have two by default – Most played and Not played. SenseMe will organize the songs by mood, which the computer software, coming with the phone, inputs. Here is the Sony Ericsson description: “When music on your PC or on a CD is imported into Media Manager, it will use SenseMe™ technology to incorporate mood analysis into the track details. So, when you transfer that music onto your phone, each song contains information on the mood of the track, which can then be used with the SensMe™ feature.”

W890 has a built-in FM stereo radio, but for it to be operational, you have to use the headphones as an antenna. The radio supports RDS, so text information from the stations will be streamed. Total of 20 stations can be saved and names can be added to be easier to distinguish. Unfortunately, even if the station broadcasts its name through RDS, the phone won’t add it automatically. An option allows you to scan the whole range and add all (up to 20) stations found. TrackID is supported here and is represented as an option in the Entertainment menu, so if you want to get information on the song currently playing, just start this feature and it will sample the music, connect to a server (online) and give you information on the artist and track name. As in our previous test, the current ones showed excellent accuracy of the program.

The W890 speakers produce a high-quality sound. It is clear and loud, but as in most phones, the lows are kinda hard to make out. Once you put the headphones though, this changes for the better, since the environmental noises are insolated and the sound is clear, with quality impressive for a phone.

A new and cool feature is the keyboard light, corresponding to the music playing.

The video player performed very well playing the H.263 encoded video files and we also tested the H.264 format. The maximum resolution, which we managed to achieve, was QVGA (320x240), exactly like the one of the display, but either, the sound did not correspond to the picture or there were many frames skipped. That’s why we recommend converting your files, by using the software included in the set or compressing them to MPEG4 with AAC audio codec format, if you want to have a better quality.



Another new and cool thing is the Media menu, which can be accessed from the main menu or by choosing the back button, while during music playback in the Walkman player. This media menu houses Photo, Music, Video and Settings and has flash interface, which is different than the other submenus, but changes (its background) when the theme is changed.

In the Photo menu, you will find the latest pictures taken with the phone, camera album sorting the captured pictures by months. You preview their thumbnails in flash interface and can start a slideshow with music, choosing from Silent, Sad, Romantic, Happy, and Energy mood. The feature is called x-Pict Story. You can put tags to the photos, like Favorites for example, so they will be more organized. Tags can also be added, choosing a name and a small icon.

Camera:

Software:

As seen in the previous phones by Sony Ericsson, the Entertainment menu holds the Photo, Music and Video DJ applications, which are simple multimedia editors. Here you will also find Games, the Bluetooth remote control function and the Dictaphone. The innovation here is the presence of the Location services submenu, which includes the Google Maps application, My favourites menu, Status info (accessible only if an external GPS module is present), Log and Settings. All these options demonstrate that W890 can be used for navigation, which is very good. Just imagine yourself, listening to music and finding your way through the “jungle” of the city. Do not forget that you’ll still need an external GPS module for navigation.


There are three games that come with the phone – Lumines Block Challenge, Sims 2 and Tennis Multiplay. The second one is the best, famous with its unique gameplay. In the Sims 2 you control the life of a sim, which has a name, sex and zodiac sign of your choice. In the mobile version of the game, the names are actually preset, but you can still decide on the career and partner your sim has. Even gay marriages are not taboo!


We should not forget the TrackID application, which is supported here and can be found as an option in the Entertainment menu, so if you want to get information on the song currently playing, just start this feature and it will sample the music, connect to a server (online) and give you information on the artist and track name. As in our previous test, the current ones showed excellent accuracy of the program. Within approximately 20 seconds (including recording, sending, and analysis), the program achieves very good results. It is rare to see a screen message that Track ID has not found any results for your music.

Performance:

During the period, for which we used the W890, we had no troubles at all. The speed of the OS is pretty good without any lag in the menus. Only when we uploaded a ton of music and video files, the playlist refresh took a little longer.

While talking, the quality of the sound is quite good. The outgoing sound is clear, but sharp at times and muffled, as in most phones. If you are at a very noisy place, close to a night club or on a busy street for example, the person on the other end of the line will have trouble understanding you, but will hear all the surrounding sounds clearly. Things are a bit different when you are listening. The incoming sound is loud, you hear voices clear, but monotonous and it could become fully unintelligible.

Under W890’s back lid there is a 950 mAh li-polymer battery, which, according to the official data, will let you talk for 9.5 hours, or will give you 360 hours in StandBy mode and 20 hours of listening to your favorite music. That sounds pretty good, having in mind the size and the weight of the phone.

Conclusion:

We are left with positive feelings about the Sony Ericsson W890. It is a nice, light and slim Walkman, which would satisfy even the most capricious music fans. In addition, thanks to the high-speed UMTS you can check your mail or your RSS feeds, which interest you. Moreover, the nice appearance, in combination with the quality sound, will compensate for the lack of autofocus and flash. If you are looking for a beautiful music phone, W890 is a very good choice. However, if you are still not sure, take a look at the youthful Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.