Sony Ericsson W910 Review

Introduction:

A few months ago we concisely introduced our readers to the prototype of the new Sony Ericsson Walkman – W910. We already have the final version at our disposal, so we intend to put it to series of tests and assess the unit’s performance in real conditions.

This slider is a representative of the company’s high series and is characterized by its slim design, terrific color combination, and marked “musicality” . There are certain innovations of interest: the improved Walkman 3.0 interface of the player, as well as the orientation sensor that lies at the base of the ShakeMe and autorotation functions.

Sony Ericsson W910 comes in a transparent box thus enabling a glimpse at the unit even before opening it. You will find the following items in the kit:

• Sony Ericsson W910
• Standard charger CST-75
• USB data cable DCU-65
• Stereo handsfree HPM-70
• 1GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card (up to 4 GB are supported)
• USB card reader CCR-60 – only M2 cards
• CD with software
• User guide

Packing is eye-catching, indeed, but the kit is not as rich as that of T650, for instance. It is worth noting that instead of an M2 – MSDP transition switch, you will find a USB card reader in the box: if the memory card is inserted in it, there will be a flash-drive at your disposal. Quite convenient, is it not?

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 comparatively strong to secure the smooth sliding.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Sony Ericsson W910	3.90" x 2.0" x 0.50"	99.5 x 50 x 12.5	3.0	86
Nokia 5700 XpressMusic	4.30" x 2.0" x 0.70"	108 x 50.5 x 17.3	4.0	115
Sony Ericsson W880	4.0" x 1.80" x 0.40"	103 x 46.5 x 9.4	2.50	71

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 images 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! When we compare it to another Sony Ericsson display, the 2.1" unit of the W580, we see that the W910's one needs more contrast.

Right below is 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.

Right below are the shortcut and clear keys, which are with the same size.

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. All buttons are back-lit in white (with the exception of the green and red receivers), and there is one more interesting feature: while playing music the keys of the upper slider are illuminated in orange – a color reminiscent of the first Walkman phones of the company. We saw this in W660 as well and it also reminds us of the Cyber-shots, which are lit in blue in when in camera mode.

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 even this locking mechanism can’t make it stand still without any play. On the back, besides the battery, there is the SIM card slot. Taking it out is a real challenge and trial for one’s nerves. The problem is that once inserted, the card remains almost entirely inside, with only a few millimeters sticking out. This is utterly insufficient for holding and pulling it out with ease, especially for those with bigger fingers.

Interface:

The software of the W910 is from new generation, upgrading the one of previous Sony Ericsson non-smart phones. In the bottom line of the homescreen, you will note that in addition to the functions of the soft keys, the function of the central key of the d-pad is shown, but most of the time it is just “Select”. Otherwise, the homescreen is very similar to previous models, and its coolest option is the support of animated GIF files as background image.

The menu system is also like the one from previous models, displaying the menu as 3x4 grid of icons with vertical list for the sub-menus. By the way, as other Walkman phones, this one also features Flash themes for the main menu, which can change its icons and the way it visualizes – this is a proprietary feature for the Walkman phones, the other Sony Ericsson don’t support it.

Phonebook:

In the contact list up to 1000 names can be loaded into the phone memory with several numbers each, but the total must not exceed 2500 numbers. Contacts are viewed in a vertical name list without images. There is an option to search by up to several symbols, but only applied to the first name word. This has been our major complaint for quite some time – there is no way to search by family name.

Each contact has a quite a lot of blank lines that are sufficient to fit the necessary information in most cases. Up to five numbers can be entered, but only one of a type (i.e. it is not possible to type two mobile phone numbers); also several e-mails and an address. There is a space for adding text information and one for birth date, which enables you to enter an All Day Event to your calendar. It is a bit inconvenient that it will not inform you of the exact age of the respective person. Each contact can be supplied with its own Caller ID image and Ring ID tone, which can also be a Video file.

Organizer:

Here you will find the standard Sony Ericsson organizer as well. The number of alarms has been increased to five; however, other problematic issues have not been fixed. For example, the days with ascribed events from the calendar are only barely marked in bold and one can hardly tell them from the rest. In the Task menu reminders with an alarm for certain hour can be set and the calculator interface is rather inconvenient. Notes, Timer and Stopwatch are also available. Code Memo is an odd application: in it you can create messages that are not protected by a password – it only serves for decoding them instead. However, anyone – even not knowing the password – can erase them, which makes us think there is little sense in this.



The voice control system is really useless and mediocre. It has to be manually activated and, not being speaker-independent, a voice tag for each name to be dialed must be recorded. While recording (respectively – searching) a voice tag, the unit must be in contact with your ear. First it displays the necessary instructions on the screen and in no time has to be pressed against the ear, so that you can hear the ‘beep’ sound prior to recording the tag. Whether one has performed that right is not registered by sound, which takes another look at the display in order to confirm you have successfully done so.

The phone features around 28 Mb in-built user-available memory, which can be increased thru a Micro M2 card. Fortunately the manufacturer has included a 1 Gb Micro M2 in the sales package. If you wish to replace it with a one of larger memory, there are M2 cards of up to 4 Gb on the market at present.

Messaging:

In the messages field you will find not only the text and multimedia messages, but extras like e-mail, My Friends (instant messenger) and an RSS reader as well. The electronic mail can be used while on the move with POP3, as well as IMAP4 servers. The RSS reader is convenient and easy option to look at an interesting Internet site without having to download it all; the RSS content will enable you to receive only certain information. My Friends is a chat messenger that combines your contacts from the other popular messengers (including MSN, ICQ, AOL, and Yahoo) in one shared program on the telephone. In order to start using it you need register free in yamigo.com.

Connectivity:

The local connection to other phones is done only thru Bluetooth so long as this model lacks Infrared. Clearly Sony Ericsson have at last decided to follow suit and do as Motorola and Nokia did – stop using this technology, which is already obsolete. Bluetooth version 2 is supported, supposed to provide the highest transfer speed; and thanks to the A2DP profile music can be played thru a wireless stereo system or headphones of the same standard.

As other new models of the company, the W910 is equipped with full HTML internet browser that loads pages as you’d expect to see them, like on a computer. The complicated phonearena.com homepage isn’t problem for the modern browser.


The phone is a quad-band GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz), which allows for its use in America, as well as in Europe. Unfortunately, its 3G resources can be utilized in Europe solely since only one UMTS/HSDPA frequency is supported (2100 MHz).

Multimedia:

This is Walkman phone, and the multimedia, especially the Music, is its main target. The W910 is the first phone with Walkman 3.0, which is the upgrade to the 2.0 version. We can’t say the interface during playback has changed much – it still shows visualization and the set option on the top, and the track information below, with indicator for the d-pad functionality. You can also use the player in landscape mode, and the cool feature is that you can turn auto-rotation option on, which will rotate the interface when you rotate the phone.

According to information, supplied by the manufacturer, the Walkman player supports the following file formats: MP3, MP4, M4A, 3GP, AMR, AAC, AAC+, еAAC, WAV, Real 8 and 3GPP compatible streaming video. At testing the video player we found that it can handle H.263 and H.264 (baseline) encoded video files trouble-free. The maximum resolution of the H.264 file that the unit was capable of reproducing was QVGA; this is quite sufficient, the display resolution being the same. With models such as K770 for example, the highest achievement was QCIF (144 x 176 pixels) – a rather unsatisfactory one. The absence of this drawback in W910 is praiseworthy!

Other new and cool thing is the Media menu, which you can access from the main menu or by choosing back, 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) with the change of themes.



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

In the Music menu, you can sort the tracks by Artist, Albums, Tracks (list of all), Playlists, SenseMe, Genre, Year, Audio Books and Podcats. You can create and edit playlist 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. “

Another cool new thing which we tested is the "Shake Me" which controls the music player (selects next/previous or random song) when you shake the device in your hand with a pressed walkman button. This can be done with the keypad locked; the phone will signal the command has been fulfilled by vibrating.

The phone also has built-in FM stereo radio with a memory for 20 stations. You should use the headphones as an antenna. The radio supports RDS, so text information from the stations will be streamed.

Camera:

Although it is not targeted as an advanced cameraphone, the W910 features the new camera interface, which the K850 will also offer. This one is upgrade to the previous interface, found in K800/K810 Cyber-shot phones.

It starts for three seconds after the shortcut is pressed and uses the whole display as a viewfinder, in landscape mode. The left software key opens the options menu, where you can set the mode (normal, panorama, frames, burst), resolution, and other settings like night mode, self timer, white balance, etc. Like the Cyber-shot phones, W910 has two keys above the display, which are shortcuts to night mode (on/off) and shoot mode. The images taken by the camera have realistic colors, though lacking detail; as a whole, their quality is highly dependent on the degree of illumination. This feature is even more notable on photos, taken indoors. At bright light, colors are well reproduced despite the insufficient detail, whereas, in a darker surrounding, the unavailability of a flashlight makes itself felt – so much so that images are rendered practically unusable.




The camcorder captures QVGA resolution video which is an upgrade, when compared to the QCIF of earlier phones. Still it is in only 15fps and the biggest drawback is the 3GP format, which leads to high compression and low quality.

Sony Ericsson W910 sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution

Using the d-pad directions you can move to the camcorder or the preview option. The camcorder has similar interface as the camera. In the preview you can move left / right to see the captured images but still return easily to the capturing interfaces.

Software:

Like previous Sony Ericsson phones, in the entertainment menu there are Photo, Music and Video DJ applications which are simple multimedia editors in the phone. Here also is the Bluetooth Remote control application, TrackID and the Games. Track ID is a program, which records a sample of sound, sends it to a server, and tells the user which song they belong to. The application operated faultlessly – it recognized 5 out of 5! After vocal performances we decided to encumber it with a guitar solo of Joe Satriani – it guessed the track unmistakably. Then we ‘tried’ it with a little-known song from a compilation of electronic music (Sounds of Asian Underground), which was also recognized easily. Within around 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.



You dispose of a total of three games to kill time: Lumines Block, V-rally 3D and Marble Madness 3D. The first is a Tetris variant and the second – an amusing rally simulator. In the Marble Madness 3D you must control a ball over a relief terrain, but the unique thing is that it is controlled by the tilting of the phone, thanks to the sensor that is used for the orientation of the interface. As W910 supports JAVA MIDP 2.0, such applications can be additionally installed.

Performance:

During the time we used W910, we were satisfied by its speed of operating, menu handling, and folder opening. There were no messages to politely request waiting until something has been loaded or opened – ones that are fairly unnerving most of the times. This phone, as well as the older Sony Ericsson models, allows you to easily update the software online, through the so-called Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS). It takes just a few steps to check whether a newer version is available on the Internet and then you proceed with the updating; if no updates are available, the program informs you accordingly. Thus you can easily deal with software problems without visiting the service and, furthermore, you do not lose the settings that you have already made.

Despite acquiring a great deal of various functions, mobile phones still rely on one most important feature – that of securing a high-quality and trouble-free calls. The signal reception of W910 is medium (4.5 of 10) – similar to that of K770 and slightly lower compared to K850, for example. The overall impression from the unit’s performance during conversation is good: the volume is a little above average and voices – clearly audible and realistic, though without high frequency. At the other end the volume is higher, but speech sounds monotonously and void of high frequency, either.

Sony Ericsson W910 is equipped with a li-ion battery (BST-39), whose capacity of 920 mAh, according to the manufacturer, is expected to support up to 9 hours of talk time or 350 hours of stand-by time in GSM networks, while in 3G ones talking is reduced to 3.5 hours. In reality, the phone endures 5.2 hours of non-stop conversation at maximum volume, provided there is good area coverage of the respective operator. Despite being far shorter than the officially stated 9 hours, this achievement is fairly good, in fact the same as that of another multimedia phone – Samsung F500. And we will not leave out the following remark: it is a fact that W910’s performance was the poorest among all the models of Sony Ericsson, tested by us in recent moths.

Conclusion:

The impression that Sony Ericsson left with us W910 is positive rather than negative. It is indeed a very pleasant Walkman phone featuring a gorgeous color combination, slim design, and a good display, about its only drawback being the camera. Of course, it is not a Cyber-shot, so demanding perfect photos can be a bit too much; however, it is normal that a high-class phone’s resources should not be so mediocre in this respect.

Sony Ericsson W910 is mostly a music phone, already starring the new Walkman 3.0 software. Its orientation sensor is one more enjoyable feature, securing the ShakeMe and autorotation functions.