Sony Ericsson – music-heavy newcomers and others

Sony Ericsson has got serious about expanding its portfolio – there are two press events slotted for November, and one of them will be under our scope tonight. For the most part, however, this very event is all about the debut of one product – a new music-heavy icon, the Sony Ericsson W890i. This is a milestone product for the company in spite of the fact it brings nothing new to the table technology-wise, but neither did its predecessor. In fact, this is the key solution these days, and most of the focus is right on it. Why so? Simple – over at Sony Ericsson they are attempting to reconcile function and design once again, come up with a fashion-savvy solution with a handful of eye-grabbing smarts on offer. If the Sony Ericsson W880i’s pulled that off, why shouldn’t they deem this doable today as well? Let’s take a good look at the W890i and see what it brings along.

Some may well take this device as the Sony Ericsson W880i that has had its letdowns dealt with, which won’t be the wrong way to think of it. But to my mind, this handset is another step towards the fashion-savvy market, which Sony Ericsson is now climbing to. The first newsworthy sign of this was the Sony Ericsson T650i with its aluminum accents, and now comes the turn of the W890i. Below is a table listing all the major differences between the two models:

The newcomer is a tad bigger than the predecessor; while the display’s diagonal has grown only a tiny bit larger, it won’t pass unnoticed. The display is now as big as that found in the Sony Ericsson W580i, meaning that you won’t experience any hardships with reading it. Personally, I didn’t find the Sony Ericsson W880i’s keys particularly irritating, I rather felt slight aversion for them, since long texting sessions proved to be troublesome. Some loved them, and some didn’t. But with the W890i Sony Ericsson has pulled off a small miracle – the keypad is now a fraction bigger, yet a joy to use, being pretty much in line with conventional units. This is a real improvement that grabs your attention, and when you actually get your mitts on the W890i and take a quick tour around it, somehow you don’t even concentrate on the keys. And only a couple of minutes into use you finally get it – the new keypad is pretty convenient indeed.

The W890i’s stereo speakers are mounted on top and at the bottom of the phone, but does such a smallish thing needs them? As I see it, they aren’t essential at all, basically these speakers are of no real use; in a larger sense this is the reaction to numerous requests from the users who have always craved for such speakers. Curiously, the Nokia 5310 is a less expensive offering with comparable specs and stereo-speakers onboard as well (which are only 1 cm away from each other). So as not to get back to the W890i’s competition later in this write-up, I would like to note that the Nokia 5310 XPressMusic well fits in this particular role. Retailing for around 400-500 USD, it is in line with the Sony Ericsson W880i price-wise. But while it is a quaint solution, the 5310 is marred by its plastic casing, whereas the W880i is a full metal phone, even though it is thinner on features.

With the sudden debut of the W890i, the Nokia’s model ends up squeezed in its price bracket by the W890i, which is a visually appealing fashion-savvy solution trumping the 5310 functionality-wise. However on the release day it will go for roughly 700 USD, and the truth is, it starts shipping only in February, 2008. Why is the delay?

It is pretty easy to explain – Sony Ericsson is planning to unfold a huge ad campaign for the W880i before the New Year, so as to substantially boost its sales and knock down its price to 80 percent of the Nokia 5310. All in all, this will be an interesting move that will turn the Sony Ericsson W880i into a relatively mass-market device (given the segment it is in).

All announced handsets run A200 platform? which is the company’s contemporary standard. This automatically means you will find the XPict Story mode alongside the multimedia menu, quick search and other useful functions on these phones. Exclusively for the W890i’s third version of Walkman player they have added the SensMe technology (more on this in our W910i review). Generally speaking, in terms of the sonic experience it delivers, the new W890i is on the same planet with the Sony Ericsson W910i. And while it is nowhere near a breakthrough on this front, the phone still ensures the average quality that consumers have come to expect.

The W890i will come in a choice of three nice-looking colors. As far as I can tell, the W890i will enjoy its share of success on the market. But let’s wait until March and see what Nokia has got under its belt to fight back.

Sony Ericsson W380i. Another Walkman-branded phone, yet this one is an entry-level solution. It packs a 176x220-pixel display, which looks quite odd given its A100-styled menu. But inside it runs on the A200, even if slightly disguised. This handset is here to take the place of the folder-type Sony Ericsson W300i. While it was a finely made device, it gave the market nothing new. Luckily, this is not the case with its replacement, as it comes armed with a number of amenities.

First up, the front fascia rooms three touch-sensitive player controls that can be unlocked only by sliding the hold switch on the rear. Every tap on these keys will be accompanied by a slight vibration or a key tone. The phone is made of matte plastic, which houses an external 36x128-pixel OLED-display with blue backlighting right inside.

Then, the W380i can read your gestures – this technology is utilized on incoming calls. Basically, you need to sweep your hand across in front of the camera to reject or mute a call, or answer it. What’s more, it is a hundred percent “foolproof” – we couldn’t make it work by using objects other than our hands. While this may seem a gimmick, it is very likely to develop into something bigger in the future. On the whole, it is quite odd why they still don’t employ bundled cameras for purposes other than taking a couple of snaps on the fly – there are some many ways to make better use of them.

Being a low-tier solution, the W380i will come only with a 512 Mb memory card in the box (whereas the W890i will ship with 2 Gb). There is no multimedia menu, and the player is only Version 2.0, although it fits this particular product quite well. Much like the Sony Ericsson S500i/W580i, this phone packs a couple of light effects under its hood.

On balance, the W380i is a quite good youth-aimed solution. While it won’t get popular from its day one with its price tag of 250-300 USD, but with a price cut 3-4 months into sales the W380i may become a good way to go, for it is a pretty charming model not without its own visual appeal.

Sony Ericsson K660i. I’m not going to focus on this model right now, expect to see a review next week. This phone comes in as the replacement for the K610i and in my opinion it carries a not very ergonomically-friendly keypad. But its foremost selling point is the way it looks. The K660i is available in some uncommon color schemes obviously aimed at the youth, which is not the thing we’ve come to expect from this product class. Starting with this handset, the company will be integrating Google Maps for Mobile into its offerings and the Sony Ericsson Z750i will be the first phone to have this in stock - its review is coming out next week as well.

Play Now. Speaking of unusual announcements, we can’t overlook the revamp of Play Now, which is Sony Ericsson’s own service for uploading tunes, games and pictures onto its handsets. During the second quarter of 2008, Sony Ericsson will be enhancing it with the TrackID feature, charts etc. They are also going to have more games up for grabs over there. All this seems to be more of a forced measure brought forth by Nokia’s recent moves - Nokia Music Store and the intentions to re-launch the gaming services of N-Gage. But don’t think Play Now will be much of a competitor for these in 2008. Nevertheless, in 2009 Sony Ericsson will have the gaming department on top of its priority list, so we’ll see some solutions tuned to our gaming needs.

Wrap-up

Sony Ericsson has showcased some interesting products, and the Sony Ericsson W890i has definitely grabbed most of the eyes. November will see another press event where they will roll out enterprise solutions and a smartphone that can be managed with fingers or a stylus (the same concept as the one employed in the W960i). The company is now focusing on the expansion of its portfolio, and this is the place where their imagination steps in. Just think of it – the colors of the Sony Ericsson K660i are very offbeat, moreover, the market hasn’t seen anything like it so far (expect for Japan). In fact, the maker is trying to set the pace in the sense of design and in many respects it is doing well.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Oleg Kononosov ([email protected])

Published — 07 November 2007

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