Sony Ericsson W850i – The Killer Combination of Music And Images

The Sony Ericsson W850i is the first slider Sony has produced. Capitalizing on the demand for slide phones started by Samsung and Nokia, Sony has weighed in with a cracker of its own to try and compete with its rivals. To be completely honest, the W850i hasn’t done a bad job of that at all. It may move away from Sony’s other phones in appearance but the level of quality remains at its usual high level.

As a Walkman phone, the emphasis of the W850i is on its musical capabilities. The MP3 player is of the expected high sound quality, so much so that the music capabilities may take precedence over its calling capabilities. As well as MP3, the phone has FM radio with a new and unique feature added for good measure. Track ID can be activated when the radio is on so that any song you don’t know can be ran through a database in a matter of seconds for identification.

Considering the musical capabilities of the W850i, it is slightly annoying to learn that the phone only has 16MB of inbuilt memory. However, Sony has prevented moans about this by including a 1GB memory card in the phone package. You can store up to 1000 songs on the card, thus freeing up the memory on your phone for images and the like.

Speaking of images, another notable feature is the 2MP camera on the W850i. Sony Ericsson is renowned for the camera capabilities on the brand’s phones. The images are crystal clear and of such high a quality that no other brand even comes close. It is easy to use and change modes. The location of the lens makes it possible to hold it as you would a normal camera so you do have more control over the image and better pictures as a result.

There are a few weaknesses in the W850i’s make up though. For example, it can be irritating to scroll through your entire play list to find one song using the navigation buttons. It is less of a gripe because the buttons make navigation effortless, but it does waste time needlessly. The battery life could also be better considering the music functionality. It is supposed to have 7 hours call time fully charged, but in reality it is probably half that.

The Sony Ericsson W850i is the complete phone as far as impressive features go. If you are looking for the ultimate camera/music package, then this phone may just be the one for you. The quality of the phone and its functionality is undisputed and, if you can handle the few minor faults it does have, it will serve you well.

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