Sony Ericsson W890i Review

The W890i is a very nice-looking, superslim Walkman phone, with a metal finish and available in a choice of silver or brown. This is one of the best Walkman phones ever. It features a music player with 2GB of memory, an FM radio, a 3 megapixel camera, 3G video calling, Bluetooth & USB connectivity and HSDPA for superfast downloads. With a user-friendly keypad and a quality feel, Sony Ericsson are back on top form, and we recommend this phone.

The W890i looks very similar to its predecessor - it's a classic design superslim phone with a user-friendly keypad and a nice 5-way navigation key, plus dedicated music keys. At 10mm it's one of the thinnest phones around and is super-lightweight at 78g. Available in a choice of colours - Sparkling Silver or Mocha Brown, it's a smart and good-looking phone. The metallic finish gives a feeling of quality missing from the cheaper Walkman phones.
Musically speaking, this Walkman phone delivers everything that we could want. The latest Walkman player software is the best in the business, and the sound quality is high, especially if you plug in a stereo headset.

The camera has been upgraded too to 3.2 megapixels, but lacks autofocus. Video calling is supported, as the W890i is a 3G phone. You can record video clips too, and even edit them with the VideoDJ software supplied. The display is a high quality TFT screen with 262,000 colours and 240 x 320 pixels.

A new feature for the W890i is HSDPA (nicknamed 3.5G) - a faster implementation of 3G that enables downloads at up to 3.6Mbps - that's 12 times faster than normal 3G. The W890i is quadband GSM too, so it can operate on any continent in either 2G or 3G mode.

Other features worth a mention include 3D Java games, a web browser plus support for RSS web feeds, and flight mode.

We really like the W890i. It fixes all of the problems that were present in the W880i, and is a sign that Sony Ericsson may have turned the corner after a disappointing year in 2007. This is a classic Walkman phone with great music features and a quality superslim design. It doesn't have the best camera, but it does have the benefit of fast 3G and a host of other features. No phone does everything, but if your focus is music, this is definitely in our shortlist of best phones to choose from in 2008.

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