tech: Sony Ericsson W902 Phone

Sony Ericsson has tended to focus on delivering phones for two different crowds - it appeals to happy snappers with its Cyber-shot models and then there is the Walkman range for people who like music. But how’s about all of us who want both, who want more, who want everything…for us there’s now the WalkmanW902.

So what’s new? Well as well as the usual Walkman Gizmos such as being able to select tracks by mood, and the really impressive sound quality we’ve come to expect from this range, the W902 also packs in a 5 megapixel camera AND a whole host of photo editing tools.

All of this in a device that is surprisingly light. The phone isn’t particularly small or compact but it is nice looking. We had the Volcanic Black model but there’s also Wine Red and Earth Green. The phone is a mix of matt and shiny, shiny plastic but we guessed its textured design is supposed to mimic carbon fibre. Badly.

The keys are fairly standard, and you can use the central D-pad for navigation and track control. This is fine but it’s just crying out for an iPod style nav wheel here. The screen is clear and bright, but at 2.2″ it’s just a little bit small compared to other phones we’ve seen.

As well as the D-pad - you have slimline keys on the right side of the phone to navigate through your tracks as well as turn the volume up and down. This is very handy and far easier than using the keys on the front of the phone. There’s also a Walkman hotkey on the top of the phone, and it took me a while to work out that this fires up the music player as opposed to turning off the phone.

This activates the phone’s Shake Control mechanism, which uses an accelerometer to rotate the display, and also allows you to flick the phone left and right to change tracks, and up and down to change the volume. I found this a tad gimmicky as it didn’t always work and I looked a bit daft trying to do it anyways.

Onto the music features and standard playback is exactly as you’d expect. You also get Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow service, TrackID, and the rather amusing SensMe music analysis tool, which apparently thinks Snoop Doggy Dogg is what you listen to when you’re feeling sad. But well done to Sony Ericsson for including a decent pair of headphones, a 3.5mm adaptor and support for Bluetooth earphones.

From tracks to snaps, and the five megapixel camera. Ok so you still get the shutter lag we’ve come to expect on mobile phone cameras, but the picture quality is a notable improvement, with those 5 megapixels really paying dividends. You get a range of settings to tweak your shots from white balance and scene options as well as multi-shot, panorama and image colourisation options. And there’s an image stabiliser - though this didn’t really seem to do that much.

Coupled with the phone’s mapping capabilities, you can also add metadata to your shots just to show off although this isn’t GPS but cellsite mapping. There is video recording and playback, but this is absolutely run of the mill.

Finally - this is a HSDPA phone so connectivity to the web is sharpish and you can do nice things like access RSS feeds but there’s no Wi-Fi. So what’s the verdict on the 902? Well, the options for the musico are impressive and the sound quality is a massive draw. If Sony would give me the 8 meg camera I know they’ve got kicking around their labs, as it’s extremely amazing this would be 5 stars.

For the best of the rest:

Your Mobile Phone Reviews:
The W902 is a 3G music phone which comes in a stunning solid bodied casing which comes in a choice of three fashionable colour options. The user can chose from an earth green coloured casing, a wine red coloured casing or a volcanic black coloured casing depending how much the user wants to stand out in a crowd. The Sony Ericsson W902 is a member of the music orientated Sony Ericsson Music Phones family & what a sophisticated member this is.

Mobile Phone Uk:
Sony Ericsson’s premium Walkman phone is one of the best music phones of all time, bundled with high quality headphones, an 8GB memory card, FM radio with RDS and a brilliant 5 megapixel camera too.

Mobiles.co.uk:
Last week at Mobiles.co.uk, we managed to get our grubby mitts on a Sony Ericsson W902, the latest and arguably most complete member of the Walkman family to date thanks to a wealth of features in both music and other departments. So we generously put the question to our readers; what do you want to know about the W902? What would you like us to focus on? And after being literally bombarded with comments (3 to be precise) here is our user experience. Hope this answers your questions…