Review: Sony Ericsson W950i (part 4 - summing up)

Score:
79%

Ewan closes out his Sony Ericsson W950i review and finishes on a positive note...

Previous review parts - Introduction and Music  - UIQ 3 interface - The Applications

W950Looking back on my review of the W950i leaves me with an interesting thought. If the W950i had been a bad phone, there wouldn’t have been as much to write about. The length and depth is a testament to just how good it  actually is. The W950i is not perfect though, and if Sony Ericsson can keep the focus groups and designers on track, the W950i mk 2 is going to (hopefully) get a lot of the kinks out of the system.

Speaking of The Kinks (well, it is a music phone) it is the Walkman branding that is going to sell the phone, and the application that (naturally) sums up the phone… "the little walkman that could". There’s no doubt that the Walkman functionality in the phone is an absolute killer. 4GB measures up nicely to the iPod Nano and the other music-based smartphones on the market. Having a keypad to help you search for music is a huge advantage over a scroll wheel or list, and being able to use the handwriting recognition to find a track is more of a real leap forward.

While the W950i is the sixth Walkman smartphone in the Sony Ericsson range, it is the first UIQ powered one, and to be honest it does feel more like a first generation device rather than sixth. Sony Ericsson has kept a lot of the UI from the existing Walkman phones. Which explains the initial layout of the icons on the application launcher, but not why we can’t alter the layout to what the end user wants.

I have stressed in the review (see links above) that the W950i is geared to a specific target audience, I think that there’s just a little too much focus on replicating similar styled phones. The earlier Walkman phones may be regarded as non-smartphones, but they still packed a lot of functionality. People coming to this device are going to expect something a bit more than a dumb phone, even those upgrading from the W900. And I think Sony Ericsson have gone too far in their quest to try and hide as much complexity of the UIQ interface and make the music the unique selling point when marketing the device. This is missing the whole idea of a smartphone.

If I wanted something that only played music, my choices are legion. If I want a phone that plays MP3, I’ve a huge range of medium to low end phones. If I want something that can do music, my email, my diary, play a few games, read my RSS feeds, pretend to run a nightclub, have hundreds of third party apps (eventually) loaded into the device – then the W950i is the best phone to do it in.

The W950i is pitched as a Walkman Phone with Extras. It’s much more than that. And while some of the applications are a touch rough at the edges, you could happily use the W950i as your pocket computer during the day. The crunch for me is what I’m going to do now the big review articles are over. Does the W950i stay in my pocket for day to day use, or does it sit on the desk for compatibility testing?

It's staying in my pocket. For every little thing that annoys me, there’s something else nice about the device. The weight for one (it’s incredibly light compared to some of the 'phones' that I carry around). The gorgeous QVGA screen. And there's the battery life, which just about exceeded my best expectation. Sure, I’d love an update to the firmware to get round its little foibles, but for now it’s the little bundle of entertainment that keeps me happy!

Ewan Spence, 4th Feb 2007

W950 Keypad



Resources

Sony Ericsson W950i Review Part 1 (Music)
Sony Ericsson W950i Review Part 2 (UIQ interface)
Sony Ericsson W950i Review Part 3 (Applications)

Sony Ericsson W950i Preview

Sony Ericsson W950i Forum

Sony Ericsson W950i Software

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