Z10 will hardly prove to be effective, that is why G700 and G900 will promote UIQ-technology in the nearest future The latest model W960i by Sony Ericsson is of interest, it may automatically be considered a niche product, just a range offer in comparison to such impressive news on the mass market. A low demand made SE lower the price of W960i almost up to the level of Z10.

W960i develops the idea of W950i that makes a multimedia couple with P1i that we examined last year and it became the so called "golden mean" between the too big and heavy P990i and the rather simple M600i, however it is not very popular just as we forecast. On the market, P1i replaced the M610i that was never released and became the follow-up to a not very successful M600i having a similar design, but with a camera and Wi-Fi which lacked in the previous model, and being a worthy alternative to P990i.

The device combines all the advantages of its predecessors adding to them its own bonuses. Among the most important of them we shall mention the powerful camera: 3.2 Mp with autofocusing that places the device in the same line with the last year leaders Cyber-shot (K790i/K800i). The new Walkman is nothing else than this P1i with some changes and additions, here are some of them:

- Walkman 3.0
- 8 Gb of storage
- New design
- No expansion slot
- Cover glass
- Lesser battery capacity
- No IR port
- Dedicated volume keys

Let us compare the specifications of W960i and P1i:

Model::	Sony Ericsson P1i	Sony Ericsson W960i
Supported networks:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 + UMTS 2100, GPRS	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 + UMTS 2100, GPRS
Operating system::	Symbian OS 9.1, UIQ 3.0	Symbian OS 9.1, UIQ 3.0
Storage:	160 Mb, M2 slot card for 512 Mb bundled	8 Gb, no slot
Screen:	2,6” , QVGA (240х320), 262K, touchscreen	2,6” , QVGA (240х320), 262K, touchscreen
Connectivity:	USB2.0, IR port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP supported	USB2.0, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP supported
Camera:	3.2 Mp (up to 2048x2536), with autofocusing	3.2 Mp (up to 2048x2536), with autofocusing
Battery:	BST-40, capacity: 1120 m h	BST-33, capacity: 900 m h
Dimensions:	106 x 55 x 17 мм	109 x 55 x 16 мм
Weight:	124 g	119 g
Guiding price:	285 Euro	375 Euro

As we see, in spite of some differences the solutions are quite similar to each other, that is why for the peculiarities of functionality realization see our test of P1i and here we shall examine only the differences of the Walkman-series of the last year QWERTY-smartphone, and focus on the rivals among whom the most important is Nokia N81 8GB.

Design, ergonomics

We liked the design of W960i more than that of P1i, but the latter looks more respectable. Such a gap is done for the sake of potential buyers: the business-smartphone has a stricter form while the multimedia one got a design that mostly young people will like. Unfortunately there is only one possible color scheme: the black one that constricts the percentage of women among the customers. The back side, in a fashion similar to its more businesslike counterpart, has a soft-touch coating, though the face panel is more prone to greasing because of its even surface.

W960i has a cover glass under the screen that made it on the same level with the body. It is more important as it may seem for you can use just your fingers instead of a stylus, it is possible and much easier. P1i has a traditionally sunken into the surface display and this effect is lost, though the models have a similar manner of typing: SonyEricsson did not introduce any analogs to a launcher from XPERIA to W960i. Besides the new device equals P1i in width and length, though it is not so thick which makes it easier to hold it in your hand.

QWERTY-keyboard is replaced to an alphanumeric one which is quite a loss. In P1i this element is poorly realized in comparison to Nokia E61i: the rocker buttons working only in one keyboard layout, Cyrillic or Roman, depending on the region. As a result the type rate is not high enough and the customers underestimated it.

The keyboard of W960i is not ideal either, but it is more convenient, though you have to get used to it for segmentation lacks there and blind typing provokes mistakes. There is again no joystick or a navigation key which is strangely inherited from its predecessors, we still advise SE to think of adding this element in its smartphones, without it ergonomics cannot be assessed positively. Besides programmable call keys are not always convenient, it would be better to have dedicated keys, like in N81 8GB.

The move of the back button from the left side to the face panel is difficult to evaluate objectively: some people may like it, for example we did because it also has a blocking function when pressing, and it is not customary for everyone to look for it on the left side any time you wish to block the keyboard. Next to it there is a dedicated player key that became traditional for Walkman and reduces it to icon on second pressing. In the player mode the scroll wheel is used for list flip and not for volume adjustment as it was in P1i, W960i has a dedicated set of elements on the right for it. Control sensors are realized surprisingly well, there are no problems with them. They are invisible in other than the player modes which is one more advantage of the design.

The scroll wheel is identical to that in P1i, it is rather convenient , though it lacks the functionality of previous the models of P-series: there is only scrolling and input. Besides on the sides there is a two-position camera (with autofocusing), dedicated volume keys (in P1i this function was devoted to the scroll wheel) and the On/Off button. The quality of the stylus is average by all aspects, P1i has a more convenient and a more pleasant one.

Audio

W960i phones are provided with a headset HM-70, its quality is better that that from the P1i set, and the other audio possibilities are equal. The company Sony Ericsson do not still use in their music models a separate sound chip and does not provide a 3.5 mm slot on the body, that makes Walkman look poorer in comparison with its rivals, there is the same difference between N81 8GB and Nokia, for instance. The latter is characterized by a better quality of playback from loudspeaker and wire headset, as well as by a better realization of A2DP, that was always a strong point of the company products. By the way there is no control panel on the headset's wire that reduces the ergonomics its usage as a music phone.

The player in this phone is absolutely different from that of its predecessor and it is one of the strongest points of W960i. As it was indicated above there is a dedicated key for its launching and reducing to the background and a sensor line of three elements for controlling the playback. This feature is also available on the main screen when the player is on the background and its status line is extracted which is very convenient. You can use not only cable for downloading files to flash-memory, but also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi which becomes important for 8 Gb of internal storage. A wire connection by USB2.0 is made through a special connector, as it was the case of P1i, but its rate is sensibly higher. It is a great achievement if we remember the capacity of the available storage.

Unlike P1i, there is a possibility of displaying the main screen as Walkman-stylized. When you choose this style more information on the played song is displayed, even the album icon if it is available. The interface of the player itself is also very pleasant, in particular we shall notice a very interesting visualization with five effects and is shown as a background under playback status. Among interesting functional news there is the Mood setting that allows to set the mood of the music to be played: an extra type of sorting, but unfortunately it has to be done manually. The smartphone cannot automatically define the tempo of the songs and place them accordingly in separate mood categories.

Sorting is another strong feature of Walkman 3.0 in W960i. Apart from Moods there is also a system of Auto Playlists including rated songs, the most demanded, the latest added as well as the least played and the last played. Besides there is also Time machine for sorting according to the date and Bookmarks for making bookmarks in the songs that may be useful for audiobooks-lovers. Such a variety may not be found even with Nokia music-phones. Of course standard categories Artists, Albums, Tracks and so on are present in the phone, and the main select menu traditionally resembles a stylized Sony PSP.

Playlists are not limited by the number of songs, there are eleven equalizers from usual Rock and Pop to the original Spoken word. We liked immensely the function Sleep: automatic deactivating in a definite time. A rich functionality of Walkman 3.0 is thoroughly thought for a visual perception: there is animation on the main screen if the player works in the background, and the interface is very well from the ergonomic point of view: there are keys of adding the song to Favorites, Rating and Mood as well as settings of playback and equalizers.

An impression might arise that W960i features an ideal player but is not so, it also has its drawbacks, for example there are no user settings of the equalizer and not many supported formats (MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, M4A): smartphones by Motorola is consistent with RA and others, and iPhone even with Audible. The latter has a better sound quality, in this respect W960i is unfortunately inferior to many phones, - absence of a sound chip affects the quality even in the volume which is apparently not enough, and a necessity of changing the brand Fast-port to 3.5 mm only adds noises.

Like P1i it has an integrated FM-tuner and the music analyzer TrackID, they can work together. Radio in W960i is very well organized from the program and operation point of view , but it has the already mentioned drawback: low volume of dynamic, in a noisy place you will hardly hear it . Perhaps developers in SE believe that if the tuner does nor work without a headset people will listen to music only through it. TrackID is realized rather traditionally. A similar service is being implemented by Samsung as well, by the base of Sony is much bigger, that is why Walkman has far-sighted advantages.

Miscellaneous

Apart from the mentioned details practically nothing changed in W960i in comparison with P1i. Let us notice the battery with a shorter life that made a time of autonomous work shorter. Let us compare it with the previous P1i and the next N81 8GB:

Model	Sony Ericsson W960i	Sony Ericsson P1i	Nokia N81 8GB
Normal duty	1.5-2 days	2 days	1.5-2 days
Multimedia-cycle, video (3GP))	3:50	4:11	3:45
Multimedia-cycle, audio (MP3))	14:41	19:42	11:50

Obviously even making an allowance to a shorter battery life W960i is still a very good solution as far as the work time is concerned which is traditional for Sony Ericsson solutions. The Java performance did not change:

Model	Sony Ericsson W960i	Sony Ericsson P1i	Nokia N81 8GB
Jbenchmark 1.1.1 Score	4284	4194	5618
Text	1346	1105	1583
2D Shapes	1132	1065	1451
3D Shapes	354	478	697
Fill Rate	214	173	373
Animation	1332	1373	1514
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	242	276	595
Image Manipulations	225	273	379
Text	460	454	718
Sprites	263	202	535
3D Transform	574	619	906
User Interface	73	103	594
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	530	555	203
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	519	536	376
Triangles ps	12438	40749	52067
KTexels ps	4103	2821	3452
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	198 (6.6 fps)	201 (6.7 fps)	162 (5.4 fps)
Smooth triangles	72534	75274	104296