Today Sony Ericsson comes to astonish us with their W980i brand new clamshell. It has a functionality slightly above the average level, but possesses a few traits that make it a unique offer. A music phone, the leading Walkman model equipped with an 8 Gb onboard storage and a set of touch buttons on the face panel, it offers the user a music player of an unchallenged usability and extremely comfortable controls. Design is probably the strongest side of this phone, making this handset one of the best fashion phones of this year.

Sony Ericsson W980i Specs: :

• Connectivity: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 + UMTS/HSDPA 850/2100
• Storage: 8 Gb of user memory
• Screen: 2,2" , QVGA (240х320), 262K + 1,7" , 176x176, 262K
• Connectivity: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP is supported
• Camera: 3.2 Mp (до 2536х1944), video (QVGA 30 fps)
• Battery: BST-38, capacity - 930 mAh (9 hours of talktime / 380 hours of standby)
• Measurements: 92 x 46 x 16,9 mm
• Weight: 100 g
• Recommended price: €350

Design and Ergonomics

Sony Ericsson W980i is a mid-sized clamshell, probably a bit thicker than others. In real life, it even makes an advantage; the handset is very comfortable to hold in the hand. Most other clamshells of comparable size (Nokia 6600 fold, Samsung G400) are either less feature-rich or targeted at a different audience.

The handset looks really charming, bearing a subtle touch of classicism. The materials vary in texture and feel, even the opening angle is different from the established standard. The hinge is concealed within the casing. Small details designed with great care give the product an eerie, bewitching feel. In an opened state, the phone resembles Z600i . The mirror face panel has a wet asphalt texture looks very smooth and solid, save for three concentric circles that turn out to be the player sensor controls. That’s an unique design feat; other similar solutions either have these buttons integrated with the exterior screen itself (Motorola RAZR2 V8, MOTO U9) or use conventional mechanical buttons. Either way is equally comfortable, but we really liked this unusual design. Tapping on one of these buttons responds with a brief vibration, providing some sort of tactile feedback. A more detailed overview of the model’s exterior controls is reviewed in a later section of this article. The glossy surface is frail plastic, very vulnerable to physical damage. But many similar gadgets are plagued by the same issue, Nokia 6600 fold probably being even more prone to scratching in this sense.

Right above the touch buttons resides a large square-shaped exterior screen sporting a resolution of 176x176 pixels. That’s even more than any Nokia phone has. A transparent plexiglass plate and an orange LED flash sit at the bottom of the clamshell’s upper half. In the player mode, the LED emits a strong pulsing light, following the beat of the playing tune. A Walkman logo remains visible through the plexiglass when the clamshell is closed.

The side edges are made from matte black plastic with a soft-touch coating. The volume rocker, exterior screen mode switch and the exterior buttons blocker are all located on the right edge, the left housing a Fast-port connector and a small LED indicator pulsing in green. Sony Ericsson W980i is one of the few SE phones sporting the luxury of stereo speakers; those are located on either side of the casing and provide a rich, loud sounding.

The back panel houses the camera lens stripped of any protective elements; that means you will have to clean the lens prior to each shooting session. The camera is deprived of a flash or auto-focusing capability, which looks a bit weird against the background of comparable models from the same price bracket. The battery bay cover is crafted from a thin plastic, but sits very tight.

Keyboard

The numerical keyboard of Sony Ericsson is very easy in operation and ensures an unmatched comfort; the buttons have a nice travel, stray keystrokes is something you must forget about when using this phone. The current generation of cell phones mostly have flat keyboards crafted from a solid metal or plastic plate, the buttons are poorly segmented and the depth of travel is very limited. In W980i, the designers preserved a maximum usability without doing any harm to the device’s good looks.

The buttons are made from a matte plastic, with markings clearly visible from a distance. The set of keys is analogous to many recent models by the company, sporting extra buttons for launching the media player and powering the handset off and on. The keyboard backlight is dull white but switches to a rich orange when if the player application is launched. Two finger rests are located along either side of the screen, preventing direct contact between the screen and the fingers.

Screens and exterior buttons

The main screen has a diagonal of 2,2 inches (32x44), the matrix is powered by the TFT technology and has a palette of 262K colors. The screen resolution is standard: 240x320 pixels. That’s enough for 12 lines of text to be displayed simultaneously. The screen has a mirror backing, which is very helpful in defeating direct sunlight. The matrix is of an excellent quality, the colors look very natural and saturated, the brightness is also fine. The view angles are great, the information stays legible almost at any angle. Unlike some other Sony Ericsson models (W902, C905), this one doesn’t have a mineral protective glass, a plain plastic piece instead.

The exterior screen is remarkable for a points; first, it has a resolution of 176x176 and a diagonal of 1,76 inches that makes 26x26 millimeters. That’s more than any Nokia phone can boast, but less than Motorola V8 or Samsung G400 has. The picture is visible from a distance, provided that it doesn’t face direct sunlight. The glossy coating of the casing results in serious glaring. The exterior screen has no brightness settings; the brightness is bound to a generic average level by the manufacturer. Likewise, there’s no option for setting a custom wallpaper, the background depending on the current interface theme.

The exterior screen features a lot of indicators shown in the player or radio mode, but no other modes are available. Nokias and Motorolas use their exterior screens for viewing messages, log calls, selecting profiles and other generic actions, while Samsung went even further, giving G400 an exterior touchscreen. Things are much simpler for W980i, the touch buttons are only used for browsing the playlist and switching tracks. In the radio mode, the buttons are used to switch between the stations. The album cover isn’t shown, no caller picture is available during incoming calls likewise. The mode switch is located on the right edge.

Battery

The model is powered by a BST-38, 930 mAh battery. The manufacturer claims a battery life spanning up to 9 hours of talk time or 400 hours of standby. A normal duty cycle (about an hour of talking, two hours of listening to the music and camera work and an hour of menu navigation and playing around with miscellaneous functions) drained a full battery charge over about three days, which is just fine for a device from that class. Generally, other SE phones score similar results. Probably Sony Ericsson have run short of power-saving tricks or view further developments on this path overly expensive, difficult or simply unnecessary for the time being.

The Walkman series products all share the traditional strength of a firmware power saving scheme which boosts the battery life in the player mode. W980i isn’t an exception to the rule: in Flight Mode, it can be playing music for a whole 28 hours before a full battery charge fades down to zero. This is one of the most impressive scores, on a level with gadgets like Nokia N85 is only second to Nokia 5800 (which belongs to a different product class) .

Battery Sony Ericsson С905

	Nokia N85	Sony Ericsson W980i
Normal Duty	3,5 days	3 days
Video playback	5:28	4:25
Continous mp3 cycle	26:45	28:21

Connectivity

Just like with the rest of 3G-compatible models by the company, a frontal cam for video calls is available. HSDPA is fully supported, but the model lacks an infrared port. Expectedly, you get Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. It works just fine. We didn’t have any problems with the wireless headsets either. The following profiles are supported;

• Basic Imaging
• Dial-up Networking
• File Transfer
• Generic Access
• Generic Object Exchange
• Handsfree
• Headset
• HID
• JSR-82 Java API
• Object Push
• Personal Area Networking
• Serial Port
• Synchronization
• SyncML OBEX binding
• Audio/Video Remote Control
• Phonebook Access

The Flight Mode is in a way crippled: you have to keep the SIM card inserted even when the GSM unit is switched off, otherwise the phone won’t let use certain features like the player and camera after booting. Perhaps this is one of the biggest disadvantages of all Sony Ericsson gadgets.

USB 2.0 is used for cable communication, though the real speed is substantially lower than the presumed maximum, only equaling to about 800 Kbytes per second. Mass Storage, PictBridge and Modem connection types are supported. The required mode is selectable from the corresponding menu. Both the onboard memory and flash card storage were accessible during a test Mass Storage connection. Phone-to-PC synchronization is possible with the aid of the Sony Ericsson PC Suite software which comes on a CD in the sales package. The only really disappointing thing is the awkward location of the headset jack.

Nothing was subject to change in the browser, remaining the good old NetFront 3.4. The feature list contains entries like a picture saving option, the SmartFit feature, switching to horizontal mode, page zooming, etc. But OperaMini is always preferable due to its superior functionality, NetFront 3.4 being a beginner’s choice.

The integrated FM tuner supports the TrackID service and RDS. An autosave feature is included into the radio functionality, as well as a bookmark list enough for storing 20 favorite stations. The application interface is very user-friendly. The signal quality stays on a high level, the same is true for sound volume.

Java Performance

Just as typically expected of a Sony Ericsson product, the Java functionality enjoys an excellent implementation, including support for 3D profiles and an opportunity to send midlets over Bluetooth. The performance stands up to the respectable level of K850i. So far the only Sony Ericsson handset to feature an updated Java framework is C905.

	Java Performance
Model	Sony Ericsson W980i	Nokia N85
Jbenchmark 1.0.1 Score	7011	6271
Text	2197	1821
2D Shapes	1705	1595
3D Shapes	816	756
Fill Rate	555	412
Animation	1699	1800
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	1221	598
Image Manipulations	402	380
Text	756	722
Sprites	583	535
3D Transform	765	706
User Interface	3945	591
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	167	204
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	305	368
Triangles ps	32956	51919
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	95 (3.2 fps)	144 (5.0 fps)
Smooth triangles	44004	102634
Textured triangles	25433	83654
Fill rate, KTexels	556	2181

User Interface

Sony Ericsson W980i bases off the A200 platform, so it fully retains the base feature pack. In case you haven’t done it yet, we advise reading our article touching on the subtlest details of the A200 base functionality. The W980i uses the standardized pack of messaging, media and PIM features:

Sony Ericsson A200 Platform: Base Functionality Overview

A variety of user themes are available, each very different in its own way. The main menu, just as before, uses the three standard viewmodes: icon grid, merry-go-round or a single large icon per screen. The menus make an extensive use of animation and transition effects including some nice pop-up windows. Sony Ericsson products probably have even better looking menu graphics than the S40v6 Nokia ones, but the performance leaves much to be desired.

Preinstalled Software Package>

The default software package is quite standard, including applications like AccuWeather (weather forecast viewer), StandbyWorld (a variety of clocks with customizable time zones to be shown on the screen during standby; you can have several clocks replacing one another in a loop, all running with different time zone settings) and WalkMate, a pedometer program. The latter application makes use of the onboard accelerometer, but the accuracy is a bit disappointing. The Music Quiz program provides a plain ‘guess the tune’ entertainment using the tracks stored in the phone’s storage space. The quicker you give the correct answers, the more points you score.

Google Maps is one of the standard components of the A200 platform; a full-fledged GPS receiver stands for precise hardware GPS navigation. Models lacking such a unit (like Z770i or W890i) have to do the positioning by processing the acquired coordinates of the closest carrier stations. Google Maps is free; the program comes fully configured and has a number of extra settings in addition to the standard functionality of the base version. You can choose the preferred system of measures, to precise map scaling, add chosen locations to your favorites list, customize the route calculation routine and search by locations and bookmarks. The application interface is rather handy; the downsides are a lack of possibility to recalculate the route or save it. Nokia Maps 2.0 available to most existing smartphones offers a much better functionality and comfort of operation, remaining the market's leading solution.

Multimedia Features

The Media menu uses the same outline with the rest of A200-based devices, bearing a strong Sony PSP influence. The integrated accelerometer automatically switches the screen alignment. The menu contains the following items: Photo, Music, Video and Settings, RSS feeds, TV and Games. We really liked the graphics and animations. The menu performance is rather quick, at least we never experienced any lags.

The Shake Control feature enables the user to control the music players by shaking the phone in a specific fashion. A total of four different actions are available: switching to the next, previous or random track, done by forward, backward or chaotic shaking correspondingly; leaning the handset forward and backward increases or decreases the sound volume. Shake Control is activated by holding the Walkman button, the handset won’t react if you try shaking it without keeping the said button pressed.

The player interface is probably the best solution of the kind on the market. Features and options come in plenty, the thing is very easy to operate and any action requires minimum effort. The playback settings include looped or random playback, sorting the tracks by artist and genre, etc. The enhanced stereo mode looks more like a minor selling point than an actual feature, bringing about no actual improvement of sound quality. Progressive track rewinding is supported. The visualization options include an Album Art logo, Walkman Lines and Inner Twirl. There aren’t any full-blown alternate player themes available, unlike with Nokia products.

The playlists are organized in a smart fashion. It’s possible to add tracks one by one or a bunch at a time, simply by marking the checkboxes next to the track titles. There’s no track limit for each individual playlist. W980i comes with eight equalizer presets, ranging from traditional Rock and Pop to the firmware Mega Bass mode. It’s possible to sort out the most and least frequently played tracks automatically. In a way different from UIQ-based smartphones like G700/G900, W960i, this handset has an Auto Playlists feature, allowing to filter content by rating, date, or within a specified period of time (Time Machine). The equalizers got some really nice graphics.

Just like in Sony Ericsson W760i or W902, the Clear Audio Experience technology is on the feature list, consisting of three components: Clear Bass, Clear Stereo and a quality headset included in the sales package. The Clear Audio was a timely addition to the Walkman handsets, the new hi-end Walkmans sound considerably better and have a higher sound volume compared to the previous models. It should always be kept in mind, though, that the said enhancements are entirely software-side with no real dedicated sound processing hardware being implemented. Just like with W902, the higher frequencies don’t get muffled when the basses kick in, different equalizer settings have a pronounced effect on the sounding.

The most interesting point about this Walkman’s music player is the availability of the SensMe feature. As claimed by the manufacturing company, it allows to automatically pick the sort of music fitting your current mood. Playlists can now be composed according to a chosen tempo or genre in addition to the habitual album and artist criteria. The unique visualizer assigns a pixel to each track within a square matrix. Depending on the mood of the song, it may be positioned farther from or closer to the vertical and horizontal axes.

The mood of each track is identified by the Media Manager PC application during times of synchronization. The user doesn’t have to specify anything, a single run of the SenseMe analyzer (taking some minutes depending on the amount of data processed) is enough to automatically classify all uploaded tracks. You can optionally force automatic SenseMe sorting for every uploaded track. The analysis will be running in the background, so you won’t even notice it.

Navigating the ‘mood matrix’ is no serious business indeed – just use the navigation button to skip from one track to another. Once you’ve found something to your liking, set a custom radius around this point, and all the tracks falling within will be grabbed and added to the playlist. That’s how you find an effortless way for composing themed playlists; the best thing you could imagine after a hard day’s work when you are too tired to pick the songs manually. Many skeptics argued that such a functionality would find but a very limited use, but the practice proves the opposite.

The TrackID service enjoys a fair implementation. Using it you can record a fragment from the currently played song (on radio or in the player) and upload it to the web for identification. If the sample is recognized as belonging to one of the track stored in the database, the song title and performer name are sent back in a message; all identified (and hence found in the database) songs are available for purchase. The service should prove interesting for a youth audience, especially combined with the FM tuner functionality: an unfamiliar song can be 'captured', 'probed ' and downloaded in a matter of minutes.

The radio player uses a standard set of interface features, bundled with an FM-transmitter plugin. It allows broadcasting the radio signal to any compatible audio-system within a radius of roughly three feet. If the transmitter is moved farther, the connection is likely to release, but nevertheless it serves its main purpose – the use inside a car. There aren’t any specific settings, the only parameter you have to specify is the desired FM frequency.

The bundled headset is one of the best of its kind. It’s a HPM-77 with a 3.5 mm connector adapter. The maximum volume is sufficient for most environments and the sounding keeps on a level above the usual quality of most SE handsets, standing on par with W902.

Camera

W980i is equipped with a plain 3.2 Mp cam lacking any auto-focusing capability. Neither you will get a flash, and the camera application has but a very basic interface. All the settings are only accessible through the context menu – in other words, this music-focused solution had its camera features cut mercilessly. At the same time, W902 does have a quality camera and a Cyber-shot styled interface.

The brightness is adjusted by pressing the volume button, zooming is done with the navigation button. In the viewfinder mode, a variety of status indicators are shown on the screen, yet these are too scarce to compete with the smart Cyber-shot interface. The top bars shows the current brightness and zoom factors, the storage location for saved files. Switching between the photo and video modes is done by pressing the navigation button left or right.

The settings come in a standard pack::

Photo:

• Shoot modes: Normal, Panorama, Frames, Burst
• Scenes: Auto, Twilight landscape, Twilight portrait, Landscape, Portrait, Beach/Snow, Sports, Document
• Picture size: 3 MP (2048x1536), 2 MP (1632x1224), 1 MP (1280x960), VGA (640x480)
• Self-timer: 3, 5, 10
• Effects: Off, Black & white, Negative, Sepia
• White balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent
• Picture quality: Normal, Fine
• Shutter sounds: On, Off
• Turn on time and date: Adds a timestamp to the file
• Geo-tagging: Adds a geo tag

Video:

• Shoot modes: Normal, Panorama, Frames, Burst
• Video size: QVGA (320x240), QCIF (176x144)
• Night mode: Да
• Turn on/off microphone: Off, Auto
• Reset file number: Same with camera
• Effects: Off, Black & white, Negative, Sepia

The photo quality is passable, but isn’t likely to impress anyone, especially because of the missing auto-focusing feature. You’d have to be shooting in a very strong light to get a decent picture. In darker environments, the photos turn out very poor. The camera obviously was missing from the developers’ key feature list for this phone. In principle, such an approach is acceptable for mid-end devices, but we were a little surprised to see a camera like that in a top fashion model. On the other hand, there was little reason to shift the priorities towards camera and associated functionality in a model primarily designed to be a powerful music phone. The target audience of this model isn’t likely to be looking for an outstanding camera, so the developers’ choice is excusable.

Smape's opinion

Sony Ericsson W980i is the best looking music phone enveloped in an aura of elegance and uniqueness. No other model on the market can challenge it on this front, so its high price is fully justified despite the modest functionality. W980i started selling in mid-August, and is currently priced at 470 euros. Such a sum would enable you to pick a far more functional solution, but scarcely anything comparable in style.

We have been using the phone for a whole two months, a span of time quite sufficient to give full assessment to its reliability and quality of assembly. The mirror face panel is rather prone to scratching, so careful handling is highly advisable. The easily soiled casing may feel annoying at the very begging, but sooner or later you get used to it; the choice of materials makes the fingerprints appear less noticeable. The base hinge is reliable, the opening angle is optimal. Combined with the compact size and weight, this makes the gadget very easy to handle. It wouldn’t qualify as a ‘slim slider’, but the extra bit of thickness helps to keep the dimensions optimal. A pair of quality stereo speakers, an ideal ergonomics of the numerical keypad, the availability of dedicated player and radio buttons, a dedicated keyboard blocker, the quality plastic – all these goodies create an impression of a phone where every detail is given an ultimate value.

You would be bitterly disappointed if you expected a top audio quality; it’s still high enough for the phone to pass for a hi-end music handset, but certain models offer a perceptibly better sounding. The Sony Clear Audio Experience technology does affect the sounding, but doesn’t help the quality much for a lack of dedicated hardware components. Nevertheless Sony Ericsson W980i and W902 are good enough to please the listener’s ear and offer a quantity of advanced equalizers and control options. The player interface, - usual of Sony Ericsson, - is perfect, you get Shake Control, Sense Me and FM radio on top of the rest of the things.

Which model should be named the real flagship of the Walkman line? The W980i clamshell or the more traditional W902, differing in form factor, camera profile and lacking an onboard flash storage unit? There’s little sense in an attempt to analyze; the two phones perfectly complement each other, share a comparable price and gorgeous exterior, and for sure will leave no-one untouched. Clamshells are scarce on the market these days, a hi-end clamshell is a rare encounter, in fact. This eliminates competition in any form as far as W980i is concerned.

Related Links

Review: Sony Ericsson W902

Review: Sony Ericsson C905

Review: Nokia N85

Author: Anton Spiridonov, spiridonov@corp.mail.ru

SMAPE.com

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