VC’s Techie CockTail

This is one of the first sliders by Sony Ericsson almost two years , bringing out its elder sibling W850i with 3G support. The W830i is a triband phone with only GPRS / EDGE support. One of my friends has recently got this and my first impression of getting my hands on it was that it is definitely “stubbier” than the recent crop of SE sliders like W580i & W910i . Here are some of my views on this walkman+phone ,

• Even though its bulky at 106g its construction seems very solid and the slider mechanism looks good
• It has a somewhat retro feel to make it a cool looking slider phone. The walkman key below the screen with its orange light enhances this.
• The 240 x 320 pixel TFT screen is nice to look at , and add to that the nice SE User Interface with flash themes makes it a joy to work with
• Camera @ 2 Megapixel with no autofocus is OK for bright and sunny conditions
• The walkman 2.0 player with album art and megabass makes it a true sound machine and also there is FM with RDS to mix and match your music
• Connectivity department is well served by USB, IR, Bluetooth , GPRS/EDGE
• Java application and games support makes the phone more useful and enjoyable
• Battery and phone call quality was good
• The UI was somewhat slow to respond , might be due to a fully loaded memory stick pro duo card or might be to the flash themes

This phone is still available at some retailers and if you are lucky you might get a good deal. Be sure to check it out to see whether it suits your needs for your next mobile jukebox.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Sony Ericsson, Walkman

In keeping up with my previous post , I’ve left out two phones in the category which is very close to the earlier three. One is the hip and trendy W580i and other is the 3G variant of K550i/W610i called W660i . I haven’t come across it in real life but its major difference from W610i is its a 3G phone with a front facing camera and a more conventional keypad and is a real looker as you can see from the photo. But it has no EDGE connectivity and when compared to W580i its display is somewhat inferior at 176 x 220 whereas the walkman slider has a QVGA (240 x 320) resolution display.

For people looking for a clamshell walkman there is the new W380i out in town at almost 8,000/- rs (200 $) else if you want there is always the almost 100$ walkman phone W200i . So hopefully here is a comprehensive list of walkman phones under the 250$ dollar radar for you to choose from.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: K550, Sony Ericsson, W580, W610, W660, Walkman