Sony Ericsson W100i – Walkie-talkie

A steady flow of Walkman series of handsets has been maintained over the years, by Sony Ericsson. SE W100i is yet another walkman series phone with most of the same features as any prior walkman series phones. The device is targetted for a mid range market.

Look and feel
The W100i compact, tiny even, and will easily fit the smallest hand. The fairer sex will be happy. Another upside is the phone feels very solid, as if it would survive a fall, this we didn’t test. Although touch-screens are the new craze, sliders are still hot. The sliding action on the Spiro isn’t the best we’ve seen from SE, but it seems robust enough to stand the vigour’s of daily use. The materials used are of good quality and the phone has a nice finish. The rear is matte black, while the front and sides sport a glossy white coat. The Spiro is attractive looking, but in a simplistic, yet chic way.

The rear features a gentle curved design, with a slight bulge towards the centre of the device – this is part of SE’s “human design” philosophy. The space on the rear is shared by the SE monogram, a large speaker vent and the cutaway for the camera lens. The 3.5mm jack is located conveniently on the top. The large, flush-fit volume rocker is located on the right and thanks to good feedback and indentations on the surface, it’s pretty usable. The unprotected micro USB port is located on the left side. Incidentally, the microSD card is hot swappable, as the battery needn’t be removed.

There is a cluster of tiny buttons on the front, beneath the display. The four-way joypad and centre button have the usual functions within the menu system and double as Walkman controls – this is a design SE has been using for some time with their Walkman phones, and we see no reason to tamper with a working formula. Call accept/reject buttons are flanked by other function keys and small, but thanks to slightly raised edges, they’re quite usable, although you’ll have to use your nails or the edges of your fingers.

Sliding the phone open, reveals a numeric keypad with dim orange backlighting. The keys on the keypad are spaced out which provides to a certain extent to the distinct lack of bevelling on the keypad. The numeric “zero” key, seems to be slightly recessed, owing to the slightly concave design on the keypad. It induces a major problem while messaging because of the spacebar function is mapped to this key. Also, the delete key is on the verge to extinct, but not on the keypad – this takes getting used to, even Nokia phones have the same problem not that this is an excuse for it.

Performance
The handsfree on the W100i is a basic unit – no control buttons and no in-ear earphones. In fact the bundled earphones are a bit uncomfortable. Sound quality is decent, nothing more. Bass is lacking, treble seems to be slightly overemphasised, while the mid-range is a bit recessed, with vocals sounding a bit congested. Adding a set of Soundmagic PL11 earphones improved the sound – bass became better presented and punchier, while the mid-range was more pronounced.

Video playback is smooth as butter but the display quality is very mediocre. Call clarity is good in zone three. Where we faced no disconnected calls but in certain instances voice clarity was prominent. In zone two  on a call the voice of the caller was clear with slight intermittent distortion. Whereas, the Zone one was were the phone performed flawlessly – this phone hasn’t got the best antenna around, but it’s more than acceptable. The volume on the Earpiece is impressive and also the loudspeaker volume fairs well.

Conclusion
An MRP of Rs. 5,600 doesn’t seem excessive, although if you compare the feature list to phones in a similar price bracket from smaller vendors, you will notice a huge difference. Smaller vendors give you more features, but then, they don’t provide the same levels of usability. For instance, a similarly priced touch-screen would probably have severe usability issues. If you’re looking for a good music phone that is compact, the Spiro makes a sensible buy. The quirky keypad and poor quality earphones supplied are its major pitfalls.

Specifications: Network: GSM 800/1900; Platform: proprietary; Display: 2.2-inches, 240 x 320 pixels, 256K colours; Memory: 5 MB internal, microSD expansion; Camera: 2-megapixel; Battery: 930 mAh; Weight: 90 grams
 

Sony Ericsson W100i – Walkie-talkie

A steady flow of Walkman series of handsets has been maintained over the years, by Sony...