As far as Sony Ericsson's Walkman music phones go, the W960 is pretty sedate looking. But while it might look more like a suit than a hipster, it still packs a touchscreen and the full Walkman experience. Ricky asks it to dance in this review.
Introduction
The Sony Ericsson W960i is a Symbian-powered music phone, sporting the UIQ user interface. With its touchscreen interface and 8GB of built-in storage, I put the W960i through the gauntlet of a media phone, to see how it holds up.
Physical Aspects
The Sony Ericsson W960 is a decently sized handset, measuring in at 109mm x 55mm x 16mm (4.3" x 2.2" x 0.6"). The black candybar handset is trim and fits nicely in one hand. However, it's no lightweight, at 119g (4.2oz), this is one handset you're definitely aware you're holding. Built like a rock, the W960 doesn't have any annoying creaks or moans when using it, though the keypad makes little clicking noises when in use.
The W960 offers a bevy of hardware buttons, though not the ones you would normally expect from a smartphone. The front of the device features a regular numeric keypad, with a back.jpg)
button, Walkman button, and 'c', or clear button taking up the top row. Between the screen and the keypad are three dedicated media playback keys. These are touch-sensitive and are only active when you have the Walkman application open. The right side of the W960 houses the volume up/down buttons, as well as the camera shutter key. There is an extremely handy scroll wheel on the left side of the handset, which you can press in to select items. The power button is on top, and there is a proprietary Sony Ericsson plug at the bottom of the handset. The display is a sizable 2.6" QVGA touchscreen, which I found to be rather mushy, making it awkward to use the stylus or my finger. However, the display is very bright, but impossible to read in direct sunlight. A front-facing VGA resolution camera is located to the top left of the display, for video calling, where supported. The main 3.2 megapixel camera is located on the back of the device, along with the dual-LED flash. The loud speaker is also located on the back of the device, slightly below the camera. The stylus' hiding spot is located along the edge, near the speaker. The stylus is extremely cheap feeling, like those flimsy plastic toothpicks that come with a Swiss Army knife.
The Sony Ericsson W960i is a Symbian-powered music phone, sporting the UIQ user interface. With its touchscreen interface and 8GB of built-in storage, I put the W960i through the gauntlet of a media phone, to see how it holds up.
Physical Aspects
The Sony Ericsson W960 is a decently sized handset, measuring in at 109mm x 55mm x 16mm (4.3" x 2.2" x 0.6"). The black candybar handset is trim and fits nicely in one hand. However, it's no lightweight, at 119g (4.2oz), this is one handset you're definitely aware you're holding. Built like a rock, the W960 doesn't have any annoying creaks or moans when using it, though the keypad makes little clicking noises when in use.
The W960 offers a bevy of hardware buttons, though not the ones you would normally expect from a smartphone. The front of the device features a regular numeric keypad, with a back
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button, Walkman button, and 'c', or clear button taking up the top row. Between the screen and the keypad are three dedicated media playback keys. These are touch-sensitive and are only active when you have the Walkman application open. The right side of the W960 houses the volume up/down buttons, as well as the camera shutter key. There is an extremely handy scroll wheel on the left side of the handset, which you can press in to select items. The power button is on top, and there is a proprietary Sony Ericsson plug at the bottom of the handset. The display is a sizable 2.6" QVGA touchscreen, which I found to be rather mushy, making it awkward to use the stylus or my finger. However, the display is very bright, but impossible to read in direct sunlight. A front-facing VGA resolution camera is located to the top left of the display, for video calling, where supported. The main 3.2 megapixel camera is located on the back of the device, along with the dual-LED flash. The loud speaker is also located on the back of the device, slightly below the camera. The stylus' hiding spot is located along the edge, near the speaker. The stylus is extremely cheap feeling, like those flimsy plastic toothpicks that come with a Swiss Army knife. Core Functions
The Sony Ericsson W960 rocks tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) and WCDMA (2100MHz). Data options include UMTS or WiFi, though I was unable to convince the W960 .jpg)
that my 2Wire router even existed. I found this to be a big drawback, as I have no issues using this router with any laptops, or my Nokia N810 or N95. My hotspot simply never showed up on the W960's WiFi searches. I found the GSM reception to be rather strong, despite missing the GSM 850MHz band. I was able to use a T-Mobile SIM card and found that even with 2-3 bars of service, the sound quality through the earpiece was good. The W960's microphone does a great job of picking up voices and slightly reducing background noise. The speakerphone is very loud and clear, and was easy to use, though oddly located on the back of the device.
Sony Ericsson's PC Suite application is a free download, and despite requiring me to reboot my computer three times to complete the install, works relatively well. I was able to quickly synchronize the W960 with my Microsoft Outlook contacts and calendar, and there is a helpful walkthrough to tether the W960 to your computer, for internet access on the go. Also included with the PC Suite software is a Media Suite which offers to convert and transfer video and music files to the whopping 8GB of internal storage.
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that my 2Wire router even existed. I found this to be a big drawback, as I have no issues using this router with any laptops, or my Nokia N810 or N95. My hotspot simply never showed up on the W960's WiFi searches. I found the GSM reception to be rather strong, despite missing the GSM 850MHz band. I was able to use a T-Mobile SIM card and found that even with 2-3 bars of service, the sound quality through the earpiece was good. The W960's microphone does a great job of picking up voices and slightly reducing background noise. The speakerphone is very loud and clear, and was easy to use, though oddly located on the back of the device. Sony Ericsson's PC Suite application is a free download, and despite requiring me to reboot my computer three times to complete the install, works relatively well. I was able to quickly synchronize the W960 with my Microsoft Outlook contacts and calendar, and there is a helpful walkthrough to tether the W960 to your computer, for internet access on the go. Also included with the PC Suite software is a Media Suite which offers to convert and transfer video and music files to the whopping 8GB of internal storage.
Activating the Silent profile is accomplished with a long press on the # key, and the volume keys on the side of the device will activate a Sounds menu, allowing you to individually control the multimedia, alarm, ringtone, and message alert volumes. The W960 supports voice dial, but unfortunately, you must individually record a voice tag for each contact, which is a nightmare if you have an expansive contact list. Activating the voice dial, however, is as simple as holding thes scroll wheel in for a few seconds.
SMS, MMS, and email (POP/SMTP/IMAP) are supported, as well as Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync, which makes it convenient to keep up with your Microsoft Exchange-hosted email and contacts. Creating a message is simple and offers three types of input: the standard numeric keypad, onscreen handwriting recognition, and an onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The handwriting recognition works amazingly well, which was a pleasant surprise. The onscreen QWERTY keyboard is obviously very small, but easy to use with the stylus.
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support for stereo headsets is available on the W960, and it is a breeze to pair and use different Bluetooth headsets. The Bluetooth menu is somewhat hidden in a submenu, which is activated by pressing a drop-down menu on the top left corner of the display. I was able to quickly and easily pair the Invisio G5 and Nokia BH-501 Bluetooth headsets with the W960, and experienced really good audio quality. The Bluetooth connection was solid and did not drop at all, nearly up to the 10m (30ft) range.
According to Sony Ericsson, the W960 will get over 2 weeks of battery life on standby, and nearly 9 hours of GSM talk time. With moderate EDGE usage, several phone calls and half a day of music, I was able to still get roughly 3 days of battery life, which is phenomenal. Using the W960 as a music player, I was able to squeeze out over 20 hours of nearly-continuous music playback through the 3.5mm adapter. Very impressive, in my opinion. I wouldn't hesitate at all to bring the W960 on a weekend trip without a charger, though you would likely be needing a good charge by the end.
SMS, MMS, and email (POP/SMTP/IMAP) are supported, as well as Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync, which makes it convenient to keep up with your Microsoft Exchange-hosted email and contacts. Creating a message is simple and offers three types of input: the standard numeric keypad, onscreen handwriting recognition, and an onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The handwriting recognition works amazingly well, which was a pleasant surprise. The onscreen QWERTY keyboard is obviously very small, but easy to use with the stylus.
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support for stereo headsets is available on the W960, and it is a breeze to pair and use different Bluetooth headsets. The Bluetooth menu is somewhat hidden in a submenu, which is activated by pressing a drop-down menu on the top left corner of the display. I was able to quickly and easily pair the Invisio G5 and Nokia BH-501 Bluetooth headsets with the W960, and experienced really good audio quality. The Bluetooth connection was solid and did not drop at all, nearly up to the 10m (30ft) range.
According to Sony Ericsson, the W960 will get over 2 weeks of battery life on standby, and nearly 9 hours of GSM talk time. With moderate EDGE usage, several phone calls and half a day of music, I was able to still get roughly 3 days of battery life, which is phenomenal. Using the W960 as a music player, I was able to squeeze out over 20 hours of nearly-continuous music playback through the 3.5mm adapter. Very impressive, in my opinion. I wouldn't hesitate at all to bring the W960 on a weekend trip without a charger, though you would likely be needing a good charge by the end.
Multimedia / Applications
The W960's 3.2 megapixel camera features autofocus and a dual-LED flash, in addition to decent video recording capabilities. The camera shutter button on the
side of the device is two-stage, allowing a slight press to focus, and a full press to activate the shutter. From the home screen, the camera was ready to take a shot in 3-4 seconds, which is manageable for a smartphone. Most impressive, however, is the shutter lag, and time between taking a picture and being ready to take the next one - it's nearly instantaneous. I was amazed at how quickly I'm able to manually snap pictures in succession with this handset.
The W960's 3.2 megapixel camera features autofocus and a dual-LED flash, in addition to decent video recording capabilities. The camera shutter button on the
side of the device is two-stage, allowing a slight press to focus, and a full press to activate the shutter. From the home screen, the camera was ready to take a shot in 3-4 seconds, which is manageable for a smartphone. Most impressive, however, is the shutter lag, and time between taking a picture and being ready to take the next one - it's nearly instantaneous. I was amazed at how quickly I'm able to manually snap pictures in succession with this handset.Unfortunately, with the camera, that's where the amazement stopped. Given that the W960 is a touchscreen device, one would think that, to toggle the various settings in the camera, such as flash, resolution, etc, you could merely touch the icon on the screen. Not so, as the UIQ interface forces you to touch the 'settings' button and navigate to the various settings. I found this to be extremely frustrating. Also, the flash is either on, or it is off. There is also no 'auto' setting, which makes things ever more frustrating, as it takes a minimum of 6 clicks to toggle the flash on or off.
One of the key features of the W960 is the Walkman music player interface, 8GB of internal storage, and dedicated, touch-sensitive media playback keys. Given that, I found it odd that the handset requires an additional adapter to use 3.5mm headphones. The Walkman music player application is certainly full of eye candy, and offers the ability to browse through your music by artist, album, playlists (created on the PC or device), and mood. I was very dissappointed to not see the 'genre' option listed, as that's how I typically listen to my music.
One of the key features of the W960 is the Walkman music player interface, 8GB of internal storage, and dedicated, touch-sensitive media playback keys. Given that, I found it odd that the handset requires an additional adapter to use 3.5mm headphones. The Walkman music player application is certainly full of eye candy, and offers the ability to browse through your music by artist, album, playlists (created on the PC or device), and mood. I was very dissappointed to not see the 'genre' option listed, as that's how I typically listen to my music.
Conclusion
The Sony Ericsson W960 is a great looking smartphone with plenty of top-notch features to offer. However, the user interface and touch implementation make it difficult to get around, and frustrating to use. The Walkman music player and 8GB of internal storage are certainly tempting, but the dreadfully slow USB data transfers and lack of Genre support in the music player are hard to overlook. Also, while the camera application is zippy, the flash and other settings are extremely inconvenient to change, meaning it's only really good for point-and-shoot. Overall, I give the Sony Ericsson W960 a Not Recommended rating. There are plenty of other music-oriented smartphones with good cameras that don't give you a headache to use.
The Sony Ericsson W960 is a great looking smartphone with plenty of top-notch features to offer. However, the user interface and touch implementation make it difficult to get around, and frustrating to use. The Walkman music player and 8GB of internal storage are certainly tempting, but the dreadfully slow USB data transfers and lack of Genre support in the music player are hard to overlook. Also, while the camera application is zippy, the flash and other settings are extremely inconvenient to change, meaning it's only really good for point-and-shoot. Overall, I give the Sony Ericsson W960 a Not Recommended rating. There are plenty of other music-oriented smartphones with good cameras that don't give you a headache to use.
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