Sony Ericsson W200i review

The W200i is Sony Ericsson's cheap Walkman phone aimed at those who are on pay as you go and so don't get the luxury of free upgrades. It costs around £50 SIM-free, and while its design and features largely reflect its bargain price tag, Sony Ericsson has still managed to pack in a few surprises.

Strengths
You wouldn't exactly describe this handset as a looker, but the styling isn't too bad for a budget phone. You can rattle off text messages at a fine speed -- the buttons on the keypad are a decent size and there's a dedicated Walkman button to bring you straight to the music player. On the right-hand side there's a volume rocker switch, which doubles as a track skip control when you hold it down for a second or so.

The keypad is well laid-out and easy to use

In fact, the music features are one of the most impressive aspects of the handset. The Walkman application is fast and easy to use and the sound quality is first rate. The supplied headphones are surprisingly good, but if you're not satisfied with them you can swap them out for your own, thanks to the standard 3.5mm jack on the hands-free kit. However, you'll probably want to upgrade the 128MB M2 Memory Stick to something a bit larger if you want to store a decent number of tracks.

There's a dedicated Walkman button, which allows quick access to the phone's excellent music features

In terms of call quality, the phone's performance was excellent and battery life was also impressive -- we got around four days' use out of it before it needed a charge. There are also a few neat extras hidden away in the menus, such as the handy RSS reader that lets you keep up to date with the latest news from your favourite Web sites.