Sony Ericsson W380i review

Performance
Call quality is excellent, although maximum volume is relatively quiet. If you work in loud environments, this isn't going to be your favourite phone. We also found that trying to use the speaker phone function when cooking in the kitchen was problematic due to volume limitations.

The same is true for music playback. You'll need to get yourself some sound-isolating earphones to get the most from your listening experience. We weren't ever blown away by the W380i's music performance, though -- audio quality is average at best, and the bundled earphones are rubbish. There's no good reason for this phone to be considered a decent replacement for a dedicated MP3 player unless the convenience of carrying a single device outweighs your desire for great sound quality.

You can easily apply the same logic for the camera, which produces average 1,280x1,024-pixel images, though note there's no flash to help you out in darker environments (our sample shot). Battery life is actually fairly good, however, at seven hours of constant talk time and 300 hours on standby. Be aware that the battery's performance will be significantly lower with Bluetooth in use. Still, we got from a Friday morning until Monday without charging, using the phone an average amount, including Web browsing and sporadic music playback.

Conclusion
The W380i is an enjoyable phone to use and won't give newbies to Sony Ericsson handsets any major trouble. We certainly wouldn't recommend choosing this over a different handset on the grounds of its abilities as an MP3 player, as even a low-end player such as iRiver's E100 blows it away in terms of features and performance. As an affordable little clamshell it's more than pleasant.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday