Sony Ericsson W960i review

Sony Ericsson W960i Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 4 February 2008

Besides the music, you're left with a satisfying number of other features including games, an FM radio and a Web browser, which you can use over Wi-Fi and 3G. Again, the aforementioned perplexing number of input options made browsing slightly more confusing, but you may disagree.

The W960i comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera, which is great for daylight snaps

If photography is more your forte, there's a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back of the W960i that lets you take still pictures or video and send them to friends via MMS or Bluetooth. Of course, should none of these features strike your fancy, you can always download third party apps, such as Opera Mini or Google Mobile Maps.

Performance
The main reason for buying this music-focused phone is to listen to tunes and we happily found the sound quality to be superb. In fact, it's one of the best-sounding phones we've heard so far and offers a really rich sound. Our only disappointment is that Sony Ericsson hasn't yet made a Walkman phone with a built-in 3.5mm jack. While there is an adaptor, we sincerely hope the next top-end Walkman phone has a standard jack.

Audio quality during calls was fine as was using the loudspeaker, but don't expect to use it as a hands-free alternative in a noisy environment. We also hooked up a pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones for listening to music and making calls, and that sound was alright, too.

Picture quality from the 3.2-megapixel camera was good in daylight but if you're thinking of taking pictures in a darkened club or candle-lit café, you might want to think again. It's a real shame that Sony Ericsson hasn't yet made a Walkman phone with a similar camera setup to its Cyber-shot range. Then again, it may be due to keeping true to the brands -- something we think should probably change.

The W960i concerned us with the amount of lag we experienced when starting certain applications or moving from one menu section of the phone to another. It's not that things don't work, but on a phone of this calibre, you expect everything to run smoothly.

Conclusion
If you're a music lover, the W960i's offerings could fit your bill perfectly. Unfortunately, we're not so convinced about all its other offerings.

On paper, it sounds fantastic. Many of its features are excellent but they're not executed as well as on other handsets we've seen. We ended up feeling that the interface doesn't gel together very well. It seems as if this handset is trying too hard to be the life of the party.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday