Sony Ericsson W960i review

Average user rating

8.3

excellent

Average user rating from 6 users

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Sony Ericsson W960i user reviews

June 22, 2008

Posted by: G W

"Don't believe the hype"

What I like:

Looks good, slim for it's spec, large screen, good sized keypad

What I don't like:

Appalling, inconsistant and inefficient UIQ user interface

Review:

I agree with many points made in the editors review.

On paper the W960i, with it's good looks and top specification, should be superb but in use it just doesn't live up to the promise. This is entirely due to the user interface which over complicates, in some very unintuitive ways, just about every action and function on the phone. There is little consistancy of user input making operation of the phone a fiddly juggle between, key pad, jog wheel and touch screen. Quick one handed operation of the W960i is a non starter.

Buggy and sloppy firmware is the curse upon this phone. It is not even possible to scroll the cursor back through a text message you are writing, character by character so you can edit it or add a word etc. The W960i is full of annoying quirks/bugs like this.

The Walkman is ok but only ok. I personally don't think the sound quality is anything special but certainly not bad. I'd like the graphic equaliser to be adjustable by the user rather than just a selection of presets. I'm not keen on the tendency for the Walkman to over manage your music files. It insists on categorising and pigeon holing every file in predetermined ways that you cannot disable.

The camera is fine. It's performance was noticeably improved with the first firmware update issued by Sony Ericsson. It also takes good 320x240 video at a decent frame rate. A couple things let it down. Not surprisingly the user interface. Adjustment of settings is onscreen, the icons (as is the case throughout) are too small to reliably operate with your fingers, so you have to use the stylus. Who in their right mind wants to be fiddling about with the stylus on a touch screen as they are about to take a photo? Next, still photos and videos are bizarrely accessed in completely seperate sections which you have to navigate back and forth through the main menu to get to. There is no logical reason for this I can think of and it yet again unnecessarily complicates use of the W960i.

To me the W960i is a missed opportunity by Sony Ericsson. Considering it's hardware specifications, it could have been so much better than it is if they had only put more care and effort into the user interface.