Good sound for the budget conscious. (Sony Ericsson W200i)

Member Name: doctorsmonsters

Product:	Sony Ericsson W200i
Date:	23/08/08 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Walkman, FM radio, low price

Disadvantages: No bluetooth, low quality camera and screen.

I wouldn't be wrong if I say that nothing else changes as fast as does cell phone models. It's such a huge industry with such a great diversity. From parents to children, from teens to people in the old age, there is one for everyone. Sony Ericsson is known for its Walkman line of cell phones. They are beautiful and loaded with a number of features to satiate your appetite for good sound.

Without getting into too much of technical details, I would try to describe my personal experience with Sony's W200i. I am a very budget conscious person. I wanted to get a good phone but at the same times, didn't want to bleed my pocket. After some research I decided to go for w200i. It being a walkman phone yet being comparatively cheaper was huge attraction for me.

The pack had Sony's "bass reflex" earphones and a charger bundled with the. The phone also came with 128mb Sandisk memory stick. The phone looks very nice with the black and orange theme.

As is the case with every new gadget we buy, initially, I was very excited about it and ignored the short comings with use, some of them actually made me regret m decision. The sound quality is really good, so are the earphones. The lack of bluetooth is one of the major short comings as these days; almost every phone with an mp3 player has a Bluetooth. Sony has tried to make up for that by adding an infra red port. But it's so slow, I would much rather buy the disc instead of asking my friend to transfer the song from his phone to mine by infrared.

When I first took a few snaps with the phone, they didn't seem good on the phone's screen. Later, when I transferred and viewed them on my pc, I realized that it's actually the screen which was dull. Even thought the camera is not that good, it's still acceptable when the pictures are taken in large size, with no zoom. But I remember my Nokia 6600; its VGA camera would take better pictures than w200i.

The Walkman lacks trackid technology, which maybe included in the future firmware updates, but it has been more than a year now and Sony hasn't released any update yet. Maybe they are too busy with their high-spec phones to consider updating the low-spec ones.

Now coming to the very basic functionality, the phone. The sound quality seems pretty good. But I do have some issues with the reception. In my house, I get poor signals downstairs but my father, on the same network, gets better signals with his Nokia phone! So I would assume that its reception is not that good. The phone has a built in call recorder and a loud speaker.

The key pad is pretty comfortable with good tactile sensation. One thing I find really user friendly in Sony phones is that when you are sending a text message, it gives you a list of people you have recently texted. It saves you the trouble of going through your contact book.

In short, it's a nice and decent phone if you are looking for a phone with music player and FM radio and at the same time are low on budget. But the lack of bluetooth and poor camera should be considered as well.

Summary: A good phone with good sound and low price.

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