Play music, take calls (Sony Ericsson W300i)

Name: gnipping

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Product:	Sony Ericsson W300i
Date:	10.05.07 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you can use your own headphones, plugs into your car, side buttons to control music without opening

Disadvantages: small memory stick, not the best camera

As far as I’m concerned a phone is not just a phone, and disposing of my PDA style phone in favour of a PDA I wanted something that could work as a replacement for my broken mp3 player.

When this phone arrived I was dismayed to discover that I had the Robbie Williams version with pre loaded clips from the self-proclaimed entertainer which can’t be deleted! That said, everything else was more than expected.

The menu interface is easy to use and customisable for easier navigation. The camera is passable but not great and the video function blocky and jerky – but what clam phone isn’t? Where this phone excels is the inclusion from Walkman. The clarity through the headphones is easily the same if not better than my ipod mini, but the paltry 256MB card that came as standard is sufficient only for a few albums. To get the most out of this phone an upgrade to the 1GB card is a must.

Once that was in place I found the supplied software easy to install and the USB music transfer interface simple to master. The software even has an inbuilt mp3 encoder so you don’t need 3rd party mods. A quick read through the instructions and it was a sixty second job to get it to connect to my laptop via Bluetooth and wirelessly transfer my pictures and videos back and forth with astounding ease.

The main reason for choosing this phone over other similar models was the FM radio feature and the ability to use your own headphones. I have so many problems with the standard ipod style in-ear ones constantly falling out, so I expected to be throwing the ones supplied in the bin. However, they have now become my favourite pair! Rubber earpieces mean they fit snugly in your ear without being able to fall free, it also helps create a better seal with your ear canal, leading to a remarkable improvement in sound quality and volume. The FM radio is also very clear and it’s auto scan function makes it easy to find stations. I sometimes get confused as to whether the side buttons control the radio or the mp3 player, but that could just be me as there is a setting which allows you to toggle this easily. The only downside is that the FM radio uses the headphone lead as an aerial, so although you can use the built in speakerphone speaker to listen to your mp3’s, plugging in the ‘aerial’ automatically cuts out the speaker. A minor quibble when one can easily unplug the headphones and replace them with the standard cable to my PC surround sound speakers and enjoy much better audio quality.

All in all a rugged little mp3 player with a handy phone function, but watch out … if like me you listen to a lot of music, the battery is dramatically reduced from 400 hours to a more realistic 2-3 days between charges.

Summary: A rugged option that offers superb sound quality with the built in mp3 player

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