STYLISH TOP CLASS PHONE WITH FITNESS APPLICATION (Sony Ericsson W580i)

Member Name: pacinofan79

Product:	Sony Ericsson W580i
Date:	04/11/08 (222 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: WALKMAN- SOUND QUALITY-FITNESS APPLICATION

Disadvantages: CAMERA QUALITY WHEN NOT OUTSIDE

I have had this phone now for 4 months and I think it has been on sale for around a year, which in phone terms would usually make it outdated by now. But this phone is far from outdated in my opinion. This is the best phone I have owned to date, and I have owned a lot of phones. It looks stunning and the performance is outstanding.

It is a WAP enabled slider style phone which measures approx 90mm in length, 47mm wide and 14mm depth and only weighs 94 grams. It comes in various colours which are black, grey, pink, green, red and white. I have the white one, but it isn't really white, it is more like a pearlescent white and doesn't get dirty at all. I say this because I used own the O2 ice which was white and would get dirty just being in my pocket.

This is the nicest looking phone I have ever owned, it has a decent sized screen which is approx 2.5 x 1.5 inches and has 240x320 pixels, the screen is the sharpest I have seen on a mobile phone and the colours are really vibrant and bright and you can have 3D animations and wallpapers on it. I am a mad Liverpool fan and I currently have the club crest that spins around, with a backdrop of Anfield as my 3D animated wallpaper, and it looks awesome. In the box you get the phone, the charger, headphones, a 512 MB memory stick and the Pc suite instillation disc and the manual.

With the slider down you have the screen visible and underneath that you have 2 buttons either side and a large button in the middle, and underneath that middle button there is 2 very small buttons either side, 1 for the walkman feature and 1 for your shortcuts.

One of the best features of this phone is that when your receiving a call, all of these large buttons light up in a funky light display, they glow up different colours and there is actually a setting where you can choose the colours for the light display, the red and purple display looks ace, especially when in the dark.

The one downside of this phone is the 2 mega-pixel camera, while in natural daylight the photos are of a great quality but when in artificial light i.e.: indoors in a poor lit room, the pictures can be poor and the phone does not have a flash. One good thing about the camera is that when the slider is down the camera is hidden

The menu is very simple to navigate and very well laid out; there is nothing confusing about this phone at all. When the slider is opened you have the usual keypad layout, the buttons are nice and small but not so small that I can't press a single button with ease. Texting is very quick and simple and has normal and predictive text and picture and video messages can be sent with ease. It has all the usual extras you would expect, calendar, calculator, 5 alarms, stopwatch, notes and tasks.

FITNESS APPLICATION
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Another great feature of the W580i is the fitness application and pedometer. The phone when in your pocket counts the steps you do each day, it displays this in the bottom left of the screen, and you can also view the information in the fitness application which also converts your steps into how many miles/km you have walked and keeps records of previous days and weeks so you can compare and see how many steps you have walked today compared to yesterday or last week etc. It also tells you how many calories you have burned and keeps all the info in graphs for you to look at. You also get medals when you complete certain fitness tasks and again it records all this information for you to look at, at the touch of a button. I think this is a fantastic feature as I love to go on walks and with this information I can see how far I have to walk to burn a certain amount of calories and also once you get used to how may steps it takes to burn a certain amount of calories you know when you have had a lazy day just by looking at the amount of steps you have done in that day.

THE MP3 PLAYER/WALKMAN
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I am a lover of my 30 GB I-pod, but since I have owned the W580i I seem to use the MP3 player on this a lot more, this phone can basically do anything my I-pod can do accept play back full length movies, and of course the amount of memory doesn't come close but the sound quality of the phone is far superior to my I-pod.

The W580i internal memory is only 12 mb but the memory is expandable though, upto 8 GB on a Sandisk M2 memory stick micro, which I think must a new product as on the Sony Ericsson website it says the memory is only expandable upto 4 GB, but I have been assured that the 8 GB memory stick is compatible. I currently have the 4 GB memory stick which I purchased from Amazon for just £12.99 with free delivery. With the phone itself, you get a 512 MB Sandisk M2 memory stick, enough space for around 100 songs and 30 photos. With my 4 GB memory stick I can store around 1,000 songs, 500 photos a plus a few short videos.

Like my I-pod you can create play lists to suit your own needs, so rather than having to search the 1,000 songs to find the one you want you can put them into play lists for that artist, album or title of your choice and access them at the touch of a button. The sound quality when used with the supplied headset is outstanding, it is a much, much better quality than my I-pod, and especially when you select the mega bass function the sound is literally thumping, in fact I have never had sound quality this good on any of my previous phones, mp3 players or CD walkmans. The sound of the external speaker is good as well considering it's a phone, and you will never have a problem hearing the ringtone when outside, in the car, or in a busy town centre. You can have your mp3 songs as your ringtone and can assign a different song to each contact. The W580i also has another great little feature, you know when you hear a song and you wonder who sings it or what is called, or you hear a song you know, but can't think what it is called, well this phone has Track-id, you basically record a few seconds of the track using the phone ( by holding to the tv, or radio etc.) and it sends the sample to the Track -id database and sends you the name and artist of the song, I have tried this and it works.......genius. The quality of the headphones are outstanding, the best set I have ever owned actually. I can also connect the phone to my I-pod/mp3 connection in my car as well. So this phone literally does everything my I-pod does and it's a phone as well, bonus.
It also has an FM radio, i don't know if it is digital but the sound quality and reception is perfect every time.

The CD suite for your PC you get with the phone is very easy to install and the easiest I have used once installed. It's extremely quick and easy to access your phone files and very easy to upload songs, pictures and videos. Once plugged into your computer via USB, it takes about 5 seconds to access your phone files.

I find the internet very easy to access and very quick for browsing. You can bookmark your favourite sites as you would expect. The games I got with my phone were Sims 2 and Lumines block challenge and I also downloaded fifa 08 for £3.

It is Bluetooth compatible and this works very quickly and efficiently and the Bluetooth headset is very comfortable, discreet and simple to use. The reception of the phone is always crystal clear no matter where I am. Just for note I am on the Virgin Mobile network and I am on contract, not pay as you go.

The battery lasts quite long as well with 9 hours talk time and 370 hours on stand by. The phone charges very quickly, about 2 hours for 100% charge and 1 hour for 80% charge.

All in all this phone is outstanding in all departments accept maybe the camera, and I would never buy any other brand of phone now, the walkman is exceptional, the sound quality is unmatched, the ease of use and the gorgeous look of the phone makes it ideal for anyone.

And please don't be put off by some reviews that say the Keys on the phone crack, this was a problem when the phone was first launched but they were all recalled and the problem was fixed. None of those first models will be on sale now.

The Sony Ericsson W580i is available to buy from Amazon ranging from £75 to £115 depending on Network and package.

For more information on the Sony Ericsson W580i go to:

http: //www.sonyericsson.com/ cws/products/mobilephones/specifications/w580i?cc= us&lc=en

For more information on Sandisk M2 Memory sticks go to :

http://www.sandisk.com

Summary: A FANTASTIC PHONE THAT DOES EVERYTHING MY I-POD DOES

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