Sony Ericsson W880 Review

W880 is the smallest Walkman phone so far: its 9 mm ‘thickness’ make this quite evident. Being a classical ‘candy bar’ unit, it has the standard Walkman color combination of black and orange (a grey instead of black version is available, too), which contributes to its ‘youthful’ and a bit frivolous air. The orange is a clear indicator of its purpose – amusement, not work. The front panel is of metal proper, very pleasant to touch; the back one – quality plastic. Interestingly, leaving finger prints on it is very hard – only the display is susceptible to that. Its construction is sturdy and one gets the feel of a high-class telephone, with no compromise in this respect.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (MM)	Weight (OZ)	Weight (Gramms)
Sony Ericsson W880	4.0" x 1.8" x 0.4"	103 x 46.5 x 9.4	2,5	71
Sony Ericsson W810	3.9" x 1.8" x 0.8"	100 x 46 x 19.5	3,5	99
Nokia 6300	4.2" x 1.7" x 0.5"	106.5 x 43.5 x 12	3,2	91
Motorola SLVR L7	4.5" x 1.9" x 0.5"	113.5 x 49 x 11.5	3,5	99

One of the fields, subject to compromise, however, is the display. Despite its high resolution, typical of the respective class (240 x 320 pixels), it is rather small (only 1.8 inches) in order to fit into the compact body. It is not quite bright, which is compensated for by good contrast, so objects can be seen well. If laid next to an older one like that of W810, the difference will be clearly made in its favor. The best side of it is definitely the resolution – very high for the size, making pixels invisible because of their minuteness.



The keypad is below the display, where the small size of the buttons along with the comparatively large distance between them makes a strong impression. At first it seemed inconvenient to us, but it is just the opposite – all buttons are easily localized and very light to press. One can seldom press a key by mistake, or press without result. The small 5-direction pad works faultlessly, and the bulges in its upper and lower parts help to clearly feel the directions. Even large-handed people can use it with ease, which is really impressive.

Being quite a slim telephone, its side buttons are significantly smaller than those of other models. On the upper left side there is the miniature Walkman shortcut, which can hardly be felt but is still convenient to press. This button opens the music player or hides it, if opened. Instead of another one on the right, there is a small scroller to control the sound or change tracks. A quick push will alter the sound up/down, whereas holding it (during music playback) will switch to previous/next song. This is a bit strange – logically the direction increasing the volume must correspond to NEXT, not previous, song. In the lower part there is the camera’s shutter button.

The lower left side serves as a non-standard location for the connector, which is normally placed on the bottom surface, left bare here. It means you will not be able to make use of some accessories (various kits and syncing stations) and moreover, we consider the side-protruding cables more unpleasant with regard to the increased unit size than their normal positioning underneath. Next below the connector is the M2 card slot with a rubber cap. Cards can be replaced while the telephone is in operation.