Sony Ericsson W880 Review

Messaging:

In the messages field you will find not only the text and multimedia messages, but extras like e-mail, My Friends (instant messenger) and an RSS reader as well. The electronic mail can be used while on the move with POP3, as well as IMAP4 servers. The RSS reader is convenient and easy option to look at an interesting Internet site without having to download it all; the RSS content will enable you to receive only certain information. My Friends is a chat messenger that combines your contacts from the other popular messengers (including MSN, ICQ, AOL, and Yahoo) in one shared program on the telephone. In order to start using it you need register free in yamigo.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connectivity:

The local connection to other telephones is done only thru Bluetooth so long as this model lacks Infrared. Clearly Sony Ericsson have at last decided to follow suit and do as Motorola and Nokia did – stop using this technology, which is already obsolete. Bluetooth version 2 is supported, supposed to provide the highest transfer speed; and thanks to the A2DP profile music can be played thru a wireless stereo system or headphones of the same standard.

One of the weaknesses of W880 is the network support, since it is a tri-, not quad-band telephone – therefore not usable on all continents. Thus its operation is restricted to Europe and Asia, not America, and the same restriction applies to the 3G support as well. The latter provides for fast Internet connection and the option for video conversations. This is feasible due to the second camera located on the front panel.

Despite the small-sized display you will not be disappointed by the Internet browser in case you use the UMTS connection. However, in an area not covered by 3G you need to rely entirely on the slow GPRS in view of the fact that the telephone does not support the intermediate EDGE level. The QVGA resolution demonstrates here its advantages, visualizing quite a large portion of the desired site. The browser disposes of two options: either an optimized viewing in a single column without horizontal scroll (altering the original image), or a real HTML – the way you would see it on a computer. We preferred the latter and chose to view pages in landscape screen orientation and with the full screen mode on. The Internet is definitely usable and the only unpleasant thing about it is the small display, which, in our opinion, would prevent users from logging on frequently. However, if need be, it will do its job.