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Sony Ericsson W980 Review
PA rating
Sony Ericsson W980 Review
Published on: 19 November, 2008 by PhoneArena Team
Performance:
Sony Ericsson W980 does not work as fast as some of the Symbian smart-phones, but we are happy that there are no annoying delays when browsing the menus.
The sound quality when talking disappointed us. The voice we hear is very unrealistic, robotized and monotonous, accompanied by unpleasant crackling all the time. As a whole, you will have problems with the understanding and you will have to ask to have things repeated even several times. The opposite situation is much better. The sound is monotonous and quite sharp, but is realistic and strong. We are disappointed because understanding what you hear with great difficulties while you are being heard well makes no sense at all.
The battery is Li-Polymer with a capacity of 930 mAh. According to the manufacturer it is designed to stand 9 hours of conversations, 300 in standby and only 16 of listening to music. In comparison, the W890 provides 9.5/360/20 hours.
Conclusion:
Our first experience with W980 impressed us in an unexpected way maybe because most of the time we used headphones while listening to the music. The next day revealed the naked truth. The Walkman is a high class phone but it somehow does not match up with its price. Its materials give the ‘cheap’ feel and the single-hand opening could turn into a real struggle. In addition, the calling could be described as an unpleasant experience and the speakers are even worse than the ones you’d find in a low-end music phone.
These drawbacks are not insignificant so the perfect sound through the headphones and the built-in 8GB memory cannot compensate them. After all, W980 should not only be a music player but a mobile phone as well. It must be useful every single day… However, W960 should be mentioned as a good alternative - it is not more compact but has Wi-Fi and features the Symbian UIQ OS which makes it smart. You may find cheaper and more satisfying solutions such as the W890 or Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. They are compact and sound really nice during a call or when listening to the music. Well, they are not equipped with such a huge amount of built-in memory but compensate with card slots.
Sony Ericsson W980 does not work as fast as some of the Symbian smart-phones, but we are happy that there are no annoying delays when browsing the menus.
The sound quality when talking disappointed us. The voice we hear is very unrealistic, robotized and monotonous, accompanied by unpleasant crackling all the time. As a whole, you will have problems with the understanding and you will have to ask to have things repeated even several times. The opposite situation is much better. The sound is monotonous and quite sharp, but is realistic and strong. We are disappointed because understanding what you hear with great difficulties while you are being heard well makes no sense at all.
The battery is Li-Polymer with a capacity of 930 mAh. According to the manufacturer it is designed to stand 9 hours of conversations, 300 in standby and only 16 of listening to music. In comparison, the W890 provides 9.5/360/20 hours.
Conclusion:
Our first experience with W980 impressed us in an unexpected way maybe because most of the time we used headphones while listening to the music. The next day revealed the naked truth. The Walkman is a high class phone but it somehow does not match up with its price. Its materials give the ‘cheap’ feel and the single-hand opening could turn into a real struggle. In addition, the calling could be described as an unpleasant experience and the speakers are even worse than the ones you’d find in a low-end music phone.
These drawbacks are not insignificant so the perfect sound through the headphones and the built-in 8GB memory cannot compensate them. After all, W980 should not only be a music player but a mobile phone as well. It must be useful every single day… However, W960 should be mentioned as a good alternative - it is not more compact but has Wi-Fi and features the Symbian UIQ OS which makes it smart. You may find cheaper and more satisfying solutions such as the W890 or Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. They are compact and sound really nice during a call or when listening to the music. Well, they are not equipped with such a huge amount of built-in memory but compensate with card slots.
Pros
- Excellent sound quality when listening to music with earpieces
- Convenient control in closed position
- 8 GB internal memory
- FM transmitter
Cons
- Unsatisfactory sound quality while talking
- Inconvenient to handle and carry in a pocket
- The camera is not up to the mark
- There is no memory card slot
PA rating 
- Average
- out of 10
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