Sony Ericsson W302 Review

Introduction:

Some of you may find themselves wondering as to why we have decided to review such a simple make, given it´s pretty clear it can be described with but two words “It´ll do”. Well, we´ve got two major reasons to be interested in it. First off, it looks quite appealing since it closely takes after one of our favorite Walkman makes, the Sony Ericsson W890. Second, devices like the Sony Ericsson W302 make for a great present for your kid. They are not expensive and on the other hand do deliver almost all extra and funny features most growing ups may wish for.



Design:

We do like its outward appearance, since it delivers a nice design blend of metal front side and compact size. Despite it´s quite light, it doesn´t feel as a toy and although we believe it´s going to be the youngsters who will like it best, it won´t look ridiculous in the hand of an adult.



You can compare the Sony Ericsson W302 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

It features a 2-inch display that is considered standard size for a budget phone, but resolution is, unfortunately, rather low – 176x220 pixels. Apparently screen has fallen victim to its lower price. As expected, it doesn´t deliver stellar image quality, but is OK as a whole provided you don´t try to use it in direct sunlight that renders it virtually unusable.

All functional and navigational buttons are comfy and easy to press despite being somewhat small and the same goes for the tiny keypad.



The camera shutter and the volume rocker are on its right hand side. The walkman button that is hard to find by merely groping about as well as the charger port are on the opposite side. The only thing on its back is the 2-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, you will need to remove the back panel to get to the M2 card expansion slot.

As a whole, Sony Ericsson has managed to create an overall feeling of a good device to the phone through successfully imitating the design of the W890.

The Sony Ericsson W302 comes with a copy of the software found on previous makes of the manufacturer, in other words similar to the W880 and W350. This is a good move indeed when it comes to a budget device, since interface is optimized and doesn´t cause slowdowns or menu lagging (like the C510 for an instance). Still, all available actions and functions of the D-Pad center button have been indexed, which is characteristic of the latest version of the Sony Ericsson´s software.

Camera allows you to take snapshots and capture videos. Again, it´s interface is quite similar to the one on the W902 and W595, although some options available on the latter makes have been removed form the Sony Ericsson W302. What you have at your disposal are picture size settings, self portrait mode, white balance plus variety of effects. Come to picture quality, we believe we better drop the subject. This is typical of cheap music devices designed with your budget in mind.





The music player is the same as the one found on the Sony Ericsson W350 and offers a bunch of options, although it looks rather simplified alongside of the contemporary player on the Sony Ericsson´s more expensive devices. We like the presence of an equalizer and the opportunity to customize its settings yourself. Similarly to the W890, you can make the keypad blink to the rhythm of the music. Unfortunately, the loudspeaker is rather feeble and delivers low quality sound, so you won´t be able to share your music with the people around you. Sound through a pair of headphones is completely another cup of tea and this is the main reason that makes us believe the phone is so suitable for youngsters. Audio quality is more than acceptable for prolonged listening sessions, despite the trebles coming a bit muffled as compared the iPod nano for an instance. Still, you can make good use of the 3.5 mm. jack and go for a more expensive headphones with better quality.

The phone also features FM radio and RDS plus the TrackID function that is always great at recognizing music.

Performance and conclusion:

All told, we do like the Sony Ericsson W302 despite its few disadvantages with the mediocre in-call quality among them. Voices come out overly sharp and loud on our end and turning the volume down makes them sound muffled. People on the other end claimed they could hear us loud enough, although a bit mechanical. The battery fails at the most important function of the phone – music listening. It keeps the device operational for up to 10 hours, while competing phones such as the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and 5130 XpressMusic are rated at respectively 18 and 20 hours. You most probably won´t have any troubles when it comes to calls – the manufacturer claims battery is able to deliver about 7 hours of continuous talk time and 300 hours standby mode.

In a nutshell, we recommend the Sony Ericsson W302 to children and teenagers, since it delivers really nice audio playback quality (through headphones), compact size and appealing overall look at a lower price. We figure adults will probably come to think of the device as rather childish, plus they might find the small keys uncomfortable to use.

Sony Ericsson W302 Video Review: