The earphones supplied with the W350i are better quality than average for a mobile, reproducing lower frequencies pretty well. Of course, better quality headphones will make a significant improvement to sound quality, and we’d always recommend trying your own upmarket ear-gear whenever you can.
As standard with Walkman mobiles, the earphones are a two-piece set, with a 3.5mm headphone connector socket mid-way, so you can add your own. One niggle – once again - is Sony Ericsson’s positioning of its proprietary headphones/charger/USB connector socket, on the side rather than the top or bottom. As we’ve said before, the bulky connector is more easily snagged in pockets with this layout.
The music player buttons on the flip have an attractive rounded design
Your sideloaded tracks can be complemented by free music too, courtesy of the easy to use onboard FM radio. You need to have the adapter part of the headphone lead plugged in to receive it, though, like the music player, you can play it through the loudspeaker - if you can put up with the tinny, bass free sound. Stereo Bluetooth, for wireless headphones or speakers, is part of the spec too.
Sony Ericsson’s excellent TrackID song identification software is supplied, and with a further nod to musicality, there’s the regulation Music Mate piano and guitar chord instructor Java app nestled in the apps folder.
We should mention the camera. It’s a basic 1.3-megapixel snapper – the lowest resolution you’ll see on any new cameraphone in the UK (all but the most entry level are 2-megapixels and over). There’s no flash and limited functionality and controls; some younger users may also be put off by not being able to shoot video with the camera (though you can watch video clips sent, downloaded or copied to the phone).
COMMENTS
Memory Stick Micro?
Sigh - when are they going to learn? Sony has learned the lesson of its proprietary ATRAC audio codec but when it comes to storage there's the rest of the world and then there's... the Sony Memory Stick. Nokia has abandoned its POP-port in favour of jack sockets and micro-USB. When it sees the light, I'll consider a Sony Ericsson phone.
better to spend £20 more
SE phones with i in the model let you use it as a bluetooth modem via connection setup tools on the cd, no need for a datacard, better getting w850i and £60 on a 8gb mem card
About time!
Now That S-E have stopped trying to compete with the premium "fanboi" phones, thwy can get back to what they do well, producing good, solid, no frills handsets.
flip-in eck
I'm loving the return to the flip cover - that's something that's been sorely missing in recent year. best phone i ever had was the old Z7 - not because of the features, although the menu system was cool, and not even because i replaced the silver case with an all-black matt one off ebay and the leds on teh screen with blue ones - but because it was great being able to flip it open with your little finger while you brought the phone up to your ear, and making a bedee beddee noise like from StarTrek :)
