Sony Ericsson W960i

release date: January 2008
colours:
 
vinyl black
Sony Ericsson W960i

RATING

4 stars

Pros

  • 3G
  • Walkman player
  • 8 GB Phone Memory
  • Symbian OS 9.1

Cons

  • Touchscreen is a little fiddly to use
  • No 3.5 mm jack
  • Tri-band only

SUMMARY

Tri-band 3G music-focussed smartphone with 2.6" touchscreen, Symbian OS 9.1, 3.2 MP camera, Walkman Player 3, 8 GB flash storage and Wi-Fi. There's no EDGE or HSDPA. Feature-wise, the W960i is similar to the Sony Ericsson P1i.

Review

The Sony Ericsson W960i is a tri-band 3G music-focussed smartphone with 2.6" touchscreen, Symbian OS 9.1, 3.2 MP camera, Walkman Player 3, 8 GB flash storage and Wi-Fi. There's no EDGE or HSDPA. Feature-wise, the W960i is similar to the Sony Ericsson P1i smartphone. The W960i is successor to the 2006 launched Sony Ericsson W950i.

The W960i is a decent music phone. It's targeted at music-loving smartphone users. If you don't want Wi-Fi and/or smartphone features and want a simpler, faster to start up phone, then look elsewhere. Use MobileSift's home page filters to find the latest best music phones.

Design

The W960i has a glossy black front, matt black back and white on the sides. It's not a particularly pretty phone, a little plain to look at. It's quite a wide phone (55 mm). On each side:

Left: The jog dial (scroll up and down menus/screens) and sticking out above that is the lanyard (strap holder). Looks silly, and attracts "what's that knobbly bit sticking out" questions. The back button has been moved to the front, above the keypad. The stylus compartment sits at the top - slide the plastic stylus out from the top.

Right: 2 separate volume up and down keys at the top. Camera button at the bottom.

Back: 3.2 MP camera lens with dual-LED light and loudspeaker. Smooth matt black.

Bottom: Connector for the charger/accessories, indicator light and microphone.

Top: On/off button.

Stylus: Plastic. Slides out from top-left. A spare one is provided in the box.

2.6" touch-screen: Use your fingers or the stylus. Many icons and scrollbars are small, so you have to use fingertips/nails or use the stylus.

Keypad: Nice and wide keys, easy to press. Much better than those on the W950i. Above the keypad is the back button, dedicated Walkman key and clear key.

The music player has its own touch-sensitive keys just beneath the screen - white backlighting for these keys.

UIQ Interface: Some online reviews say that Sony Ericsson's UIQ 3 interface is "idiotic", a "mess", "designed by morons", a "disaster", "confusing"...

The interface does has some usability inefficiencies, but for many people they're not a big issue. It takes a little time to get to know where everything is located.

The interface is a little slow at times and there are a few bugs, but these could be fixed in future software updates. Liking the interface is down to personal preference.

Start up time: Slow. 60 seconds. Put smartphones next to basic phones on a table. When someone wants to make a quick call, most people grab a simple phone. It's quicker and easier.

8 GB flash storage: Store 1500+ songs on the flash memory. There's also 128 MB available user memory. There's no memory card slot.

Features

3.2 MP Camera

3.2 MP camera with dual-LED, autofocus and macro mode. Image quality is OK (very subjective). The LED light isn't super-bright - photos taken in low light won't be great. 3.2 MP gives you 2048 x 1536 pixels. You can edit pictures in the picture editor and browse images in the picture gallery.

Features include: exposure control, timer, digital zoom, auto focus, white balance, light, night mode, quality settings, macro mode...

15 fps QVGA video capture (: Sony Ericsson phones aren't great at video capture. Nokia have many phones with 30 fps at VGA resolution.

Front-facing VGA (640 x 480) camera: 3G video call camera is front top-left.

Connectivity

3G, USB, Bluetooth 2 and Wi-Fi. There's no HSDPA and no EDGE. File transfer can be done via Bluetooth or USB. You can use Sony Ericsson's Media Manager. The Media Manager lets you:

rip audio CDs, convert your existing audio tracks to MP3 or MP4 format, add SenseMe information to your music and copy tracks directly to a Sony Ericsson phone or to the phone's Sony Memory Stick.

View and transfer pictures and videos taken with the phone, and resize pictures to fit more of your favourite photos on to the phone.

Subscribe to podcasts and download them to your phone.

Backup or restore your media content to keep it secure.

You can ransfer files using a Bluetooth dongle - drag and drop files between the computer and phone via Bluetooth. You can pick one up for under £10 at an online shop - Play, Amazon etc.

Symbian OS 9.1

Lots of applications - QuickOffice, business card scanner, Wi-Fi, task manager, tools and more.

Text input: Handwriting recognition, virtual keyboard or hardware keyboard. The virtual keyboard is small. Handwriting recognition software takes some time to get used to - if at all. You need to be precise in your strokes, otherwise the software keys the wrong letter.

Web browsing

3G, 2.6-inch screen, Opera Web browser. Not bad. HSDPA would have been good - that'll probably come in the next version - W970i.

No Quad-band - Bwahhhh

£300+ for a phone, and it's not quad-band. Why? We want quad-band. We go on holiday to quad-band countries. Give us quad-band naughty manufacturer.

Walkman 3 Music Player

Playlists, visualization, rate tracks, assign moods, sort/categorize songs. Use the Walkman player touch-sensitive keys. You can identify tracks with trackID, and download media from the Sony Ericsson PlayNow service.

Sound quality: Fine when using the earphones. Loudspeaker is OK. Sony Ericsson still like to use their proprietary port, so there's no 3.5 mm jack built into the phone. There is however a 3.5 mm adapter - plug in your own high-quality earphones.

Summary

The W960i is a decent enough 3G music smartphone. There's plenty of storage (8 GB), Wi-Fi, 3G, good music player and a 2.6-inch touchscreen. The phone does take a while to boot up and the interface could do with some usability improvements.

Where to Buy?

April 2008, and the W960i can be bought for £320 on PAYG, or "free" on a pay-monthly contract.

W960i Alternatives

Apple iPhone, Sony Ericsson W890i, Sony Ericsson W910i or any of the latest Nokia music phones - Nokia N95 8 GB, Nokia N82, Nokia 6500 Slide...

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
January 2008
Size
109.0 x 55.0 x 16.0 mm
4.3 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches
Weight
119 g
4.2 oz
Colours
 
vinyl black
Screen
  • 2.6-inch TFT
  • 240x320 pixels
  • 262144 colours
  • Touchscreen
Memory
  • 8 GB phone memory
Networks
  • Tri-band (GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 9.5 hours
  • Standby time: 370 hours
  • 3G talk time: 3 hours
  • 3G standby time: 300 hours
OS
Symbian OS 9.1

In The Box

Sony Ericsson W960i, instruction manual, charger, handsfree, battery, USB cable, extra stylus, pouch, 3.5 mm adapter, software CD.

Connectivity

  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0
  • Video calling

Camera

  • 3.2 MP Camera

  • features: 3.2x digital zoom, photo light, video capture (QVGA - 15 fps), auto-focus

  • QVGA video resolution
  • 15 FPS video capture
  • 0.3 MP front camera

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS, Email
  • Push Email
  • Software QWERTY

Entertainment

  • Games: Vijay Singh Pro Golf 3D, Quadrapop

  • FM radio
  • RDS Radio
  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • Opera 8.0 Web browser

Installed Applications

  • Document viewer
  • PIM: Alarm clock, calculator, calendar, flight mode, notes, phone book, stopwatch, tasks, timer, document editors, document readers, handwriting recognition
  • Voice commands, voice recorder

Prices

Prices coming soon.