Camera Phone Reviews

Sony Ericsson W580 Walkman Phone

This latest Walkman® phone pushes the boundaries of urban style. When the slider is closed the design, either in Style White or Urban Grey, is ice-cool, understated. Flick open the slider and the phone becomes a real attention grabber, revealing hot orange colour accents and stunning light effects along the sides.

At only 14mm thin, you wonder where the W580 finds room for all of that music, the camera and the fun applications. But it does, effortlessly, and there is no compromise on the full Walkman® phone experience. As well as storing up to 470 full-length music tracks *, it is incredibly easy to get music from your computer into the phone, since the Disc2Phone music management software and USB cable all come in the box. You can even use TrackID™ to identify music tracks you don’t recognise, regardless of whether they are playing out loud or via the phone’s RDS FM Radio. With all this going on, make sure you take time to notice the light effects on the W580. Navigate to the Walkman® player and they automatically change to a glowing orange colour.

With the W580 Walkman® phone you can even take your favourite tracks to the track. It will count your steps, your calories and monitor your running speed/distance/time. Add to that your best tunes for motivation and whether you’re on a run, in the gym or just out for a stroll, the W580 is the perfect fitness partner.

Urban cool really does meet mobile entertainment with the W580. The 2.0 megapixel camera and fast connectivity make picture blogging and instant messaging second nature. 3D Gaming is fast action too with hit titles preloaded. The slider action also allows for a large 2.0” colour screen, ideal not just for gaming but also web browsing and viewing your camera photos.

As if the W580 did not already scream of street style, you can also add music accessories to your Walkman® phone to make even more of an impression. Two sets of cool, optional speakers - the Portable Speakers MPS-70 and Snap-on Speakers MPS-75 - instantly transform the W580 into the heart and soul of any party. If you want to turn up the volume still further, then the Bluetooth™ Music Receiver MBR-100 lets you play your phone music directly through a home stereo, using your W580 as the remote control to skip through tracks and adjust the volume. So the W580 Walkman® phone looks and sounds stylish, whether you are at a party or just hitting the street.

The W580 Walkman® phone is a 2.5G, Quad Band EDGE device (850/900/1800/1900) and will be available in selected markets from Q3 2007.

* W580 Walkman® phone capable of storing up to 470 tracks in eAAC+ codec.

Sony Ericsson W580 Reviews

OSNews reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes "the W580i camera is a bust. Not only lacks autofocus and even a flash light, but it just doesn't take good pictures. Especially under low light (with "night" effect on or off), the pictures are pretty bad. More over, the phone will only record in QCIF size and 3GP format, even if it is able to playback MP4 video in QVGA size with no problems. I believe that this was a market segmentation decision at Sony Ericsson rather than a true hardware limit. In conclusion, we would say that the W580i is a worthy upgrade over the W810i and many other SE phones, especially if you live in USA and you try to find a phone that both has a QVGA screen and a quad-band GSM/EDGE ability."

MacNN reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i Walkman and writes, "As much as Sony likes to promote its Cyber-shot cameras and even some Cyber-shot cameraphones, it's evident that the camera was a largely secondary concern on this particular Walkman. Shots still produced the glow and haze effects of the Samsung and were noisy outside of bright light due to the lack of flash. The 2-megapixel resolution is by now merely average for a mid-range phone but is still better than the m620 for cropping part of the image. The PhotoDJ software on the camera was helpful in cleaning up the image with auto-leveling the image and adjusting balance, though we wouldn't quite call it a replacement for a full computer editing tool."

InfoSync reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "The phone's camera was especially disappointing, considering the excellent lenses we've found on Sony Ericsson phones in the past. The 2-megapixel shooter takes pics that look very noisy, with imperfect colors and poor lighting. Though auto focus, or even an LED flash, would have been nice, the phone at least includes a wealth of editing options, including auto-levels and red-eye reduction. Also, we would have liked the panorama feature much more if the lens had been of a higher quality."

MobileBurn reviews the Sony Ericsson W580 and writes, "The W580's 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera is capable of taking decent photographs in most situations with good lighting. Its photos are generally sharp as long as the subject is not too close. When the lighting gets bad, however, the camera shows some weakness that even its night mode can't help. The camera can also be used for recording video clips, though only at a low 176x144 pixel resolution."

Laptopmag reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "The W580i's camera held up well in low light, although our pictures and movies appeared slightly pixelated. Our video clips showed minimal latency, but the sound was barely audible, even with the microphone enabled. We also wish you could use the 4X zoom for photos and not just video. However, the camera wins points for its customizable features: You can shoot pictures in black-and-white or negative, record video in Night mode, adjust the white balance, and choose from one of four shutter sounds."

PCMag reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "The W580i's relatively good flashless 2-megapixel camera delivers sharp if slightly bluish pictures, maintaining sharpness even in low light. Our low-light shots were a touch overexposed, but there was no shutter-speed blur, which is much more important. Video recordings were as steady as 176-by-144, 10-fps videos could be, but movies at that size and frame rate aren't good for much."

Australian PC Authority reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "When you slide the phone open a 2-megapixel camera is revealed – this helps keep the lens clean and means there’s no manual cover to break. The photo options are quite advanced, such as a timer and burst mode. Annoyingly, the shutter sound can’t be turned off: even in silent mode. Unlike photo quality, video results are generally quite poor, which we attribute to the lack of an LED and reliance on gain being applied to the camera’s output."

MobileTechReview reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "Sony Ericsson enthusiasts know that one thing they can always rely on is the built-in camera. The Sony Ericsson W810i showed US cell phone users what a good camera phone could do. Yes, there are plenty of import phones that do even better, but those offered by US carriers aren’t high-end imaging phones. Even among the impressive high-megapixel import phones on the market, Sony Ericsson W580i’s 2.0 megapixel camera doesn’t disappoint for the price. It’s a good performer in its class and takes very sharp photos with good color balance and saturation. Photos in well-lit outdoor shots are sharp with correct colors and reasonably full details. Some photos show slight over-sharpening but it’s by no means bad. Direct sun shots have white-out on reflective surfaces which is a problem for most digital cameras. Overcast outdoor shots look a bit hazy but still have reasonably good detail and sharpness, and have very good color balance. Photos taken indoors have a noticeable cool color cast and the noise level is high compared to outdoor shots (higher noise indoors is the norm). But there’s still enough good image data to edit a dimly lit shot and turn it into something decent."

Mobile Choice reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "The W580i harbours a standard mid-range two-megapixel camera, woefully deprived of autofocus, Macro focus for close-ups and any type of flash. You can muck around with white balance, shoots modes and effects, but really it won’t mask the average picture quality blighted by soft focus around the fringes. Similarly video capture shoots in a judder-tastic but YouTube fit 176x144 pixel resolution."

3G reviews the Sony Ericsson W580i and writes, "The W580i harbours a standard mid-range two-megapixel camera, woefully deprived of autofocus, Macro focus for close-ups and any type of flash. You can muck around with white balance, shoots modes and effects, but really it won’t mask the average picture quality blighted by soft focus around the fringes. Similarly video capture shoots in a judder-tastic but YouTube fit 176x144 pixel resolution."