Camera Phone Reviews

Sony Ericsson W960i

Music marathon

Up to 700 albums - around 8000 songs* - can be stored on the 8GB memory of the W960 Walkman® phone. Managing tracks is easy and it can transfer up to 1GB of data, including music tracks, from your PC to the phone in less than three minutes. With two stylish headsets supplied in the box §(one of these the new Stereo Bluetooth™ Headset HBH-DS220) and a music listening time of up to 27 hours, you’re free to dance much more than the night away.

Visual feast

Album arts, TV shows and games. You can navigate the W960 and browse media files with the touch of a finger (or stylus). Just press the touch controls to find your way to whatever type of entertainment you need. If video is your choice, the phone supports video playback at 30 frames per second, which is the same as TV quality

Go Wireless

The 2.6” touch-sensitive display is great for Web browsing. Hook up to the Web using the 3G network or a Wi-Fi™ access point. Visit your favourite pages, buy music online, and download new programmes to make the W960 truly yours.

Performance photos

To catch the fun, the W960 Walkman® phone boasts a 3.2 megapixel camera within its 16mm frame. Auto focus makes your photos sharper, and with picture messaging or email you can share them instantly. Another way to spread the word - or photos - is to post them on your own blog site.

Sort it out

As with the W910 Walkman® phone, you can organize all of your content for the W960 using Media Manager PRO, a PC programme for optimizing music, photos and videos to be used on your phone.

Wise up

As with earlier Walkman® phones, the W960 incorporates TrackID™ music recognition software. This lets you record a clip of a song on your phone and find out instantly the name of the artist, track and album. Handy for those moments when you hear a song you like, but do not know who sings it.

On the W960 (and W910) this feature has been taken to the next level. You can now receive detailed information about the song identified - the background of the artists and the album. New ways to search have been added in, other than just by capturing an audio clip. If you know a bands name and not much else, for example, you can text search to find out more. Search by artist, title, album or lyrics.

Listen up

The W960 Walkman® phone really is the centrepiece of your music listening life, which is why both a stereo portable handsfree and a Stereo Bluetooth™ headset for music streaming are included with the phone. When you want more, the new Street-style Portable Handsfree HPM-83 adds urban style to the W960. Its flexible neckband gives a secure fit and wraps behind the head, so as not to get in the way if you’re running or at the gym. If you want to share your music library with friends, the Bluetooth™ Music Receiver MBR-100 plugs into your home stereo and lets you stream tracks directly from the phone to your stereo’s speakers. Why keep it to yourself?

Nicklas Sivander, Product Manager for the W960 Walkman® phone, Sony Ericsson, sums it up: “You couldn’t ask for a better music mix of high performance media player and intuitive phone. The touchscreen is complemented by a regular keyboard and the phone itself is amplified by the Media Manager programme and the many music accessories. The days of taking an MP3 player, a camera and a phone with you when you leave the house are definitely over.”

The Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman® phone is UMTS 2100-GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 and will be available in Vinyl Black from Q4 2007.

Sony Ericsson W960i Reviews

3G reviews the Sony Ericsson W960i and writes, "We're glad that the main camera on the W960i is 3.2 megapixels (the W910i only offers two) and it's a pretty decent all-round shotmaker that's activated and operated with a dedicated shutter key and digital zoom controls on the side of the phone. It's not a Cybershot quality camera and the phone suffers from a short shutter lag when shooting indoors, but the auto focus worked well and the W960 generally produces decent results which can be tweaked, enhanced and defaced using the phone's Photo Editor application. Meanwhile, a second camera sits on the front of the phone to enable video calling."

CNET UK reviews the Sony Ericsson W960i and writes, "Picture quality from the 3.2-megapixel camera was good in daylight but if you're thinking of taking pictures in a darkened club or candle-lit café, you might want to think again. It's a real shame that Sony Ericsson hasn't yet made a Walkman phone with a similar camera setup to its Cyber-shot range. Then again, it may be due to keeping true to the brands -- something we think should probably change."

Trusted Reviews has a review of the Sony Ericsson W960i and writes, "There is a front-facing camera for making video calls, and the main camera shoots stills at 3.2-megapixels. It has a dual LED flash, which I found better than a single light for indoor shooting, but there is no auto mode for the flash - it is either on or off. There is a macro mode and auto focus...The camera performance was variable under testing. The coloured dish shot as usual under normal household lighting conditions with no flash is a little dull but the colour reproduction is good. The pink flowering plants are overexposed though, which doesn't bode too well for generic outdoor photography, and I noticed a bit of shutter lag which doesn't inspire confidence when taking action shots...However the macro modes shots I took were superb. I got very close to the plants with frost on them and the quality of the image is really quite good with plenty of detail captured."

Pocket Gamer reviews the Sony Ericsson W960i and writes, "Many people lambasted the W950 for lacking a camera and SE has wisely taken this criticism on board. The W960i therefore comes replete with a 3.2-megapixel snapper. Picture quality is encouraging but with what is now arguably deemed to be an entry-level megapixel count, the W960i is hardly in a position to challenge the more dedicated photo-happy handsets currently standing at the vanguard of the market."

Pocket-lint reviews the Sony Ericsson W960i and writes, "In terms of connectivity, the phone offers the normal quad-band GSM and HSDPA, as well as featuring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an FM radio. The 3.2 megapixel camera is simple to use and has dedicated button, but suffers from the above-mentioned control issues, as does the video camera. As a 3G phone, it supports video calling and has a front mounted camera for this purpose."