In a nutshell: Sony Ericsson's flagship Walkman phone offers
a best in class audio experience, with premium quality headphones,
8GB of built-in memory, FM radio with RDS and touch-sensitive music
controls. But it's let down by a poor camera and battery life. Best buy:
*Free* with half-price line rental from Dialaphone
or Mobiles.co.uk.
The Sony Ericsson W980i is Sony Ericsson's latest
flagship Walkman phone, and is the upgrade to the W960i.
The guys at Sony obviously read our review of the W960i, because
they took our suggestions on board and added HSDPA and quadband!
The W980i looks completely different to its predecessor,
because its a clamshell phone - an unusual choice for a music phone,
perhaps - but SE have made the best of the design by placing touch-sensitive
controls on the front for accessing the music player when the phone
is closed. When you tap the touch-sensitive controls, orange lights
appear and the controls become active. The largest circle in the
centre works a little like an iPod's click wheel, and is used to
select artists, songs, etc. Very groovy, and it works fine. You
can also use the shake control to change tracks if you're really
hip. A slide control is used to lock the controls, for when you
put the phone in your pocket. Personally, we'd have preferred something
a little less cool, and more practical. Open up the flip, and you'll
find a large display and a retro-looking keypad with rather spaced-out
keys. Again, we wondered why SE were determined to do things differently
"just for the sake of it", but on balance the keypad is
a lot better than many that the company has inflicted on their users
recently. We did find the phone rather bulky when opened, and we
have to say that having to open the clamshell to use the camera
was a bit of a pain too. Overall, we feel that the clamshell design
isn't really working - it looks like the head honcho at SE's design
team walked into the office one morning and said, "Make it
a clamshell!" and then the rest of the team scurried around
trying to make the best of a bad job.
Alright, let's move onto the strengths of this
phone. It's SE's flagship music phone, so it's brilliant at music
right? Well, yeah, it's pretty damn good actually. Once you've got
used to the touch-sensitive controls, you'll find that it's as user-friendly
as a dedicated MP3 player, and the audio quality is simply outstanding.
Sony have brought together two new technologies called Clear Stereo
and Clear Bass, together with a premium quality headset to make
this the ultimate Walkman phone, at least in terms of audio quality.
You might complain that there's no 3.5mm audio jack, so you can't
use your own headset, but really the one that Sony provides is a
real beauty, and we're quite happy to live with it. In addition
to the music player, the phone also has an FM radio with RDS.
There's plenty of memory built into the W980i -
8GB to be exact, which is enough to store 2,000 songs. That's a
lot of memory, and is as much as most rival phones can offer even
with memory cards added.
Now, this phone is a Walkman phone, so we shouldn't
expect it to have the best camera. And it doesn't. In fact its pants.
And the clumsy way of accessing it doesn't help either. So don't
buy this phone if you really want a good camera. It does do video
calling though, but again you have to open the clamshell to do it.
Good features include HSDPA and quadband, plus
the large LCD display. The battery life figures that SE provide
look really impressive too, but don't believe them. In reality we
found the battery life to be rather poor.
So, the W980i is a bit of a mixed bag. Brilliant
audio quality (phrases like "best in class" really are
appropriate here), but a cumbersome design, rubbish camera and sub-standard
battery life. You pays your money, you makes your choice ...
Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV formats)
FM radio with RDS
PlayNow™, TrackID™
Polyphonic ringtones, MP3/AAC ringtones
Speakerphone
Sound recorder
Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
3D Java games
Picture wallpaper
Organiser functions: Alarm, Calculator, Calendar,
Contacts, Stopwatch, Notes, Tasks, Timer
Internet: Access NetFront web browser, RSS feeds
Memory: 8 Gbytes
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB, Modem
Vibration alert
Flight mode
Quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) plus 3G HSDPA
Size: 92 x 46 x 17 mm
Weight: 100g
Talktime: 4.5 hours (3G) - 9 hours (2G)
Battery standby: 360 hours (2G) - 370 hours
(3G)
Video calling: 3.5 hours
Sony Ericsson
W980i Consumer Reviews
Love
your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review
this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a
forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear
words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!
Average
rating from 33 reviews:
Reviewed by Mabs from UK on 14th
Nov 2008
Recently upgraded to this phone, and had the usual excited rush
to open the box, but once I had put the battery in and set the phone
up it took me very little time at all to begin to hate it!! I am
afraid that the only good aspect to the phone is the sound quality
and volume, and the storage! Other than that I was incredibly disappointed
with the phone! The UI was sooooo slow and buggy it was unbelievable,
the keypad seems to have been designed for people with deformed
hands, and the web browser was absolutely terrible! Perhaps inevitably,
the phone is now back in the very incapable hands of vodafone... Rating:
Reviewed by mia from United Kingdom
on 3rd Nov 2008
i have this phone, and its amazing...... i dont know what these
people are saying, it has NO flaws at all. i think the clamshell
design works really well, but i have to agree that the camera is
quite annoying. ROCK ON, W980i!!!!!!!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Phuong from Viet Nam on
27th Oct 2008
I love my phone so much,the sound quality is amzing,and camera phone
is good if shot in the day,ang ok in the night.Sometims lag.The
touch screen led is cool.So many app can do with it's shake control Rating:
Reviewed by Mirza from Macedonia on
20th Oct 2008
I have the phone for a month and it is pretty good i am surprised
by the sound quality a satisfying camera and an easy to use interface
but i defiantly recommend the new iphone 3g it's simple the best.
Rating:
Reviewed by Jax from UK on 11th
Oct 2008
Ok I am another one who never writes reviews on these sites but
i felt compelled to this time round. I have to say I fell in love
with the phone when I saw it and wanted it right away.... Even paid
extra to have it early.... days after its release. I had it all
of a month and it died.... fully charged would not turn on and I
had done nothing to it. All I had done was the same thing I have
done with my other sony which still works perfectly fine. That was
number one.... I am now on my third in a month because the phone
is terrible.... Now, the phone is meant to be an MP3 phone and you
should be able to fill it up with all your music via your PC....
Fat chance of that happening. I plugged it in via my PC and I put
some music on it and then it started restarting itself all the time
and is still doing it now. And has been for hours and it is the
second one I have had do it... They either die completely or they
keep restarting for no reason at all. I loved sony after my W880i
now I am going back to Nokia... Its safer. Rating:
Reviewed by Richard from England on
8th Oct 2008
I thought this phone was great for the first week, even though i
was advised on forums and from friends to avoid getting it do to
issues regarding the build 'quality' and the battery life. The camera
isn't as good as the K800i, although i wasn't expecting it to be.
The sound quality is great through the supplied headphones, but
quite poor when you attach a 3.5mm and used my own headphones. Some
reviews have suggested that the audio quality is excellent, but
what they don't point out is that the excellent headphones serve
a compensatory purpose to make up for the poor audio signal quality.
In other words, there is STILL no improvement in the poor audio
quality of the walkman range. Battery life lasts me about 1.5 days
with light usage. The only good thing i've found about this phone
is the UI (when it isn't freezing and rebooting all the the time)
and the headphones provided. Other than that, this phone is rubbish. Rating:
Reviewed by Pete from UK on 3rd
Oct 2008
This phone looks the part and is nice to text on etc. But the earpiece
quality on calls is dreadful - very muffled and when you put the
volume up it is very distorted, so that you cannot hear what the
other person is saying. It is all but useless when used outdoors
or in any kind of semi-noisy environment. It was not that my model
was faulty, as I took the first one back and tried another handset.
Why none of the professional reviews bother mentioning this is beyond
me. Avoid at all costs. [Editor's reply: Well, Pete, we didn't bother
mentioning it, because in fact we found the audio quality to be
exceptionally good. I think that both the handsets you tried must
be faulty.] Rating:
Reviewed by Leeza from Uk on
2nd Oct 2008
Absolutely love this phone. Have had it now for about a month and
wanted one from the first day I saw it and it has not disappointed.
I love the sound quality of this phone. I love bass, the deeper
the better and this phone delivers bass in droves. Its like listening
to my music through a sub woofer! OK not quite but you get my drift.
Awesome bass! The phone has other neat features which just adds
to its appeal for me but too numerous to mention here. On the con
side it has frozen on me twice when playing music but easily fixed
by removing the battery. If I could add one feature it would have
to be a sleep function for the music player as I often listen to
my music when going to bed. Overall I think this is a fantastic
phone and highly recommend it. Rating:
Reviewed by Sean Rowley from Wales on
23rd Sep 2008
excellent music player, not much new features, back cover always
comes off, mines been a bit tempremental..likes to go blank on me
sometimes wether its just mine im not to sure, other than that great
phone, 8gb internal memory, to be honest i only bought it because
of the walkman feature it's brilliant Rating:
Reviewed by XxAdelexX from uk on
22nd Sep 2008
Buttons are easy to use and music is easy to install the touch screen
ist easy to use and the screen occasionly rotates battery life is
very poor but the phone stores a lot of music i am pleased i brought
it Rating:
Reviewed by Miguel from Australia on
22nd Sep 2008
This phone is great, have had it for nearly 2 weeks now, I won't
go into the positives cause we already know them but just a few
negative issues.. One is I've found whilst listening to music it
just freezes and shuts down for no reason, this usually happens
about once every day! Secondly I've found in the Walkman app when
having 2 or more albums with the same name (e.g. Greates Hits) but
from a different artists, it uses the album cover image of the first
Greatest Hits album you copied across, in other words it thinks
they're all the same album (though this only affects album cover
art and not the songs.. and thirdly the battery doesn't last too
long, I only use it for about 2-3 hrs a day listening to music on
the train + 2 or 3 short calls and a few txt msg's (not much) yet
still have to recharge it every second night if I'm lucky Other
than that the music sound quality is great and I'd say even better
than the iPod.. Rating:
Reviewed by Jack from UK on 20th
Sep 2008
Got this phone and after 3 days sent it in for repair.. the screen
broke after being knocked around in my pocket whilst walking, not
easy to take pictures with. good speaker but not reliable Rating:
Reviewed by Beamy from UK on
18th Sep 2008
I like this mobile phone, camera is Ok but as Ben said it is difficult
to take a picture you have to open the phone, but better than nothing.
I find the battery run out so quick, I have to re-charge everyday…otherwise
it is good mobile Rating:
Reviewed by Clayre Campbell from Scotland
on 15th Sep 2008
My first Sony Ericsson phone... and I will never EVER go back! I
love it so much and the music quality is above anything you've ever
heard before. I love how the clear plastic bit lights up to the
beat of the music! Brilliant! really easy to text aswel as thats
what i use it for the most. ONLY PROBLEM. I see other reviews have
said you can sync it to your itunes and i was just wondering how
you did that. I LOVE THIS MOBILE!! Rating:
Reviewed by Ry from Manchester , UK
on 14th Sep 2008
Ben i have got the phone i have had it over 4 weeks now i have the
krusell rotate clip with it and its perfect , it does not need a
Jack Jack Jack like you say for 3.5mm the earphones provided are
different to all the other Walkman series phones as they have been
produced to the highest standard and provide optimum music experience.
Yes the camera aint the best and it needs to be opened to use but
the camera is added to give it more desiraiblity not as a major
selling feature , its there for music not for sitting in your back
garden taking pictures of daisies and telling your friends about
ISO levels and Xenon flashes. PLUG it in mate TURN it up and ENJOY
it does excellently whats its SOLD AS ! And also the voice dialling
feature is even more improved cutting out any background noise and
being able to assign a personal SMS alert to all your friends makes
it a notch above what else it out there. [Editor's comment: Thanks
Ry and Ben, let's leave this debate now and hear from some other
folk :)] Rating:
Reviewed by Dave from UK on 13th
Sep 2008
I coveted this phone from the moment I first saw it! I just had
to have it. Now i have been living with it a few weeks I think I
can write a balanced review. As a walkman the sound quality and
software is excellent. I have had Sony MP3 players before that were
ruined by Sony's insistence on "sonic stage" but you can use 'drag
n drop' and Media Player here as well, so full marks. The only downside
is you can't plug your own 3.5mm headphones directly into phone,
it uses a Sony connector. The headphones supplied with this phone
are very high quality though. Using it as an Mp3 player doesn’t
feel compromised in any way. I don't bother using camera features
on a phone, as I have an actual camera which I prefer. However the
camera on this phone is merely "adequate" and if this is the main
feature you would use, I would look elsewhere. Styling wise it looks
VERY nice when closed and being used as an MP3 player. Can't help
thinking it looks a bit 'boring' when open though? I used to have
a KRZR which I loved the look of. Size wise the phone is fine, much
easier to live with than brick phones. Battery life is fine but
not outstanding. To sum up buy this phone if you want an MP3 player/phone
that doesn’t compromise. Rating:
Reviewed by Ben from Staffs Uk on
11th Sep 2008
Ry, Thanks for pointing that out its all clear to me now!! But answer
this, if it's such a good walkman walkman walkman, where is the
3.5mm jack???(jack jack) Ohh and does yr Xbox have a cup holder
on it? NO, it does one thing and it does it well!!! I bet you haven't
even got the phone?? Rating:
Reviewed by Ry from Manchester , UK
on 11th Sep 2008
Ben jeez man "Why put the 980i on the W range if its camera quality
aint much use"...... W = Walkman , it is a Walkman phone WALKMAN
WALKMAN WALKMAN thats what the W stands for if it had a xenon flash
and easy to use camera it would be in the C range called a C980i
, C = Camera W = Walkman !!!!!! Take it you dont like XBOX cos it
dont play PS3 games too..... The w980i is an outstanding WALKMAN
phone if u want a Camera look at the c902. Rating:
Reviewed by de2 from e3re32 on
9th Sep 2008
ttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeee best Rating:
Reviewed by mark from staines on
8th Sep 2008
had the phone 5 days and found it very hard to use and download
.easty to scratch and mark Rating:
Reviewed by Ben from England - Staffs
on 8th Sep 2008
I had this as an upgrade, but in the end i sent it back. WHY, you
ask? Well there's no doubt about it, its stunning to look at, and
don't worry about the front screen you can lock it. As flip phones
go its a pretty good one and an excellent ipod. BUT.. The camera
is a total waste of time, unlike the W850i you have to press the
button on the key pad to take pic, so its very fiddly to take pics
and that is not helped buy the fact that you have to have the phone
open to take pics!!! If you could shut it and take pics using the
(otherwise useless)Front srceen, then it would be much MUCH better.
Also no Light or flash!! Why put the camera on the W range?? its
just a waste of time. Rating:
Reviewed by Sue from Scotland on
5th Sep 2008
Had this phone a week now and was considering sending it back as
the first few days the battery just kept draining away within 24
hours. But, I then locked the outside/front touch sensitive keys
using the little slider on the side of the phone and it has made
a huge difference and the battery life is now what I would expect
-plus the phone doesn't start making musical noises when in my pocket
or bag! Other than that, I like the look and feel of the phone -
it doesn't look or feel cheap or plasticky but feels well built.
I like the buttons spaced out and have no problems with texting.
The phone moves quickly enough round the menu. A couple of times
when I have opened the phone the menu optioon hasn't been there
but has always reappeared when I close and reopen it. Sound is very
good, pictures are crisp and clear-better than the Samsung G600
I have just upgraded from. Signal is very good too, I work in a
basement office and in the past with mobile phones I often haven't
been able to hear the person on the other end as they break up a
lot - not with this phone. The big plus for me is the phone has
a loud ring tone -it is seriously loud and I can't imagine missing
a call or text! All in all, I think this is a great phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Card from UK on 4th
Sep 2008
Seriously I wish people would actually find out how their phone
works before reviewing on this site. To Rod from Aberdeen, of course
the music will start if you put the phone in your pocket...it has
touch sensitive buttons! Check the side of the phone and you'll
see a small button that locks the phone that is designed precisely
for when you have it in your pocket! Seriously, don't review something
if you can't be bothered to find out how it works. For my part I'm
very pleased with this phone, the camera could be better but it
doesn't bother me particularly as I buy the W range for music. Phone's
nice and sleek, not quite as nice when you open it but still classy.
If you're coming off a candybar like a W890 it will feel strange
at first, but you'll get used to it in no time. I can't get enough
of this phone personally. Rating:
Reviewed by AW from Rotherham on
2nd Sep 2008
Its the most beautiful toy I've ever had and the FM transmitter
is a cracking idea. BUT .... standby time of 300 hours, I think
not. I managed to get about 30 hours over the last weekend and during
that time I barely used the phone at all. I left home with it 7
hours ago, fully charged, have sent/read approx 10 text messages
and the battery is already at 67%. Has anyone else had this problem? Rating:
Reviewed by Rod from Aberdeen on
2nd Sep 2008
There's no doubt about it, this a very good phone. If your into
music that is. No use, if like me you keep it in your pockets. It
starts playing the music as the touch sensitive buttons on the front
cover activate very easily. Agree with earlier review, not very
private with the front cover screen showing who is sending text
and first line of text. Its a well made phone and the keypad is
well laid out but duplicate buttons meant I kept opening Internet
which was a pest. The camera is excellent. Battery life not good
but overall a very good phone its just not for me. Rating:
Reviewed by Clive from Oxford on
31st Aug 2008
Great phone but the back cover fell off and was lost after a week.
No idea where to get a new one! Also am I the only one who can't
get their entire Itunes library to sync? Rating:
Reviewed by hikaru from japan on
27th Aug 2008
@ Paul: Menu > Settings > New events > change from activity menu
to popup. Rating:
Reviewed by paul from aberdeen on
25th Aug 2008
i totally LOVE this phone - except for one thing... when i get a
text, its shows who its from and the first line of message on the
main screen..not good for privacy! does anyone know if this feature
can be turned off? ive gone through all the settings and cant seem
to find out how, or if it can be done...HELP ! Rating:
Reviewed by Rob from UK on 25th
Aug 2008
What can I add that those here have not already said? This phone
is amazing. I've always steered clear of hybrid phones, but after
looking at a friends W980, I was hooked. Starting with the looks,
it is sleek. It feels perfectly weighted in the hand and the clam
shell feels like it can take some abuse. The buttons are spaced
apart with at first seems odd, but soon you become used to it, and
it actually makes more sense that way. The fact that it comes with
8gig memory to start with really was a selling factor for me. I've
put 3 gigs of music across already (the transfer rate is very quick).
Might try and put some movies on there for the way to work. It syncs
easily with both my Mac and PC, and like the reviewer said before,
it also works with Itunes :) I have to say, there is so much more
to explore from this phone that I've just started to see, but I
am very impressed with it, from the way it looks to the way it sounds.
Call clarity is spot on and I know I'll be happy with this phone
for the next year. Again, big 5/5 Rating:
Reviewed by kez from england on
25th Aug 2008
i think the phone is very nice but when u flip it up its just ugly
and quit diffacult to work Rating:
Reviewed by parthkumar from india on
21st Aug 2008
this is a lovely mobile Rating:
Reviewed by Ryan from Manchester , UK
on 20th Aug 2008
Ladies n Gentlemen Sony Ericsson have just released the Phone of
the Year 2008 , i have had many phones in the last 12 months LG
Viewty , Nokia N81 , SE w760i and my favourite of all time w910i........until
now !!!! This phone by far and away is the best mobile i have ever
had , its screen is a great size and the flip side screen when the
phone is closed is smaller but gives you all the info you need in
a cool silver on black background (although the closed screen cannot
have a wallpaper) , this phone rings VERY loud and SMS is very LOUD
too thanks to the dual speakers. Its has the 8gb memory so you can
easily store as many tracks as you like but of course you know this
as this is the main selling point so ill crack on with stuff i would
like to know when buying a phone eh , the clamshell design feels
well made , smooth , opens and shuts simply and the touchscreen
buttons respond so easily and there is even a keylock to prevent
accidentally touching the pads. The buttons for texting dialling
etc a little further apart than you are probably used to but fast
texters like myself soon adapt. The phone looks the biz the menus
react very quickly , the alarms dont have the faults the c902 has
with missing wake up calls and best of all you can set personal
text mp3s for every phonebook contact if you wish , HOW COOL IS
THAT !!! All in all 5/5 oh and yes THE SOUND QUALITY THRU THE EARPIECES
IS AMAZING such an improvement and so clear and crisp. Rating:
Reviewed by Illya from UK on
19th Aug 2008
I NEVER write reviews or feel compelled to spend time airing my
opinions on line - particularly about a mobile phone!! However,
I have had a mobile for years now, going all the way back to the
Nokia 5110, through various other phones, the only one that I ever
regretted updrading was a Sharp GX30, which was way ahead of the
competition at the time. Since they I have had may disappointing
phones. Until I got the; SONY ERRICSSON W980. What a throughly brilliant
phone, first of all it works with my car faultlessly. My car is
a 2005 BMW (E46) convertable. My daughter works for a mobile phone
shop, we tried EVERYTHING, including the latest 3G iphone, none
of them worked with the car, this one? - no problem. The big plus
is I dont have to wear a "I'm a pillock" bluetooth headset! The
walkman will sync with both windows media AND itunes. Now why cant
anything else!! You little geniuses Sony E! The screen(s) are clear,
the buttons well laid out, and proper buttons. The headphones are
brilliant, the phone COMES WITH 8gig of memory and connects to the
internet easily. This phone is easy to get used to and a real smart
piece of kit. The phone is a flip phone with a proper hinge - so
chance of it falling to bits after a few months. Overall - A really,
really good phone, brilliant connectivity, smart, clever and loads
of memory for your music, FIVE BIG STARS!! Rating:
