Sony Ericsson W350i review

The mobile phone industry is a funny old place. Little more than a year ago Sony Ericsson debuted the W880i, one of the thinnest and lightest mobile phones ever built. Its functionality was limited but its dimensions ensured flagship status and a hefty asking price. Jump forward to September 2008 and an almost identically small handset with better Walkman integration and a bargain basement price arrives in the shape of the W350 and yet we're not overly impressed.

Why? Well you certainly won't find all the answers by breaking the specifications down. The W350i measures just 104x43x10.5 mm and weighs a pocket forgettable 80g, while the 1.9-inch screen is ever so slightly larger than the aforementioned W880i, the company's slick Walkman software is typically well implemented and there's even Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP for high quality wireless audio streaming to earphones. Pick it up in your hand however and you'll soon realise not everything is quite how it should be.

For a start the smart looking flip - reminiscent of many former Ericsson models - which automatically switches the W350i between Walkman and handset models is inexcusably flimsy both open or closed. Will it stand up to 12 or 18 months wear and tear? I have serious doubts. Look closer and the seemingly sophisticated player buttons are also nothing more than dummy keys which push onto the keypad.

As for that 1.9-inch screen, it is bright and fairly clear but at just 128x160 pixels, it is something of a disappointment with menus looking cramped and text swollen and fuzzy around the edges. So while email and basic web surfing is supported you'll find anything more than SMS a cramped, eye straining exercise.

Things don't improve when we get to the camera on the W350i either which lacks both flash or autofocus and while the latter is forgivable we must question just how much Sony Ericsson saved by fitting a low end 1.3 megapixel sensor compared to the 2.0 megapixel option equipped in almost every cheap handset these days. It is unnecessarily penny pinching.

Ironically, we could probably take most of these problems and turn the other cheek had they not been compounded by the single biggest crime to afflict any music-centric mobile phone: the absence of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Yes, Sony Ericsson is not the only offender and it has taken this ever so obvious message onboard with many of its more expensive Walkman handsets but the designers of the W350i clearly missed the memo for which there is no excuse.

Consequently, owners are either forced to use the unabashedly mediocre earphones bundled in the box or fish around for an adaptor online as the one bundled is a ridiculous one metre long and leaves even those with modular earphones with far too much spare cable. Let's not forget this decision also strikes off the option to listen to music while simultaneously charging the battery.

Not everything is so disappointing however for while the 14MB of shared memory is little more than a token gesture, a 512MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card is provided in the box and with support for AAC and MP3 both major audio formats are covered. Another tidy bonus comes in the shape of the aforementioned Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) which means music can be streamed in high quality to wireless Bluetooth earphones, something even a high end handset like the iPhone has yet to implement.

Continuing this theme is the onboard FM tuner with RDS and the ever handy TrackID music recognition software which will identify song titles either played into its microphone or even sung by the user. Lastly, and showing some practicality, Sony Ericsson has managed to squeeze a remarkable seven hours of talk time or 300 hours of standby from a single charge. No doubt these figures are attained with Bluetooth disabled and helped by the absence of 3G, WiFi, GPS and many other high end battery sucking features but from our time with the W350 it does make for a handset which doesn't need to spend every evening plugged into its charger.

We feel a little sorry for the Sony Ericsson W350i considering it gives the budget sector a design and feature set that would hold its own against a flagship model just one year ago. That said, mobile phones are arguably the fastest moving sector in the already high paced technology industry and while limited features can be accepted in this price range, poor build quality and ill thought out decisions mar what could have been an excellent little handset.