Sony Ericsson W380i camera samples

The Sony Ericsson W380i is a budget Walkman music phone that has a decent music player but a basic 1.3-megapixel camera. This level of resolution (1280x1024 pixels) is now the bare minimum you'd expect of even an entry-level phone coming onto the UK mobile market in 2008.

As such, you should expect very limited results from this cameraphone. The 1.3-megapixel resolution will limit the scope for printing images, as quality will be poor at standard photo print size. Images shot in good lighting conditions may look acceptable on a computer screen, but the level of detail you can achieve is very limited. They should be fine though for simple snap-and-send picture messaging.

What's more, unusually for even the most basic cameraphone, the W380i does without video capture capability entirely. While basic mobile video shooting quality is generally poor, it's not often now a phone doesn't have at least some some capture option. You can watch video clips, however, if they're sent to you, copied or downloaded to the phone.

With no autofocus system for the camera, the fixed focus lens doesn't allow you much flexibility composing images, and what's in focus is up to the camera - it's essentially a point-and-shooter. Similarly, as you'd expect from a basic camera, there's no macro mode for getting in-focus close-up shots.

Neither is there a flash or photo light, hampering night or low-light shooting. There is a night-mode within the menus, but while this boosts picture brightness, shooting in darkness will result in grainy images with lots of picture noise.

In general, the exposure metering system employed here is limited too. Images can be over exposed or too dark if part of the lighting scenario is mixed - even in situations that aren't particularly tricky (for example a building against a reasonably bright sky, or reflected light - as in the stadium image here).

There are a cluster of settings adjustments you can make to the camera. You can adjust picture size (1-megapixel (1280x1024 pixels) and quality, VGA (640x480 pixels) or QVGA (320x240 pixels), alter white balance for indoors or outdoors modes (auto, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent or incandescent), switch on night mode, burst mode for multiple shots or add colour effects (black and white, negative or sepia). There's also a self-timer option (though there's no mirror on the phone to help you frame self shots).

Essentially, what you have here is a poor quality camera in a phone that majors on its musical ability rather than its imaging. At its budget price level, you get what you pay for.


Sony Ericsson W380i review