Sony Ericsson W660i review

The W660i a well featured candybar 3G phone, not ultra-slim or shiny sleek, but it does none the less have much of the functionality of the sharply designed W880i.

The Sony Ericsson W660i Walkman phone packs 3G functionality into a familiar music phone design. But is it just more of the same?

Sony Ericsson redefined the music phone when it slapped the Walkman brand on a mobile for the first time. Now, hugely successful, the Walkman phone line-up has expanded to cover an ever-widening range of models. Some, like the W880i, are built to be hip, but the W660i is one of Sony Ericsson's more middle of the road offerings.

The W660i a well featured candybar 3G phone, not ultra-slim or shiny sleek, but it does none the less have much of the functionality of the sharply designed W880i. Decked out in "Record Black" or female-friendly "Rose Red", with gold edging and a few gold control buttons, the W660i has a stab at trendiness. But in truth, it's a safe design option based on tried and tested Walkman predecessors, like the 2.5G W610i for which the W660i is essentially a 3G step-up.

The Sony Ericsson W660i has the latest Walkman 2.0 music player software onboard. This is complemented by an FM stereo radio inside and some neat TrackID music recognition software. The 3G speed boost adds considerable pace to audio track downloading, while you can stream or download video and other content swiftly too. It has a full internet browser inside, and supports RSS feeds straight to the phone.

3G brings with it video calling, with a small camera perched above the phone's 262K-colour 176x220 pixels display. The main camera on the back is a standard issue 2.0-megapixel camera, devoid of autofocus, macro mode or flash. A shame considering Sony Ericsson normally does such an impressive job with its Cyber-shot cameraphones.

Thankfully, the W660i does away with the chic but text-unfriendly tiny keys of the W880i, with a refreshingly full-sized keypad. Sony Ericsson hasn't gone off piste with the rest of the design elements either; it's a respectable 14.5mm thin and reasonable 93 grams. Buttons are spread as you'd expect, with navigation pad at the centre of operations. A clever button set-up means there are short cuts to popular features – including one Walkman-branded gold button that brings immediate access to the Walkman player.

Sony Ericsson has refined its Walkman phone package enough by now for us to expect a crowd-pleasing music player experience. The W660i doesn't disappoint. The user interface of the Walkman 2.0 player is slick and graphically enticing. Cover art can be displayed as tracks are playing, and icon-based graphics show you how you're progressing as you hunt for your tunes, through familiar MP3 player-style categories.

The W660i package contains a quality in-ear stereo headset, which also allows a regular set of headphones to be used as an alternative, thanks to a 3.5mm jack socket on the in-line microphone module. It also takes care of handsfree calling too.

Sony Ericsson supplies a 512MB M2 memory card with the W660i, so there's plenty of room for tracks to start with. Additional M2 cards can be bought cheaply if you want to boost storage. The M2 card slots in the side of the phone - no fuss, and easily swappable.
Getting tunes into the phone is a relatively straightforwad porcedure too. You can plus in the phone to a PC via a supplied USB cable and either use Sony Ericsson's Disc2Phone PC software package to rip CDs and sideload them to the phone, or copy over tracks by simply dragging and dropping music files to the appropriate folder on the M2 card. While the Disc2Phone option helps you manage you tune list, the drag and drop option is speedy and straightforward. The Walkman player supports MP3, AAC, AAC , eAAC WMA and AMR file formats.

Alternatively, you could try zapping tunes over via Bluetooth. The W660i offers stereo Bluetooth streaming too, so you can play tunes through snazzy Bluetooth wireless headphones or speakers if you want to impress people.

It's what's in the grooves that count, though, and the W660i delivers an excellent music performance - helped no doubt by the decent headphones. The Walkman player produced a well-balanced sound with a good tonal range and bass depth. An equaliser and MegaBass options allow you to tweak up certain frequencies, but in standard mode we had no complaints. Very impressive.

You do have the option of sharing the music/annoying fellow citizens via the speaker in the back of the phone. Its sound isn't awful, just the usual tinny playback you hear on mobile speakers.

The FM radio, as part of the entertainment options, is a welcome extra you may use more than you'd expect.Sony Ericsson's impressive TrackID software is onboard too and can be used with the radio. It can identify tracks you've heard by capturing short snippets of tunes and checking online with the Gracenote database using complex algorithims.

With 3G to play with here, you may want to playback video downloads on the W660i. You can watch these in full screen landscape mode. It's not the best quality we've seen, and the screen isn't Sony Ericsson's most detailed, but its perfectly fine for a bit of entertainment on the move.

The W660i's 2.0-megapixel camera is now standard-issue for mid-priced phones, but a lack of autofocus, flash and macro option show it up as one of Sony Ericsson's second-tier shooters. Pictures are good outside for mid-distance shots. However, its limitations become more apparent when subjects are closer and lighting lower. Indoor shots appear least impressive (see Sony Ericsson W660i camera samples). A few camera controls, settings and effects are available, as well as a basic picture editing tool; again, pretty standard for Sony Ericsson phones.

On the plus side, Sony Ericsson has included its neat blogging feature that enables you to upload snaps and text straight to an online Blogger page. This can be set up automatically from the phone, and edited online.

The camera also doubles as a camcorder, although as with most phones, this is one of the least impressive gadget-convergence features. Its 176x144 pixels resolution and low frame rate mean standard mobile low quality footage.

Other features inside include a POP3/IMPA4 email client, extensive organiser functionality, and voice memo. PC Suite synchronisation software in the box enables PC users to sync calendar and contacts and manage images and other files. 3D Java games are included too, with two playable games supplied, while VideoDJ and PhotoDJ and MusicDJ mixer apps for tweaking images and sounds. Bluetooth and USB connectivity are available, and the phone can be used in USB mass storage mode.

On the basics of voice calling, the W660i is excellent. Calls ticked all the right boxes for sound quality and signal tenacity. Battery life - sometimes an issue with dedicated music player phones - was more than acceptable. Obviously, heavy-duty music playing is going to take its toll, but in normal mixed usage we got enough power to get us through the working week. Sony Ericssson quotes an eye-brow raising 360 hours standby in optimum network conditions, or 6 hours max talktime.

Sure, the Sony Ericsson W660i isn't one of the head-swivelling, attention-grabbing Walkman phones. It does, though, offer a bundle of features in a familiar package, adding the 3G option to its mid-range Wlakman candybars. Some elements could be improved but overall you get a fine mobile music player package plus plenty of impressive extras for an affordable price.