Using the graphic equalizer on the Sony Ericsson W902

The Sony Ericsson W902 is one of Sony Ericsson's higher end Walkman phones, the first to have a 5-megapixel camera built in.

But as well as high quality imaging, the W902 is first and foremost a phone built for top-class mobile music playback. The W902 has the latest Walkman player software, comes with 8GB of MicroSD card storage, and is boxed with a set of high quality earphones that have a 3.5mm headphone adapter attached.

Sound quality is excellent for a mobile phone. But as well as the standard sound you get out of the box, it's possible to fine tune the  audio perfromance by changing the phone's equalizer settings. This can be done to alter particular frequencies for certain types of music - such as adding bass for hip hop - or you might just want to boost levels on a particular track that's sounding a bit flat.

You can change the equalizer settings quickly and easily. There are manual settings where you can change certain frequency levels individually, or preset settings where you can change the overall feel of the sound to match a particular genre or mood.

The changes you make will be saved, so when quit the player, the next time you open it to play music, your preferred equalizer settings will be the ones automatically used.

You can, however, easily change the settings again to whatever you want, by following the same procedure outlined below.

Using the equalizer

1. Open up the Walkman player by pressing the small Walkman button on the top of the phone. Alternatively, you can open it up by pressing the Menu button, and in the main menu highlighting the Walkman icon and pressing Select.
2. With the Walkman player open (Figure 1) choose a track to play in the usual way (so you can listen to your equalizer adjustments as you carry them out). You can press play to hear the track immediately, or use the side control buttons to press play while you're making your equalizer changes.
3. Press the Options selection key.
4. Scroll down to highlight Settings. Press Select (Figure 2).
5. Scroll down to highlight Equalizer. Press Select (Figure 3).
6. The Equalizer appears onscreen. First up is a Manual option (Figure 4). This shows a graphic equalizer offering six levels which you can manually adjust, ranging from lowest frequencies on the left to highest on the right. Alternatively, you can find a selection of preset audio adjustments by pressing the Preset selection key.

Adjusting manual settings
To hear how changes are affecting your sound, listen through the earphones while a track is playing. You can start a track playing, or forward or rewind through tracks while you are adjusting levels by using the Walkman player buttons on the side of the phone.

1. The red bar indicates which particular level you have selected to adjust. If you just want more bass, you can increase the Clear Bass level on the left of the screen. Press the central navigation pad up or down options to raise or lower levels (Figure 5).
2. If you want to adjust other levels, press the navigation pad left or right options to move the red bar across to the frequency levels you want to adjust. Again, press the navigation pad up or down to adjust levels to your liking (up increases levels, down lowers levels) (Figure 6). You should be able to hear the changes in sound levels through the W902's earphones.
3. Once you have finished adjusting all the levels you want, press Done (Figure 7). You will be returned to the main Walkman screen.

Using preset settings

1. Go to the Equalizer in the same way as outlined above (Figure 4).
2. Instead of adjusting levels manually, press the Preset selection key. You are taken into a selection of equalizer Presets (Figure 8). These are a variety of sound settings to suit particular types of music, adjusting a range of frequencies in one go to optimise the audio presentation. By selecting them, you should hear a noticeable difference in sound as music is playing.
3. Scroll through the options using the navigation pad left and right options. The preset equalizer settings include Treble, Heavy, Pop, Jazz, Normal, Unique, Soul, Easy, and Bass (with a graphic to illustrate each). Choose the option you prefer, and press Select (Figure 9).
4. The Equallizer settings are automatically changed and you are returned to the Walkman player screen.