Sony Ericsson W200i

I purchased the Sony Ericsson W200i phone yesterday - thanks to an adept pickpocket who nipped off my bro’s Nokia 6300 phone a few days ago ! After a lot of dilly-dallying and mulling over a few other notable (and yet affordable) models, we zeroed in on the cheapest (?) of the Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series - the W200i.

The W200i is a Triband GSM phone which comes in two colors - Rhythm Black and Pulse White. The white models looks elegant but is prone to getting dull and dirty whilst the black one looks sleek and snug. The design’s a bar-type (obviously!) and its quite diminutive compared to others in the Walkman series. It boasts of a 0.3MP VGA Camera with 4X digital zoom and Video recording, Java, FM Radio, Polyphonic Ringtones, Mp3 capability, Web browser, the works! Talktime is upto 7 hours with a standby time of 360 hours. It comes packed with 27 MB internal memory and an external memory slot with a 128MB memory card (included in the package) and is expandable upto 1GB

As I said before, the phone is pretty compact and is not too bulky (say, like the W800i or the K300i). The Keypad is well-laid out and the numeric keys are soft and tactile with good response time. The same can’t be quite said of the menu keys. The menu keys are slightly raised at the outer side which makes pressing it kinda awkward. Also the left menu & back keys and the right menu & delete keys are sorta fused together which makes it difficult for people with large fingers. The Joystick is ok though with personal experience (with my K300i) I may say that it may get unresponsive in a few years time. A Joy-pad (as in the W800i) would have been far better.

The Media Player is the regular Sony Ericsson Walkman type with the music being sorted according to Tracks, Artists, Albums etc. FM Radio too is quite ok and the reception is quite good even in an inner room. The phone comes with a Bass Reflex headset (for the Thump as it says in the advert!) of the earbud type and it fits snugly into the ears with no discomfort - even for long periods. Mp3 ringtones are supported and they ring out loud enough to awaken the sleeping! Camera is a VGA one with 0.3 MP and 4x Zoom capability. It is quite adequate for small snaps but not for group pix or sceneries. It has a unique Burst feature which takes 4 snaps at rapid intervals of time and one gets progressive pictures so as to say. Great for moving objects.

                          

The biggest disadvantage of the phone is its lack of Bluetooth support! It takes away the ability to transfer files on-the-go and one has to rely on Infrared - which is position centric - and USB Cable (included) to transfer songs and files into the phone. Thoughtfully though, a USB data cable and a CD with the synchronization software is provided alongwith the phone. Another thing that was odd was that the charging port and the headphones port were the same! So I can’t listen to FM Radio while I charge my phone ! A Lengthier headphone cord would have been better. The Screen is a tad tacky (maybe coz I haven’t peeled off the protective cover yet!) and its viewing-angle is a bit small. The Camera’s low resolution and lack-of-flash is also a put-downer.

All said and done, the W200i can be said to be an an affordable phone with a lot of features that lend it the usability rather than the bells n’ whistles that go into the making of a show-off phone. With a price tag of 5,600 (at a branded outlet in Hyderabad, can be less elsewhere); the music features; decent camera and above-average looks; this phone is a good buy for the budget-conscious user who wants a useful phone that can also play music!

Pros: Walkman, Inbuilt memory, Mp3 support, FM Radio, adequate standby time & RSS and Web support.
Cons: Lack of Bluetooth, VGA Camera & Low-res screen.
Bundled Accessories: Charger, Bass Reflex headphones, USB Data Cable, 128 MB Memory Card, Software CD
Vendor-specific Xtras: Sony Ericsson Calendar, Thump Flyers, Hrithik Roshan Posters & Car-Screen Posters

Links: Sony Ericsson W200i Page

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