Sony Ericsson W300i
A couple of years back, with its innovative Walkman phones - which incorporated its proprietary Walkman function in its cell phones - Sony Ericsson broke new grounds, thereby forcing its immediate competitors to also follow suit. The result, now the cell phone market world over is flooded with the so called ‘music phones’. The present article details about one such music phone from Sony Ericsson stable – Sony Ericsson w300i.
In a nutshell, the Sony Ericsson w300i comes in a compact clamshell cover, and has every feature that a common multimedia phone user may aspire to have in his/her handset. Starting with the music, the quality is simply topnotch – as with every other W-series phones – and it supports a variety of music formats as well (including MP3, AAC, MIDI, IMY, AMR, WAV (16 kHz max), EMY, and MP4 as well as 3GP and 3GPP for streaming content. A 256 MB MM2 card comes with the handset – that is enough to store around 60 tracks easily – but if the user wishes to have more memory in the phone, it can be expanded up to 1 GB by plugging in a new, high value Memory Stick Micro card. Transferring tracks between PC and the W300i is quite easy – drag and drop -with the supplied software tools and USB. The software updates/other tools can be downloaded from the Sony Ericsson website. Other music features include FM and RDS support.
Regarding camera, it is VGA type – 0.3 mega pixels- and not surprisingly, the quality is rather poor, especially when compared with Sony Ericsson’s own K750i or W810i. However, brightness is adjustable and the color saturation is also decent in VGA terms.
This is where many customers complain – the keypad and its ease of use. Unfortunately, with Sony Ericsson w300i, it is a bit of disappointment for the keypad is rather small and crammed hence not the easiest of ones to use. W800i has a better keypad.
In terms of connectivity, the Sony Ericsson w300i is well supplied with support for Infrared, Bluetooth, USB mass storage, and Fast port. The Bluetooth supports most useful profiles such as Object Push, Dial-Up Network (DUN), Synchronization and both Headset and Hands-free profiles (however the handset does not support A2DP for Bluetooth stereo headsets). The transferring of files from the phone via Bluetooth to the PC takes place at about 40k/s. Other glaring pluses include a 20 feet range for headsets and the utility of Bluetooth headset as voice dial (record the voice tags in quite environs).
The Sony Ericsson w300i is powered by a 900mAh battery (BST-33 mode), which the company claims to have up to 9.5 hours talk time and up to 400 hrs of standby time. But, in reality, for sure, the customers will get far below these values. This should not be viewed as a negative as this is a common phenomenon with all makes of phones. Regarding power consumption, radio and functions such as booting the phone takes only less power. However, mp3 playback, file upload and download, snapping photos etc consume lots of power. Using Bluetooth radio also eats into the battery quickly.
To sum it up, the Sony Ericsson w300i is a decent phone, compact and lightweight, with strong reception, excellent call quality, music, and connectivity. If there are any glaring downsides to it, then it is w300i’s camera quality and also its tendency to freezing after long use (hopefully Sony Ericsson rectifies this glitch in the future models).
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