Walkman phone?
Here's a sound workout companion
We took 47,762 steps – the equivalent of almost 35 kilometers, roughly 2500 kCals, or in layman's terms, five Big Macs – to review this mobile phone. Quite a bold statement, even by T3 standards – but how do we back it up?
You see, all that mileage has been tracked by a mobile phone. Sony Ericsson's latest clamshell, the W710i, combines your typical Walkman phone functions with fitness applications that include a pedometer, calorie counter and a timer that records your run's lap times and average speed. The pedometer, once started, works in the background and discretely displays the number of steps you've taken in the external LCD. You can fire it up in the morning, slip this compact clamshell in your pocket, and go about your day's business. When you finally get home, you can check how far you've walked during the day, as well the number of calories you've burnt.
The outer display also displays the tracks currently playing when in Walkman mode. Surrounding it are rubberized buttons to control the player's functions. Sound quality was excellent via the slightly uncomfortable earphones. The W710i also supports A2DP via Bluetooth – so this should work perfectly with most Bluetooth stereo headsets. It's a good thing Sony Ericsson ships the handset with a 512MB M2 stick – as the 16MB of internal memory just isn't enough.
Which brings us to our only other nit with this mobile phone. Its 2-megapixel snapper just wasn't what we've come to expect from SE. While pics look great on the sharp 262k-color display, once transferred to a PC, image noise becomes evident. This is further exacerbated when shooting indoors, or in low light.
That's not to say that the W710i is a bad phone. On the contrary, it's a good – but not great – phone. While multimedia performance is up to par with the rest of the Walkman phone range, it's just a shame the W710i's camera can't quite keep in step. Agu Paiso
SONY ERICSSON W710i | P16,700
www.sonyericsson.com.ph
TECH Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 with EDGE. Grayscale 128x128 pixel external LCD. 262k-color, 176x220 pixel internal LCD. 2-megapixel camera. MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ music format support. FM Radio. Fitness applications. Bluetooth. 16MB onboard memory. Memory Stick Micro (M2) expansion. 88 x 48 x 24.5 mm. 101g.
LOVE Good build quality. Improved interface. Loud external speaker. Fitness and music player functions. 512MB Memory Stick Micro
HATE Below average camera performance (for a 2MP camera). No photo-light.
WE SAY A solid, almost perfectly well-rounded handset.
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T3 Magazine Philippines - January-February 2007 Issue
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 SONY ERICSSON W710i
Dream Themes
The W710i's theme engine modifies not just the color scheme, but the usability of the GUI as well. While some may be more user-friendly than others, it's still a fresh take on the usual themes.
L-46mm, W-24mm, H-83mm
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