Sony Ericsson Walkman W380i budget music phone

Having revamped its high-end Walkman line-up with the W890i and the W960i, now it’s budget music mobile buyers' turn to get a fresh deal, with the W380i clamshell. But are its smart design and novel features enough to give it pocket pulling power? On the scale of music phones, the W380i may be less ‘iPhone killer’ more ‘ …

[Arnold Lieberman]

Is it me?

Or is anyone else bored of trying to keep up with an apparently endless stream of phones that all do pretty much the same things in the same crap ways? If real innovation was the motivator for launching a new model, we'd have one or two every couple of years.

I blame the contract monkeys for it, gotta have a shiny new phone every year...

I've had the same PAYG model (Nokia 3230) for a couple of years now and although it's crap I still can't find anything that I want to replace it with. About the only interesting feature that's now emerging is built-in GPS. Shame I've got a perfectly adequate BT GPS unit the size of a box of matches that I switch on when needed.

All the other gimmicks are still poorly implemented:

*Camera - better off with a real one (pin-hole lenses are so 19th century).

*MP3/MP4 player - nothing available with decent capacity and a suitable screen would be too large for a phone. How many phones still don't use standard 3.5mm jack sockets?

*PIM - S60 is OK, if only my Series 5 had a decent processor and screen it would be perfect.

*Touch screen.Why for f*** sake would one of those be in any way useful?

*Web surfing.Again, the S5 would rule. Maybe an EEE or a N810 would do.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Arnold

Sorry but it is only you, the rest of us geeks love new phones...

[Aditya Krishnan]

Brilliant

It's my kid sister's birthday next month.. she's been wanting a phone that "looks really cool, plays music and takes photos and all.. you know".. i'd been facing a problem fulfilling the first bit.. this phone seems to fit the bill. Purple for me, I think. And it should be in India in a month or so... just in time.

[Ishkandar]

Fits my two main requirements

A phone that plays music or a music player that allows me to make phone calls. Texting is NOT needed. If I want to take pictures, I'll use my 2000 quid digital camera !!

The battery doesn't look sufficient for a long haul flight but then that's what fully-charged-up spare batteries are for !! The removable media allows more music choices than a large bunch of CDs !!

And...The Price is Right !! :-)

[Wonderkid]

SE K800i - still best phone ever made...

Am waiting for 3G iPhone in May/June (hopefully on Vodafone for decent coverage), however, until then, I have dumped my always crashing SE P990 and purchased a Sony Ericsson K800i for £80. Added a 2Gig mini memorystick (£15 on Amazon) and for £50 purchased the excellent sounding Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headset (includes 3.5mm jack so you can use any phones). That plus the excellent 3MP auto focus camera, stereo RDS radio, very versatile calendar (that syncs with my Mac along with the address book), Java games, top notch browser, 3G connection, still modern design - it is all you need. Two years after it's launch, the K800i is in fact better quality in operation and construction than todays phones, why? Because it was probably too expensive to manufacture, so today, they turn out cheap plasticy dumbed down phones and make a higher margin. The current and 3G iPhones will be the only suitable replacement for my K800i because they do everything they do well, no compromise. (I am not knocking the W380i, it is probably smaller than the K800i and ideal for the ladies and kids.)

[Daniel B.]

Deja vu

Looks like my previous handset, the W300i. Except that one had video capability, which I find my BB8300 lacking. Besides that, nothing really new, though it might be able to support larger capacity M2 sticks.

Had I not been bought over by the Blackberry's unlimited data plan, I might have replaced my PAYG W300i with ... a contract W300i. Really, it has all I want for a handset, and stands in as an excellent MP3 player, having the added plus that it doesn't look too shiny and thus not a target for muggers.

[Andy Worth]

Buzz!!

*hits his buzzer*

I saw the 'buzz-phrase' of the moment - "iphone killer"....despite used in the context that this phone is NOT really an iphone killer, it still amazes me that people choose to refer to every new phone that appears with some sort of reference to the phrase.

Honestly, is it just that someone gets royalities every time the phrase is used?

[Lickass McClippers]

@Arnold

Most, if not all, recent Sony Ericsson Walkman phones do utilise standard 3.5mm headphone jacks, via the handsfree kit. Ok, you can't plug a 3.5mm jack straight into the phone, but you can still use one.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/accessories/overview/hpm-77?cc=gb&lc=en