Camera Phones Plaza

First announced in May of 2006, the W710i is Sony Ericsson's folder style Walkman music phone for the active set. In addition to the typical features found in a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, it also sports things like an FM radio and a built-in pedometer to keep runners and walkers both entertained and informed.

The folks at mobileburn made a review of this phone and here are some of their impressions. The Sony Ericsson W710i comes equipped with a fixed focus 2 megapixel camera. While the camera has fairly nice features, such as accurate white balance, frames, and a panorama mode, the overall quality of the photos is not quite as good as we have come to expect from Sony Ericsson. The issue seems to be the lens, which takes photos that are not consistently focused. The photos are fine for emailing to friends, just not for making prints. The camera can record videos as well, but they appear to have a fairly low frame rate. The video app supports most of the same features as the camera and also has a microphone muting option.

Like with any Sony Ericsson Walkman branded phone, you can expect a very good music listening experience from the W710i. The large orange colored external display and the surrounding dedicated music controls make playback when the phone is closed very convenient. The main application, accessible when the phone is open, organizes your music just as any good MP3 player would: by playlist, track, and artist. There are a few equalizer settings available to adjust the sound quality, if you like. I was pleased with the quality of the sound overall when the W710i was used with both wired and Bluetooth wireless stereo headphones.

The phone itself has only about 16MB of free built-in memory for photos and songs, but the W710i does have an M2 (Memory Stick Micro) card slot for additional storage space. Our W710i came with a 512MB card included. While it is not necessary to remove the battery to swap memory cards, you do have to remove the rear cover of the device. This shouldn't be a real issue unless you plan on constantly swapping out cards.

The conclusion is that, while I don't consider it to be one of the better looking handsets the company has created, the Sony Ericsson W710i is still a very capable and fun handset to use. It might not have a best in class camera, but the music playback (with stereo Bluetooth support) and the built-in pedometer make it a great companion for commuters and athletically inclined people alike.

If not for some issues with audio quality on calls, I might have been convinced to give the W710i a higher rating, but as is, I instead give it an enthusiastic "Recommended" rating.

Read full review on mobileburn.