Sony Ericsson W960i Review by 3G.co.uk
One of Sony Ericsson's major triumphs in recent times has been its success in reviving the flagging Walkman music brand and reinventing it for a new generation of younger, hipper mobile users.
Just as the manufacturer draws on its Cybershot brand in the camera space, Sony Ericsson's ability to distinguish a new music phone with the globally recognised Walkman logo is a tremendous brand advantage.
However, almost 30 years on from the launch of the first Sony Walkman cassette player, the thought of being restricted to just one album's worth of songs accessible from your music device at a time is now unthinkable. And, just to emphasise the chasm between the 1979 Walkman and the 2008 version, Sony Ericsson's new W960i Walkman phone lets you store up to 700 albums thanks to 8GB of built-in storage.
But, while bumper storage capacity is undoubtedly one of the key assets of any modern music device, it isn't everything, and every new Sony Ericsson Walkman phone is under pressure to live up to the high spec music pedigree that the Walkman range now epitomises.
As a result, the launch of the W960 Walkman phone has been met with huge anticipation and expectation. And, because they were first announced at the same time, it's natural to compare the new W960i Walkman with the W910i Walkman.
Both handsets are at the premium end of the Walkman range and are priced accordingly. But, as is always the case with technology, each handset has its own distinct assets and foibles.
For example, the W910i offers HSDPA broadband data speeds, a lightweight chassis, beautiful slider action and a fabulous user experience, but suffers from a fairly bog standard two megapixel camera and less in-built memory. Whereas the W960i is a larger, heavier candy bar phone running 3G data speeds, but offers Wi-fi, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a huge 8GB memory as standard.
So, on paper at least, there would not seem to be much between them. However, we found the W910i to be a far superior handset.
