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The W380 is a stylish clamshell handset that compliments Sony Ericsson’s Walkman range. Like many previous Sony Ericsson handsets this one isn’t going to blow you away with an impressive list of features, but that’s not the point of the handset, and understanding that will allow you to appreciate the things it does excel at, not the least of which is its design. Simply put this is a handset aimed at looking good whilst delivering some fun at the lower end of the market. 
Design 
The W380‘s main advantage lies in its simplicity. With the flip closed the handset is compact and looks quite sleek thanks to the slanted edges, which also help to impart a technical or perhaps even futuristic look to the handset. Taking a tour around the handset we can see the main hardware points; the Fastport on the left hand side, used for charging, earphones and cable connections; the right hand side features the volume keys, and the top and bottom edges are unadorned, save for a Walkman logo on the bottom edge. The back of the handset is about as interesting as handset back’s tend to be; we have the usual Sony Ericsson logo and a lock switch for the touch sensitive keys on the front. 
On the other hand the front of the handset is a little more exciting, containing, as it does, the camera, and the touch sensitive controls and OLED display that allow the user to control music playback when the handset is closed. This is important because the bundled headphones offer no advanced music controls so this interface will be the primary means of controlling music whilst you are on the move, but we’ll look at that in more detail later. The camera is a 1.3 mega pixel effort, another sign that this is a lower end handset and also that this is a handset that is focused on music. I’m not going to talk too much about the camera here so we’ll leave that for now. 
The only other feature of note on the outside of the handset is the speaker, situated next to the camera on the top of the handset. It’s isn’t exactly a Bang & Olufsen affair we’re dealing with here, but then few handsets produce a decent sound through their speakers and especially not at the lower end of the market. 
Opening the handset up we are presented with a simple layout of keys and an adequate, if not especially large, 176 x 220 pixel 262.144 colour screen. There is a thick black border surrounding the screen and one feels that this space could have been better utilised in providing a larger screen. The screen itself is clear enough, being comparable to other recent Sony Ericsson handsets and is neither spectacular nor abysmal. It’s a good enough screen for general use e.g. navigating the UI, reading texts, watching the odd video clip, etc. 
The keypad is elegantly laid out, with clear spaces between the buttons, and the buttons clearly labelled. The keypad continues the simplicity motif in that it doesn’t look cramped or over crowded. The navigation buttons at the top of the keypad have a metallic finish and this serves to highlight them in the keypad and gives them and ties in with a more tech/futuristic look. 
To get into figures for a moment the handset measures 92 x 49 x 16 mm and weighs in at 100 grams on the nose. The battery is a BST-39, which holds 920 mAh of goodness. 
User interface The user interface of the Sony Ericsson W380 is a pretty standard Sony Ericsson issue. It supports Flash Lite themes so it can be changed almost beyond recognition. It doesn't look bad even despite the low 176 x 220 pixel resolution.The Sony Ericsson W380 is equipped with the Walkman music player 2.0. It has several equalizer presets including the proprietary Mega Bass. It can be set to run in background so you can do other things with the phone while listening to music. When in background mode, there is an indication of the name of the song and artist of the track currently playing in the top part of the screen. The control of the player is intuitive and really easy to use. It displays the album cover during playback if you choose so. 
There are two other skins beside the standard black one and you can use those to suit your themes, since the theming itself doesn't change the music player interface. The 1.3 megapixel camera sounds really low end, since there are a number of handsets now that come with 2 megapixel modules. Well, indeed it is, and the camera interface follows the same simplistic line. The only thing that the camera outperforms the others by is the Panorama shoot mode which none of the other handsets in this roundup has. 
There are two games preinstalled on the Sony Ericsson W380 we received and those are ExtremeAir Snowboarding and QuadraPop - we've seen them in past models two. Obviously gaming is not the selling point of this device and the two games are only there to complement the package. You can of course download more Java games to enjoy. So that's about our hands-on experience with the Sony Ericsson W380. Jump to the next page for an overview of its twin the Sony Ericsson Z555 and don't forget to hit the last page of this article for some comparative camera samples. Camera Let’s be blunt, the W380’s camera is very much an extra rather than an integral part of the handset. That much is evident by the fact that there is no dedicated camera button, rather you have to select the camera option from the main menu. It’s not a huge problem, but it does make taking quick snaps that little bit more difficult. 
Before we get onto picture quality let’s spend a moment looking at the camera options. Upon starting up the camera you are presented with two options, each corresponding to a soft key; the left hand option is ‘Capture’ and is used to take a picture, whilst the right hand option, ‘More’, brings up a menu with the following ten options:
View all pictures - this shows you all the pictures you have taken with the camera.
Shoot mode - you can switch between normal and burst mode here.
Picture size - this allows you to select the size (and quality) of the camera pictures taken. The default option is 1 MP, but there are also VGA and QVGA options available.
Night mode - allows night mode to be activated for taking pictures in low light conditions.
Self-timer - here you can activate a self-timer that allows you to take a picture with yourself in it.
Effects - offers a range of three different effects that can be applied to picture taking; Black & white, Negative, and Sepia.
White balance - contains a range of pre-set options for adjusting white balance according to the lighting conditions you find yourself in.
Picture quality - you can switch between normal and fine mode.
Shutter sound - there are four different shutter sounds available.
Save to - you can set whether pictures are stored in internal memory or on the memory stick. 
There is a 4x digital zoom available, but only for pictures taken at QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) resolution. VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution features a 2x digital zoom, and the 1 MP (1280 x 960 pixels) resolution has no zoom. Zooming is accomplished using the up and down sections of the navigation pad. The brightness of a shot can be adjusted by using the volume rocker, with maximums of +/- 2. 
In terms of quality there isn’t much to say other than it’s what you would expect from a 1.3 mega pixel camera, that is to say, nothing spectacular. The camera is fine for taking the odd picture here and there, but you wouldn’t want to rely on it as your main camera. As mentioned above, it’s an extra and should be viewed as such, rather than being a defining feature. Another thing with the camera is that it is extremely bad in low-light situations. This is, after all, a music handset. Camera sample photos below. 
It’s also worth noting that there is no video capture function on the W380i. That’s right chaps, no video recorder. It’s already been said, but it’s even more relevant now, the camera is an extra! Music We took a quick look at the Walkman function earlier, but let’s look more in-depth at music on the W380 overall. This is a Walkman handset so this is the area one would expect it to excel in, and, for its market segment, it does a good job. The Walkman player makes browsing and playing your music easy, even if it isn’t the Walkman 3.0 player found in some of the higher-end handsets. 
The W380i features one external speaker, located on the top of the handset when closed. It actually does a decent job of playing music although the operative word here is ‘decent’. You aren’t going to be breaking your W380 out as an impromptu Hi-Fi, but for letting others around you hear a music track it will do the job well enough. The sound produced isn’t overly tinny and the volume level is adequate if not particularly loud. 
The earphones are of the in-ear variety, rather than the little bud ones. This author prefers the bud ones that actually lodge inside the ear canal, but the earphones bundled with the W380i are good enough. In terms of sound quality I was pleased; they produced a nice clear sound. The earphones come in two parts; a ‘base’ part that plugs into the handset using a Fast port connector and a secondary part that uses a 3.5mm jack to plug into the base part. This is both annoying and satisfactory at the same time. The annoyance stems from the somewhat redundant connection process that sees the use of two different connections, a Fast port connection and a 3.5 mm jack. On the other hand the inclusion of the 3.5 mm jack does afford the user ability to use his own earphones. It would be more elegant to just use a single 3.5 mm jack as the earphone connection, but Sony Ericsson appears to be committed to Fast port. 
The bundled earphones don’t come with an in-line remote capable of practical music control. Rather the handset offers external music controls mounted on the top of the handset, which have a vague resemblance to brail. These controls take the form of three touch sensitive buttons and an OLED display build into the top of the handset. When you start music playback and close the handset you can use these buttons to skip between tracks as well as pause and start them. The display will show the currently playing track when the music is actually playing and a handset status display when the music is stopped. The display looked somewhat ‘fuzzy’ in that it wasn’t particularly crisp or bright, but it is legible and its appearance does compliment the handset’s design. 
Now for those of you worried that the music controls may be pressed by accident whilst in a pocket you needn’t fear because the controls do need an actual press rather than a light glance (or in the case of the Samsung U600 a wrong look). Leaving the handset alone for a while puts it into standby mode (although the music will still play of course), and it takes two presses of the external buttons to actually change a music track. Hence, even if you did manage to press one of the controls by accident, it would take another press to actually do anything. 
The W380i comes bundled with a 512 MB Memory Stick Micro M2 card. This is at the lower end of the memory stick range so some users may wish to upgrade to at least a 1 GB stick. As mentioned above, the memory stick slot is rather annoyingly situated under the battery cover, making hot swapping possible, since the battery doesn’t need to be removed, but cumbersome. Connectivity and web Bluetooth is of course present and supports both OBEX and headsets, including A2DP for listening to music on a wireless headset. In terms of data connectivity the handset sports GPRS and EDGE, which isn’t bad going for a lower end handset. The handset isn’t really built for extensive web browsing so it’s doubtful whether the lack of 3G would be felt here. Being a lower-end handset it’s also worth pointing out that many of its likely buyers are probably not going to be terribly interested in the more advanced features 3G brings. The browser is the standard Sony Ericsson browser, which does a reasonable job of displaying pages. The browser isn’t designed to handle full web pages and trying to browse anything too complex is likely to end in frustration, and of course there is no Flash support. WAP sites and mobile versions of web pages should work fine and there are no real complaints on that front. The default page is Google, which is rather handy I suppose although I imagine that individual networks will probably change the homepage to their own portal. Also of note is the inclusion of an RSS reader, which is a nice addition to the handset in that RSS feeds are a great way to keep up to date with your favourite sites without having to browse to them. This is especially beneficial on a handset like the W380i, which doesn’t have the browsing capabilities of higher end handsets. The RSS reader feature is accessed through the Messaging option in the main menu. It’s a shame that Sony Ericsson doesn’t bundle Opera Mini with its handsets because it is a much more capable browser and provides a much better browsing experience. It’s a Java application so it will work on just about any mobile phone, even at the low end of the market. Phonebook The phone book is par for the course and whilst there is nothing truly exciting here, it’s a well designed feature with useful options. The phone book can store up to 1,000 separate contacts and 2,500 phone numbers, which should be more than adequate for all but the most socially active. Each phone book entry can have a plethora of data added to it, including things like work and home addresses; website, and so on. Each contact can also have a unique ringtone. Overall it’s a simple feature that packs quite a bit of punch. Conclusion I liked this handset. I really did. It’s uncomplicated and to the point, and I think it’s all the better for that. The W380i is not intended to be a feature rich handset that goes tow to toe with the big boys. For those looking for a simple, no frills handset that has a bit more under the bonnet than the ultra low-end like the J110, the W380 fits the bill nicely. It might not have everything, but it offers enough to keep you interested. Even for those of us more accustomed to dining at the higher-end of the table the W380 still has plenty to offer in the shape of a secondary handset, either as a backup to one’s main handset or as a ‘going out’ handset. In terms of design I can’t really fault the handset. It’s understated and elegant, with just a whisper of a tech look to it. It is both fun and serious looking at the same and would look quite at home in either a child’s hand or a business man’s pocket. The camera is a little disappointing because it feels as if it has been included because it had to be rather than as a valued feature integral to the success of the handset. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting a 5 mega pixel job here, but Sony Ericsson could have tried a little harder to make the camera feel like more than a necessary evil. The lack of video recording is somewhat annoying, but I don’t think it represents a serious flaw with the handset. What disappoints me most with this handset is the price. In the UK the W380i is currently retailing for around £80 on PAYG and £160 SIM free. For the feature set the W380i sports I think those are rather hefty prices, especially when you consider that a K800i is currently around the £60 mark on PAYG. If the price comes down, or is in fact cheaper in other countries, then the W380i could be a nice little bargain, but I think the price would have to come down to nearer the £100 level for a SIM free unit for that. |
