Sony Ericsson W880 review: No catch, plain thin

Sony Ericsson is the newest addition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman line. Nothing uncommon here, we've seen lots of those. The most unusual thing about it though is its form factor - an ultra slim bar-shaped handset with plenty of cool features to offer. Take 3G network support, add a 2 megapixel camera, spice it up with a M2 memory card slot and Bluetooth and finally put it all in the slimmest shell possible and you will get a great result - the Sony Ericsson W880.

Main features

• Ultra slim design (9.4 mm thin)
• 2 megapixel camera
• Memory card slot with hot swap functionality
• 3G support with video calls
• Walkman 2.0 music player
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio profile
• Multi-tasking support
• TrackID music service
• 1GB Memory Stick Micro M2 included in the package
• Included headset has a standard 3.5 mm audio adapter

Main disadvantages

• No FM radio
• No Infrared port
• Camera has no autofocus
• No EDGE
• Records video in ancient QCIF (176 x 144 pixels) resolution only

The recent trend in mobile devices design is clear - make it as slim as it gets. Sony Ericsson long stood aside from the race for the slimmest mobile phone. Instead they preferred giving priority to their Walkman-branded music phones, cameraphones or both. But that was up until now. Now we are witnessing the incorporation of the famous portable music brand Walkman into one of the slimmest mobile handsets on the market. It comes as no surprise as rumors and leaked photos and info on the new handset have been flooding the Internet for quite some time now. And finally we got it - the Sony Ericsson W880 itself. And it's up to us to see how this slim baby performs on the treadmill.

The announcement of the Sony Ericsson W880 was just today and we are more than proud to present you with an exclusive GSMArena review for your reading pleasure. Bear in mind that the test handset we got was a stable beta version and it is possible that there might be some minor differences in the final retail version.

The retail package of the Sony Ericsson W880 will include 1GB Memory Stick Micro M2 card, a USB cable, and a stereo headset.

The Sony Ericsson W880 will be available in two color variations - black and silver. The one we got to test was the black version. In fact black is the color of the front panel only - the entire back panel is styled in dark orange - the proprietary Walkman color.

Besides the regular Sony Ericsson W880 there will also be a version designated as Sony Ericsson W888. It will be manufactured for the Chinese market and will not include 3G connectivity and video telephony.

Back to basics

The Sony Ericsson W880 has a trendy design which manages to please the eye at the very first sight. The front panel is made of brushed aluminum which adds to fashionable looks and provides for a rather solid construction while at the same time the W880 is still lightweight and really slim. It measures 103 x 47 x 9.4 mm and weighs only 71 g. Unlike other slim mobile phones on the market it doesn't compensate for it's ultra slim body with larger body width or body length. The Motorola RAZR for example is rather wide; the Motorola KRZR is rather long, while the mobiles in the Samsung Ultra line are both too long and wide. The only other mobiles with a similar ultra slim form factor are Samsung P310, the LG KG320 and the LG KE820.

The central place of the front panel of the Sony Ericsson W880 is taken by the 1.8" 262K colors TFT display with a QVGA resolution. Above it you can see the VGA camera for making video calls and the in-call speaker grill.