The W580i is one of the few that has, carried by AT&T. And it's a good pick for the carrier; it provides a decent set of media features that is on par with many more expensive handsets. True to its Walkman billing, the W580i's music player does a very good job, but it didn't last that long playing back music; we measured the battery life at 5 hours and 32 minutes. That's enough for everyday use, but is significantly shorter than other phones. Video playback was also a disappointment; the screen is too small for comfortable viewing, and the controls are awkward to use. The 2-megapixel camera takes decent photos, but the audio quality in calls could have been better. We did find the interface to be surprisingly responsive, and we liked the capabilities of the Web browser, which is good enough for casual browsing.
The phone is small and cute, but feels plasticky, leading to concerns about its durability. The plastic case and exposed screen could both be easily scratched. We liked the W580i's integration of MMS and SMS, but the lack of an e-mail client and a small keypad that can be difficult to type on probably doesn't make this a good pick for big texters. Despite these drawbacks, the W580i offers a lot of good features for the price; it is available for $79.99 from AT&T with a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Sony Ericsso W580i Features
- Walkman phones bring the ease of digital music players alongside all the usual advanced phone features, including downloading, streaming, storing and playing back music
- Plug in headphones and activate the built-in FM radio with RDS to see which station tuned into, and sometimes, what song is playing
- Record a few seconds of a song and use TrackID to send the music for recognition to name the song, artist and album
- Transfer tracks straight from a music CD to the phone by dragging and dropping via Disc2Phone CD-ripping software
- Extend the memory for up to 1 GB per card with Memory Stick Micro (M2)
The phone lacks a designated camera key, so unless the camera is set as a smart key, users must navigate to the camera from the main menu to take pictures. Once the camera is activated, selection keys below the screen can be used to capture photos or change settings, while the volume keys adjust brightness and the up and down keys on the navigation keypad zoom in or out.
Perhaps the most innovative design feature is the W580i's "shake to shuffle" music control that changes a song at the flick of the wrist. When the Walkman is on, users can shuffle to a new song by pressing the Walkman key and shaking the phone.
Out of the box, the Sony Ericsso W580i comes with a standard 900 mAh-Li-Ion battery, charger, headset and USB cable. The box also includes a disc of Sony Ericsso's music management software for transferring music from the phone to the computer, Disc2Phone. The W580i is available in three simple colors: Style White, Boulevard Black and Urban Grey.