The W800

Walkman Walkman, stylised as , is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for p ...

, released in 2005 (1 August 2005 in the UK), was the first Sony Ericsson phone to use the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

. The phone features

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

v1.2 (with full Bluetooth 2.0 compliance), Infrared and USB connectivity.

Description

The W800 is very similar to the Sony Ericsson K750 but differs with regards to its media playback software and its cosmetic design changes. The major differences to the K750 are the included 512 MB Memory Stick PRO Duo, the introduction of the Flight mode function where all radio signals are switched off, and the stereo portable handsfree headset Sony Ericsson HPM-70, which features a 3.5 mm

headphone Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an a ...

jack, allowing the included headphones to be swapped for any other pair of headphones which has a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The

Motorola ROKR E1 The Motorola ROKR (), the first version of which was informally known as the iTunes phone, was a series of mobile phones from Motorola, part of a 4LTR line developed before the spin out of Motorola Mobility. ROKR models were released starting in ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

-enabled mobile phone, its successor the

Motorola ROKR E2 The Motorola ROKR (), the first version of which was informally known as the iTunes phone, was a series of mobile phones from Motorola, part of a 4LTR line developed before the spin out of Motorola Mobility. ROKR models were released starting in ...

, the Nokia N91, the

Nokia 3250 The Nokia 3250 (code-named Thunder) is a smartphone running Symbian OS v9.1 ( S60 3rd Edition), announced on 26 September 2005. It features a unique 'twist' design that transforms the traditional phone keypad into a camera (90° CW/CCW) and dedi ...

, and the Samsung SGH-i300 and its successor the Samsung SGH-i310 are its main competitors. The Sony Ericsson W800 was replaced by the Sony Ericsson W700 in April 2006 replacing the size of the memory stick with a 256 MB and eliminating the camera's autofocus function thus reducing the cost of the handset. Also, it is available in a different case colour option called Titanium Gold, in addition to the W800's Smooth White (burnt orange and cream). The

W810 The W810 (also available as the W810i and W810c) is a camera phone produced by Sony Ericsson. It was released in January 2006. It is the successor of the W800. Features The W810 is part of Sony Ericsson's Walkman line of mobile phones. Whi ...

proceeded after the W800. The Sony Ericsson W700 comes included with a 256 MB Memory Stick Pro Duo instead of 512 MB. The W800 officially supports external memory capacity of only 2 GB, while its successor the W810 supports 4 GB. The key feature of this cellphone is the 2-megapixel camera with autofocus, video recording function, and flash. The phone is also MP3 and AAC compatible and has up to 30 hours playback time in Music mode. The standby and talktime the battery can support is 400 hours and 9 hours respectively.

Criticisms

Whilst being a highly capable phone, it does suffer from some of the flaws that the K750 does. The primary concern is that of the joystick. This has long been a contentious issue with some reviewers finding it hard to use and highly susceptible to damage over time, in as much as it will cease to function (however, the W810i resolves this issue). The other is that the construction quality, whilst physically solid, is prone to creaking and wear over time. The screen, again whilst of a good out of the box quality, is prone to fingerprints and scratching because it is mounted flush within the phone, meaning if left to rest face down damage can occur. The dust gets trapped inside the screen easily and reduces visibility of the display. However these factors have not stopped it becoming highly popular. Also the phone has been found to randomly restart and turn off, especially while coming out of the clock on sleep mode. Some users experience a high level of background hiss and quantization noise when using the Walkman feature at low volume levels, a problem that first appeared in a firmware update. No official fix is planned, though end users have provided solutions that can be applied by directly accessing the phone's filesystem.
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Fake W800

A fake W800 has been released in China under the name of Music Mobile W800c. It is similar in design to the SE W800 but is slightly taller. The Walkman logo on the bottom of the phone is flipped horizontally, 'Sony Ericsson' at the top of the phone is replaced by 'music mobile', the 'Walkman' on the side is replaced by 'Musicvideo'. The fake phone has a 1.3 MP camera, FM radio and uses MicroSD cards. The phones software also copies some elements of the SE W800, the default wallpaper is the default Walkman image, the main menu uses Sony Ericsson icons (Walkman, PlayNow, Contacts etc.).

Variants

* W800c – for Mainland China * W800i – for Africa, Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

References

External links

Official W800 page

Tips and Tricks
The Unofficial W800i Tips / Tricks / Shortcuts / FAQ and Resources
Theme Creator for W800
– Registration Needed.
Mass Storage Synchronizer
– iTunes add-on for Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones (Windows)
iTuneMyWalkman
– iTunes add-on for Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones (macOS)
A C# library for accessing the AT command interface of the phone

Mobile-Review.com music mobile phones comparison

Audit from National Vulnerability Database
{{Sony Ericsson phones W800 Mobile phones introduced in 2005 Mobile phones with infrared transmitter