Words: Jason Round

In my last review, I talked about how Sony Ericsson’s new smart phone bridged the gap between PC and phone, but here, with the Walkman W850i, SE is muscling in on iPod territory.

Out of all the Sony Ericsson phones we’ve had of late, this would have to be the most user-friendly. It is everything a phone should be, and much, much more.

Coming in black and golden white, aesthetically the W850i is understated yet classy, kind of like rolling in a 300C, but with the stereo turned it up.

And turn it up you can, ’cause the W850i has space for upwards of 1000 songs (depending on quality), Sony’s Mega Bass and stereo support for Bluetooth. However, the coolest thing is undoubtedly the new TrackID feature, which records a small sample from any song off the radio and then tracks down artist and song details off an internet database. It’s all very spooky.

Sound aside, Sony also proves that it’s king of the camera pile with a fully featured, built-in two-megapixel camera with burst function and night mode among other handy functions. Picture resolution is great, though we found the same could not be said of the video.

As a slide-style phone, the W850i is simple to such an extent that just three clicks have you at the Play Now menu, free to peruse content, games, pics and music to your heart’s content.
The backlit illumination thumps along with the beat, and you can even make 3G video calls, though that’s probably best left alone if you look like the waking dead post-big one.

Everything done, it’s a smart, functional phone that we wouldn’t hesitate to pick up. Check out www.sonyericsson.com for more info.