Sony Ericsson W880 review: No catch, plain thin

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 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.

A unique keypad and an enhanced display

The keypad of the Sony Ericsson W880 is unique in its own way - the reason for that being that the manufacturer has no other model with a similar keypad. The keys are small and at first they seem really hard to use for a person with large fingers. However it turned out that they pose no problem at all. They provide a positive feedback and the keypad an easily be used at night without even looking at the keys. Thanks to their protruding design but soft response it's a real pleasure to type messages.

A serious Walkman

Sony Ericsson W880 supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA, M4A and MIDI file formats. The Walkman media player is version 2.0 and features improved interface. We have seen the 2.0 version already in our Sony Ericsson W850 review and we are more than pleased with it. It has several equalizer presets including the proprietary Mega Bass. The player 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 even displays the album cover during playback if there is one.

Final words

The Sony Ericsson W880 is a great addition to the Sony Ericsson lineup. Furthermore it is a really intriguing addition to the group of the slimmest champion mobile phones in the market. Since most of those doesn't feature 3G support, the W880 will most surely find its market niche and would gain strong popularity.

We are impressed with the usability of the device, the nice technical specifications, the great music player and the decent battery life. All in all, a great move from Sony Ericsson that would win them a lot of fans. Well, as it seems, the Sony Ericsson W880 was surely worth the commotion and all that months of waiting.