Sony Ericsson W200i Review - Performance
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Performance
Now that we've introduced the W200i, shall we try it? Yeah!
First and foremost, these days customers tend to forget what a cell phone was intended for. A cell phone is a portable telephone device. Its primary function is allowing the user to phone and talk on the phone. Additional features like texting, surfing on the net, listening to music and taking pictures shouldn't be top priority at all.
The W200i is a tri-band as specified in the list of major features. The sound clarity is quite excellent, both for the listener and the speaker. The hands-free quality is also fairly impressive. Therefore, the W200i fulfills its necessary purpose as a cell phone.
You have a wide variety of ringtones because you can use the polyphonic
default ones, or you can opt for your favorite MP3/AAC/WMA tunes and set them as ringtones. You can have profile pictures and personalized ringtones for each of your contacts.
Along with SMS and MMS functions which are quite straightforward, the e-mail features are nice to have. All you need to do is hook up your e-mail box configuration via POP, and you're all done. The onboard 27MB memory + 128MB card maximizes the amount of messages stored. I'd state that basically you should not have space-related issues per se. This kind of storage space is huge for messaging.
The Infrared connectivity obviously does not replace Bluetooth. But it is important to keep in mind the overall low price of this phone as well as its positioning as a budget device. So, even though the IR offers a somewhat mediocre file transfer speed, it is ultimately a decent connectivity feature.
However, the USB connectivity saves the day if you aren't a phone-to-phone transfer enthusiast. By hooking up the W200i with the data cable to your computer, a number of doors will open. You can fill your phone with photos and/or music either manually or using the tools that are available on the PC Suite CD.
Web browsing is possible with the W200i. With the Access NetFront™ Web Browser you can access both standard and Mobile web pages. The speed definitely isn't impressive, but having the ability to check or surf the net if the situation arises is quite acceptable. The phone is capable of maintaining bookmarks and keeping track of RSS feeds.
Now let's talk about battery life. According to the official information the phone provides up to 7 hours of total talk time or 300 hours of stand-by time. However, with my personal experience, using the phone moderately on a daily basis resulted in a very good battery life. I need to charge it once every five or so days. This depends on numerous factors like how much time I spent talking on the phone and/or using the media player.
The charging itself takes approximately two hours. It's not something the users should whine about. You can leave your phone plugged in for charging overnight, right?
The TFT screen of the phone can display up to 65,000 colors. It's very bright, crisp and clear. Its single downside is that pictures taken by the camera are sub-par, and appear sub-par on the camera's display. You can experience this by transferring the shot photos to a computer and checking their quality. In this way the camera pictures achieve a mediocre state.
However, if you are transferring already high quality images to the phone from
a PC then the displayed quality is very crisp and high. I, for one, have opted for having a background that is a high quality image. Obviously the photo itself is worthy of being excellent desktop wallpaper but nobody says that you cannot have one of those on your phone.
Despite the fact that users tend to neglect organizers and tools I sometimes can't live without them. Having an organizer maximizes productivity by taking care of your project deadlines, tracking meetings, notes, conferences, and reminds you of specific events. Ultimately it is a great time management tool, of which everyone should take advantage.
The organizer has monthly calendars, a scheduler that you can hook up with reminders, and you also have the additional calculator, timer, stopwatch and alarm clock features. The Memo code is a nice feature to have if you want to store your passwords.
Let's talk about the Walkman® media player. The 128MB + 27MB storage space is enough for a few dozen songs, especially if you reduce their quality (like MP3 64-98kbps VBR, quality 5/8 or 32-bit AAC). Should you need more storage space, buying 1GB-2GB M2 memory sticks for a reasonably affordable price is an option.
The phone supports ID3 information hence is able to display all of the information about the track currently being played. The equalizer is quite useful (voice, treble, bass), and the media player can be "minimized" so you can multitask while listening to music. This awesome feature gives the feeling of working with a computer to the user.
The W media player automatically locates all of the supported files on the onboard and memory stick. As a result, you just need to pick them prior to listening. You can also create personalized playlists and whatnot. It's a feature-laden media player. Enough said.
The Radio with RDS works great too. It uses the headset as an antenna, and due to this the stereo headphones must be plugged in at all times when the radio is used. You can store up to 20 radio stations. I personally like the way you can fine-tine stations with this device instead of using it the way the the trendy "automatic localization" radios work. It's better this way.
Next: Concluding Thoughts >>
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