Sony Ericsson W902
Discontinued 22nd July 2008
This "Walkman" series phone
has a 5 megapixel camera and is the cousin of the C902
Cyber-shot handset. If you were thinking of buying a
C902 then wait.. because the Sony Ericsson W902 may
well be a more suitable handset for most users.
Although "Walkman" phones
are designed for great music support, the W902's camera
deserves some attention. This 5 megapixel unit has autofocus,
an impressive looking flash, multi-shot capabilities,
an image stabilizer and support for photo blogging.
As far as we can tell, the camera capabilities are identical
to the C902, except that the W902 doesn't have a lens
cover and dedicated photo keys.
Talking of the C902's keys, one odd
thing about that handset is the size of the display.
Because the Cyber-shot version has soft keys around
the screen, the display size is smaller than you would
expect at just 2". The W902 doesn't have this problem
and comes with a fairly standard 2.2" display which
is more useful. The W902 does come with dedicated media
keys down the side of the phone, something that is much
more convenient when listening to music.
Of
course, the heart of a Walkman phone is all about music
playback, and the W902 comes with the same audio system
as the W980
which is well regarded. The W902 features track recognition,
shake control, tempo and mood based playlists, eight
preset graphic equalisers plus a built in AM and FM
radio.
The shake control allows you to randomly
change tracks by pressing a button and flicking your
wrist, and the accelerometer is also used in the W902's
"Walk Mate" step counter that keeps track
of how far you have walked in the day.. we guess this
gives a new twist to the "Walkman" name.
Internal memory is just 25MB, so you
will want to add a Memory Sick Micro card when you buy
the W902. Underneath it all, the W902 is a quad-band
GSM phone with UMTS 2100 and HSDPA support, so it can
support high-speed 3.5G downloads. The phone weighs
a shade under 100 grams and measures 110 x 49 x 11.7mm.
Talktime on 3G is up to 4 hours, 9 hours on GSM with
around 15 to 16 days standby time.
One obvious missing thing from a high-end
phone such as this is GPS support, although presumably
it can be used with a GPS accessory as the W902 supports
photo geotagging. The display could also be a little
larger - we would expect to see a 2.4" screen on
a device like this, but on the other hand the whole
package weighs just 99.8 grams which is good for a 3.5G
device with this specification.
Sony Ericsson say that the W902 will
be out sometime during the fourth quarter of this year,
but did not give any guidance on pricing.
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Sony Ericsson
W902 at a glance
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Available:
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Q4
2008
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
UMTS 2100
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Data:
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GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) +
HSDPA
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Screen:
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240 x 320 pixels, 262k colours
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Camera:
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5 megapixels
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Size:
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Medium
monoblock 110 x 49 x
12mm / 100 grams
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Bluetooth:
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Yes
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Memory
card:
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Memory Stick Micro
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Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
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Yes
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GPS:
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No
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Battery
life:
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4 hours talk / 15 days standby
(3G) 9 hours talk / 16
days standby (GSM)
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