Sony Ericsson announced the W300 back in February of 2006. It was the seventh Walkman phone in the series that focuses on a great music experience on top of a mobile phone. Along side of the Sony Ericsson W600 and the W810i, which are the higher-end models in the series, the W300i comes in a compact clamshell form with the Walkman music hardware controls, support for a wide variety of music formats and a Memory Stick Micro expansion slot. This quad-band GSM world phone sports EDGE for data, a VGA camera, an integrated FM radio, stereo audio, Bluetooth, Java for 3D gaming and syncing to desktop via PC Suite. That’s a sweet laundry list for a feature phone that sells for an affordable price. Cingular will likely announce this phone at CTIA around September 12, 2006 in the US. If you can’t wait or prefer another GSM carrier, you can buy the phone directly from Sony Ericsson’s web site for $299 unlocked, which means you can pop in your own SIM to use it.
Design and Ergonomics
The Sony Ericsson W300i is a compact clamshell phone that feels good in hand. If you have seen or used the Sony Ericsson Z525 then you’ll notice the resemblance. The W300i comes in two colors: Shadow Black and Shimmering White. We have the Shadow Black for this review. It’s a light phone at 3.3 ounces and has a two-tone body (black and silver in this case) that gives the phone a modern look. The front face houses the VGA camera and a self-portrait mirror and a 1” monochrome external display which shows basic info such as date and time, battery status, signal stats in standby mode and incoming call notification (no call ID photo on the external display) when a call is coming in, and track and volume status while playing music. The W300i has very few buttons on its sides- there is only the music control cluster of buttons on the left side that includes a play/pause button and up and down keys. The up and down keys control the volume when you press them quickly and they also function as a track selectors when you press and hold on them. When in a call, you can press these buttons to adjust the incoming voice volume. You will find an IR window on the right side of the phone.
On the back of the Sony Ericsson, you will find the loud speaker up top and the battery door below it. Open the battery door you will have the access to the user replaceable battery and the spring-loaded Memory Stick Micro card slot. Since you will need to open the battery door to get the storage card, the phone won’t shut down if you only open the door without removing the battery. The SIM card lives under the battery. The combined charging port/music headset port lives on the bottom of the W300i.
Specs:
Display: 262k color TFT screen, 128x160 pixels main display; monochrome, 101 x 80 pixels external display.
Battery: 900 mAh Lithium Ion rechargeable.
Performance: ~20 MB internal memory, undisclosed CPU.
Size: 3.5 x 1.8 x .1.0 inches. Weight: 3.3 ounces.
Phone: GSM quad band world phone supporting the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands. EDGE and GPRS for data.
Camera: VGA camera with 4x digital zoom. Also records video clips with audio. Picture resolutions are 640 x 480, 320 x240 and 160 x 120 and videos can be taken at 176 x 144 and 128 x 96 resolutions.
Audio: Built-in speaker, mic and Sony Ericsson’s proprietary Fast port stereo headset connector. Supports polyphonic ringtones, MIDI and MP3/ACC audio. Supports MPEG4 and 3GP video and 3GPP streaming content. Vibrating alerts supported.
Networking: IR and Bluetooth.
Software: Sony Ericsson OS. Bundled applications include Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Messaging (supports SMS, MMS and email), WAP browser, MusicDJ, VideoDJ, PhotoDJ Sound recorder and calculator applications. Also included are three JAVA games. The desktop companion CD includes software for syncing with PC, File Manager, Image Editor, MMS Home Studio, Disc2Phone and Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition.
Expansion: Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot. 256 meg card included with the phone.
In the Box: The phone with battery, a 256MB Memory Stick Micro card, an A/C charger, a stereo headset, USB cable, PC Suite companion CD and user manuals.