The recent Sony Ericsson announcement saw the introduction of five mobile phones, one of which is the W910i Walkman phone. We managed to get our paws on a prototype of this model for a quick hands-on of its design and features.

Pros

Though Sony Ericsson is not best known for its slider designs, we had no issues with the sliding mechanism of this music phone. It slides up smoothly and in a controlled manner to reveal a numeric keypad. At 12.5mm, it is extremely slim and weighs a mere 86g.

Connectivity-wise, the W910i is quite capable, indeed. It supports HSDPA for high-speed downloads over the cellular network, a good feature to have if listening to or buying tunes over-the-air appeals to you.

Bearing the Walkman brand, this phone has to deliver when it comes to music. A Walkman button is found along its top edge to quickly access the tracks. A motion sensor has been built into it as well, which allows the user to control playback by shaking the handset. Unfortunately, the prototype unit we received did not have the latest software installed, so we were unable to try this feature, named SensMe, for ourselves.

One thing that was installed is the game Lumines Block Challenge. This is a modified version of the hit title Lumines on the Sony PSP, and is a block puzzle game with a musical twist to it. Very appropriate for a Walkman phone.

Cons

The tapered design of the W910i's bottom area means its single connector has to be placed elsewhere. This is found on its left side, a placement we felt was not ideal. Headphones should ideally be jacked into a phone or music player from the top or bottom so the device can be placed in a pocket comfortably.

We normally expect keys on slider keypads to be flush with the phone's body, a necessity because you don't want raised keys to block the closing action. While the W910i's keys are sufficiently tactile, we felt that the three-column layout does not give enough distinction between keys in the vertical direction. It might have been a better idea to have smaller keys but with each one separated, with a divider, from its adjacent key.

With only 40MB of memory, music lovers will definitely need an expansion card for their tunes. The format used in this handset is the M2, Sony's media card which is just slightly larger than a microSD. They don't come as cheap as microSDs, though, so increasing the memory may require another chunk of change.

Outlook

Though we couldn't test out the music capabilities of the W910i, previous experience with the Walkman series of mobile phones tells us that they don't usually disappoint when it comes to sound quality. The introduction of more Walkman models, and this time in a slim slider form factor, gives more choices for those looking for a phone that will replace a dedicated MP3 player. No price has been announced for the W910i yet, and those interested in getting one in Asia Pacific will have to wait till Q4.