Sony Ericsson W710
November 21, 2006
Sony Ericsson W710 is marketed with images of jogging people, but it has other strengths as well.
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Positive and negative
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Plus
Music player
FM radio
Training features
Simple menus
Minus
No 3G
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Before you buy
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W710 continues to build on Sony Ericsson's music mobile successes. The music player and the radio are really good. The camera, however, is not top class despite its 2 megapixels, and there is no 3G for those who want to use the internet.
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Alternative
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Nokia 5500 Sport is an alternative to the W710. It handles water and bumps better, and has a better training diary. However, it is not a clamshell and it lacks the monochrome screen you will find on the shell of the W710.
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Walkman phones have become one of Sony Ericsson's great success areas, and with that in mind it is only natural that Sony Ericsson now started to elaborate more with the models in the Walkman series.
Sony Ericsson has just recently started marketing the W950 (smart phone with touch screen) and the W710 is about as different from that model as it can be. Even though both of them carry the Walkman name.
The W710 is a clam-shell phone intended to look sporty and rugged, with the help of some rubber and plastic in the shell. But according to Sony Ericsson it is not any more likely to handle humidity or bumps than their other phones, which is a bit of a shame.
But there are other things that still make the final score higher in this phone. The sports feature drawing-card comes from a built-in sensor, counting your steps when walking or jogging. By having a look at it every now and then, you can keep track of how far you have been running on your lap, or check how many calories you have managed to burn during your walk or run.
Some also like to use a step counter just to make sure they get enough exercise per day. And with the W710 you can leave the counter counting all day, and watch the number of steps increase in the lower corner of the display.
No strict suit and tie here
The shape of the W710 looks like Sony Ericsson's low-price Walkman W300. It feels a bit plastic and is foldable, in a material that does not breathe of strict suit and tie, but instead more of sports and youth.
A really good thing that you will notice straight away is the large monochrome screen on the lid of the phone. It is perfect for us who want to bring the mobile for a jog. In the display I can not only see how far I have been running and the stop watch. I can also see which radio channel I am listening to at the moment or which song is being played in my headphones. Around the screen on the outside there are rubber edges with buttons used to control the radio and to some extent the music player. It works very well, both during the lap and at other times when the radio or music player is turned on.
The screen on the cover is not a regular color screen, but a monochrome screen with orange text against a black background. An advantage with such a screen is that it is easier to use in sunlight than color screens.
When you open the W710 you will find the regular color screen, and the ordinary phone menus. There is a control plate below the screen, to navigate the menus. Sony Ericsson seems to have abandoned joysticks, since they are easy to wear out and lead to many repairs and complaints. This kind of control plate is a more durable solution, which also happens to be easy to use.
How about the music? The W710 is a music mobile, and it is equipped with Sony Ericsson's Walkman player. The songs are well-arranged by artist, album and playlists. The music can be transferred from the computer using special software and a USB cable, included in the box.
The W710 also has a good FM radio. It is possible to store up to 20 pre-set radio stations. The radio can do an automatic search to find and set the radio channels without hassle. It is also equipped with RDS, making it easier to see which station you are currently tuned to and to find a station.
No rubber plugs
Instead of the ordinary headphones the shape of rubber plugs to be plugged into your ears, the W710 are supposed to be put around your ears. That is great for us who actually want to keep them on during practice. The rubber plugs that come with other Walkman phones simply do not work well when you start to work up a sweat. I have used the W710 for several laps and the headphones are okay, even if the surrounding sounds are not blocked out as well as with the earphones that come with the regular phones. If you want really great sound when you are not working out, it is better to plug in some ordinary earphones. The W710 also supports wireless stereo headphones. They are not included, but available as accessories.
The W710 has some Java programs from start, among other things, one to get a graphical view of statistics from your practice. An interesting thing is that Sony Ericsson has made it possible to have several Java programs (and Java games) running at the same time, something that has not been possible in earlier mobiles.
There are three games included in the W710. For instance, a tennis game where you can play real-time via Bluetooth with a friend provided he has a Sony Ericsson phone with the same game on it. I have not found such a friend no far, but at least it is a cool feature in theory. Multiplayer games have not had their breakthrough in the mobile realm yet, but they do have great potential.
The camera in the W710 produces clearly acceptable images, but gets into serious trouble when the light is weak. This is something we have experienced in several other Sony Ericsson phones with the same type of camera - a 2 megapixel camera lacking autofocus.
Good at picture blogs
The best thing about the camera application is that Sony Ericsson has included the same picture blog feature from the camera mobile K800. That means that you can choose an image in the phone, and then select “send” and “to blog”. The first time this is done, an internet blog is automatically created at the Google-owned service Blogger. You get an answer with the address to your blog, and then you can access the blog via your desktop browser to adjust your name and the settings for the blog. Then all you have to do is to spread the blog to friends and relatives. This is a feature that really makes full use of this kind of mobile cameras in a fun way.
The web browser in the W710 is the Japanese Netfornt, and it works well with well-arranged menus. In principle it can also display regular web pages, but in practice you have to stick to mobile web pages when surfing without 3G, due to the internet speed.
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Specification W710
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Sony Ericsson W710i
Type: Fourband GSM
Weight: 101 gram
Size: 88 x 48 x 24,5 mm
Talk time: Up to 10 hours
Standby time: 350 hours
Wap: 2.0
Internet nad data: Gprs, Edge, e-mail, Bluetooth, IR port, SyncML
PC/Mac Connection: Yes, via bluetooth or cable
Voice commands: Yes, voice dialling.
Ring signals: Polyphonic and mp3
Phonebook: Up to 1000 posts with name, several numbers, several e-mails, web address, notes, regular address and image.
Screen: TFT with 176 x 220 pixels and 262,000 colors
Shell screen: 128 x 128 pixel orange/black monochrome.
Games: Inluced are Alpha Wing 2, Tennis Multiplayer and Treasure Towers. Possibility to add more using Java.
Camera: 2 megapixel (without
auto focus) for stills and 176 x 144 for video.
Other features: FM radio with RDS, Java support, T9, MMS, calendar, voice recording, media player, world clock, code memory, alarm
Accessories: Stereo handsfree, datacable and travel charger included.
Slot for external antenna: Yes
Price: 3 300 SEK (465 USD, 365 Euro)
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Hard facts: performance
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SPMark test: 2.308 points total, images (PNG) 98 p, 3D games 9.2 FPS, JVM 2,173 p
Comment: Even a bit better in the benchmark test than the 3G mobile K800.
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Total score
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Telephony & data 7
Multimedia 8
System & program 8
Usability 9
Performance & memory 8
Totalt score 80 percent
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By:
Linus Brohult, Jonas Kämpe
Pricecomparison delivered in cooperation with Kelkoo
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