Sony Ericsson W900 Walkman (W900c for China Market) UMTS Phone

The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network.

Codenamed ‘Sakura’, until the point-of-launch, the W900 has a larger body than the W800. The handset is hinged in a manner reminiscent of the S600, which launched in the UK market as the W550. Where as the W550 articulated by a hinge at the bottom allowing in the phone to be opened-up to either 90 or 180 degrees, the W900’s hinge is sprung so that a light flick will cause the top section to revolve to the full 180 degrees to reveal the keyboard.

Features to concentrate on are the whopping 470Mb internal memory. When questioned on this somewhat arbitrary number Sony Ericsson revealed that there is actually half a Gb onboard, but the internal OS requires 30Mb to function, so the user gets the remainder. There is also the obligatory Memory Stick Duo port, meaning you can expand the memory up to 2.5Gb, increasing to 4.5Gb in the New Year with larger sticks coming to market.

The 3G UMTS connection speed has been coupled with dual cameras to allow video calling. The top left of the screen houses a small VGA camera while the reverse of the body houses a monstrous 2.0 megapixel camera. Following on the design of the W750i there is a dedicated shutter release on the top edge of the body, although the camera will only function when the handset is closed-up. The camera included auto-focus and a ultra-bright illuminating LED and in video mode can capture footage at 30 Fps.


SPECIFICATIONS

• General
  • Network UMTS / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
  • Announced 2005, October
  • Status Available
• Size
  • Dimensions 109 x 49 x 24 mm
  • Weight 148 g
• Display
  • Type TFT, 256K colors
  • Size 240 x 320 pixels
  • Wallpapers, screensavers
• Ringtones
  • Type Polyphonic (72 channels), MP3
  • Customization Composer, download, order now
  • Vibration Yes
• Memory
  • Phonebook 500 x 20 fields, Photo call
  • Call records 30 received, dialed and missed calls
  • Card slot Memory Stick Duo Pro (up to 2 GB), buy memory
  • 470 MB built-in shared memory
• Data
  • GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
  • HSCSD No
  • EDGE No
  • 3G Yes, 384 kbps
  • WLAN No
  • Bluetooth Yes, v2.0
  • Infrared port Yes
  • USB Yes
• Features
  • Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
  • Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (NetFront)
  • Games Yes + downloadable
  • Colors Black, White
  • Camera 2 MP, 1632x1280 pixels, autofocus, video(QVGA), flash; second video call camera(QCIF)
  • MP3/AAC player, up to 30h playback if the phone is switched off
  • Video player
  • Java MIDP 2.0
  • T9
  • FM radio with RDS
  • Image viewer
  • Picture editor
  • Organiser
  • Voice memo
  • SyncML
  • Built-in handsfree
• Battery
  • Standard battery, Li-Po 900 mAh (BST-33)
  • Stand-by Up to 370 h
  • Talk time Up to 8 h 40 min