The Walkman phone range from Sony Ericsson originally took its name from before the merger of the two companies when Sony was manufacturing high quality portable music devices such as the first portable CD players. The name became synonymous with top end music entertainment devices and so after the merger Sony Ericsson have continued to use this branding to their advantage.

The first Walkman phone was originally released over four years ago and caused a big stir in the mobile phone market, consumers had been privy to phones with integrated music software but not on the same scale as was being offered by the Walkman range.

The emphasis was on high quality music playback with graphic equalisers, bass boost, playlist creation and randomised shuffle which altogether enhanced the listening experience. Users were able to arrange their music tracks into different genres, tempos and mood types to suit the situation as well as store more and more songs with the advent of expandable memory with the use of MicroSD cards and Sony Ericsson memory sticks.

New features were continually added to the Walkman phone range including TrackID, a useful service for any music buff. The software was able to record a few seconds of music, send it to a centralised recognition database via text messaging and send back the exact details relating to the song including artist and song name. This proves very useful when out in venues that have DJs, users can simply record the music around them rather than having to push through and ask the DJ which track they are playing.

Walkman phones continued to develop and more recent models now features a new technology called ‘Shake It’, the user can now shuffle tracks by simply holding down a dedicated button and physically shaking the handset, a new random picked track is then played and the process can be repeated until a relevant song is found.

The new Sony Ericsson W910i features all of the software, features and technology of past models but now combines 3G technology onto the mix. This allows for fast connections to the mobile internet and download speeds far faster than previous technologies like GPRS and EDGE. 3G technology opens up further doors for the Walkman software as the user can now quickly log onto the internet and choose from thousands of new music tracks before downloading them directly to the handset and organising them into playlists. The user can still connect with a PC as before but 3G makes this task far quicker and easier.

3G also allows for face to face video calling so users can actually see as well as hear the person they are talking with plus with 3G services the user has access to new mobile content such as ringtones, video clips and new graphics as well as the latest news and sports headlines, new movie trailers and the music tracks before they are released.

The W910i Black holds exactly the same specifications as the other colour variants in the range which includes 2.0 megapixel camera with flash, zoom and video support, an FM Radio, a 1GB memory stick, Bluetooth technology and USB connection.

The Sony Ericsson W910i represents the very best that the Walkman range of phones has to offer with new features and software packages, the handset is definitely aimed at the music and entertainment loving mobile phone user who can appreciate the flexibility and personalization that the phone has to offer.

By: Susan Hargreaves