The Sony Ericsson Walkman range is otherwise known as the W-Series range and consists of music orientated mobile phones with dedicated music software first seen in stand alone MP3 players.

The idea is that rather than taking two devices with you when leaving your home the Walkman range negated the need to carry a separate MP3 player.

Walkman phones come in many different shapes and sizes, more recently the manufacturer has also been adding new colour schemes to the range to entice consumers, the most successful seems to be the Sony Ericsson W580i Pink Edition, this one handset was the best selling pay as you go device in the lead up to the festive period.

The Sony W910i has also had a make over from its usual black casing and has been released in a deep Red and a Vodafone exclusive Havana Gold version.

The latest addition to the W-Series is the new Sony Ericsson W960i which is following hot on the heels of the last release, Sony W910i. Both handsets are very different in design as the W960i is a touchscreen device allowing access to the manu system by simply touching the screen and navigating your way through, the SOny W910i is a sliding handset that reveals a keypad hidden beneath when slid open, some consumers prefer this design simply because the keys are protected whilst the phone is in the closed position.

The Sony Ericsson W960i has a 2.6 inch touchscreen display with advanced handwriting recognition. Its specification is comparable to Apple’s iPhone. The W960i is a 3G phone, which means fast web browsing and downloads. With Wi-fi the W960i can also connect to your wireless network at home or in the office. It has a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video record. There’s also a VGA video call camera. The W960i has one of the best music players seen in a mobile phone and includes the new Shake Control system to skip through music tracks frist seen in the W910i. It’s incredibly user friendly and makes use of the large touchscreen display.

As with all Walkman phones, you can download, stream, store and play back music on your mobile. There’s 8 GB of storage space for MP3s and also an FM radio.

The Sony Ericsson W901i also features the latest Walkman software with Shake Control. Shake the phone to the right to skip forward a track, or to the left to skip back. A double shake will reshuffle the current playlist. The W910i also features SenseMe, a technology that analyses the music stored on the phone and intelligently assigns a mood based on the tempo and style of the music. Afterwards you can create a new playlist according to your state of mind. Gimmicks aside, the W910i has much more to offer. It’s a 3G slider phone with a 2 megapixel camera, video calling, HSDPA and a large 2.4 inch display, yet is weighs just 86g and measures only 12.5mm thick. It’s good looking too. Other features worth noting are HSDPA (3.6 Mbits/sec) for high speed music downloads, web browser, FM radio with RDS, stereo Bluetooth and up to 9 hours talk time per battery charge.

The choice between these two music phones essentially comes down to the amount of storage space needed and the specification of the camera of which the W910i has slightly less to offer, however it is reflected in the handset price, the only other factor that separates these devices is the overall design, some prefer the slide version whilst others the classic candy bar format.
However these two phones are viewed, they are both very sophisticated music playing devices that leave many stand alone players out in the cold.

By: Susan Hargreaves