Sony Ericsson W350 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Marianne Schultz Published on November 12, 2008 Comment on this |
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| Dialing on the W350 is super fast, though without dedicated Send and End buttons, it could get a little confusing for those used to having them. The W350's call history provides good information, though it takes a bit of navigating to get to the total call and data usage information. With average ringtone volume and unimpressive non-audio alerts, the W350 is best for those regularly in quieter environments. | |
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Dialing Speed (7.99)
To see how easy it is to make a call, we time how long it takes to dial a call starting with the phone in the closed and unlocked state and ending when the Send key is pressed. The W350 posted the best time among all of our comparison phones, averaging 2.5 seconds for our test phone numbers. This is a good result all in spite of the W350's tiny keys with their slick plastic surfaces. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Send and End Buttons (2.0)
Just like its big brother, the Sony Ericsson W580i, the W350 does not have dedicated send and end buttons - the soft menu buttons are used for these functions when browsing the contacts list or on a call and they're labeled appropriately depending on what you're doing. These buttons butt right up against the lower edge of the screen, making them a bit hard to press. There are no markings on them that can be distinguished by feel alone, though their location under the screen edge will easily give them away.
Not having dedicated buttons for these functions can be a little disconcerting to some users, but it ends up working fine once you're used to it. However, the inconsistency in which button does what depending on what you're doing earns it fewer points that we would normally assign a phone with dedicated buttons.
Call Management (5.0)
The W350's call log presents enough information to see your call history, but doesn't show the call duration, total call timers, or data usage information we like to see here - you must instead go to the Settings menu to see this information. On the home screen, the left soft menu key is set to go to the call log by default. The call log is separated into 4 tabs to show All, Answered, Dialed, and Missed calls. Each category of calls has a distinct icon to represent it, making it possible to distinguish call types in the All calls tab.
The W350's call log
When a call is highlighted in the log, the date and time of the call is shown, though no information about its duration is available here or anywhere else. The right soft menu key brings up options to dial the selected number, send a message to it, save it as a contact, or delete the entry. The option to delete all call log entries also appears in this menu.
To see total call timers and data usage, you must go to Calls tab in the Settings menu and select Time & Cost. Here, you can see last call duration, the total and outgoing call timers, and message and data usage. We appreciate seeing this information, but would like it even better if it were unified with the call log and didn't require going into the Settings to find.
During a call, the left soft menu key is labeled More and brings up options to turn on the speakerphone, go to the main menu, add a call, mute the microphone, put the call on hold, and disable tones, the signals sent when you press a number key. It's not possible to record a call in progress, as found on the Nokia 5310 - if you go to the main menu and find the voice recorder application in the Entertainment folder, it's grayed out and cannot be selected. The W350's in-call options are sufficient for the use a typical user of a feature phone will need, and the option to dial another number to create a conference call is a bonus compared to the LG Chocolate 3 which lacks this feature.
Startup to Call (3.04)
Not all users keep their cell phones on all the time and turning on a phone to make a call right away can be a regular occurrence for some. To test this, we time how long it takes to dial a call starting with the phone completely off. On smartphones, this can take quite a bit of time since their operating systems are generally more complex and there's more to load from a cold start-up, but feature phones with more simple operating systems typically take less time comparatively. The W350 was a bit of an exception to this general rule, taking the longest time out of all of our comparison phones to complete this test with an average time of 32.93 seconds. We also encountered a few hiccups during this test where the W350 would not start up at all when pressing on the power/clear button for several seconds as it should have, requiring a few extra tries to complete this test. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Ring Volume (8.55)
To test ring volume, we set the phone's volume to its maximum level and measure ringtone loudness using a sound pressure meter. The W350's maximum ring volume is 85.5dB, which is right in line with the rest of our comparison phones, except the LG Chocolate 3 with its 104.8dB maximum. The W350 should be able to be heard in all but the noisiest environments.
Ringtones (6.0)
The W350 offers a good deal of ringtone flexibility, allowing any music file in unprotected MP3 or AAC format to be designated as a ringtone, though it would not display our test WMA format file to select as a ringtone. Ringtones can be created right on the W350 using the included MusicDJ application in the Entertainment menu, or by recording your own voice or other sounds using the sound recorder application, also in the Entertainment menu. The only thing you can't do is edit ringtones on the phone to select the specific portion of a song or recording to use.
Of course, it's also possible to purchase ringtones from AT&T through the AT&T Mall link in the main menu, which are downloaded directly to the phone, though the majority of these are not free and earn the W350 no extra points here. As you'd expect, these purchased tones cannot be sent to others or shared in any way.
Non-Audio Alerts (3.0)
The W350 has a vibrate mode, which is pretty much standard on every cell phone these days, even the basic, no-frills ones. The vibration is noticeable when the phone is out in the open on a desk or other hard surface, but not nearly as much in a pocket, and definitely not enough to be felt through a purse or backpack. When a call comes in, the screen will light up and show the caller ID information, but it lacks the flashing LED lights of its more advanced sibling, the Sony Ericsson W580i. Unless you're looking directly at the W350, you may miss the screen lighting up with an incoming call. Overall, the W350 suffers from the same unimpressive non-audio alerts as its sibling, the Sony Ericsson W580i.
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