Home > Reviews > Manufacturer > Sony Ericsson W580i Cell Phone Review

Sony Ericsson W580i Cell Phone Review - Imaging

Alfredo Padilla Published on September 24, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

Resolution (6.35)
To test the resolution of the W580i's 2-megapixel camera we took a series of photos of an industry standard resolution chart. These photos were then run through the Imatest software, which measures how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together. This is measured as line widths per pixel height (lw/ph).
The W580i measured 1195 lw/ph horizontal and 960 lw/ph vertical. This is a very good score. Even phones like the Helio Fin with its 3-megapixel camera did significantly worse on this test than the W580i. We were very pleased with the W580i's performance in this test, although we should note that it compares poorly with a dedicated digital camera, most of which score 1500 lw/ph or higher these days.

Cell Phone	Sony Ericsson W580i	Helio Fin	Razr2 V9m (Sprint)
Score	6.35	2.77	3.22
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	1195 / 960	790.1 / 866.5	851.2 / 1031
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Upstage	LG Chocolate VX8550	Samsung Blast
Score	1.94	1.69	0.68
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	678.9 / 547.1	616.8 / 569.5	392.1 / 345.6
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (5.61)
To test the quality of colors captured by the W580i's camera we take photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart in carefully calibrated lighting conditions. The resulting photos are run through Imatest, which compares the 24 different captured colors to the original colors on the chart.
Imatest produces the chart above, where the ideal colors are in the small rectangle, the same colors adjusted for luminance are in the surrounding box, and the captured color in the outer box. Imatest also produces the chart below.
This chart marks the ideal colors with a square and the camera's captured color with a circle. The longer the line between these two points, the more inaccurate the camera. The W580i's camera didn't do a great job in this test, with some problems in almost all colors, particularly yellows and reds. Thankfully most of the inaccuracies were minor, and the overall color accuracy was decent for a cell phone, which results in a decent score for the W580i.

Cell Phone	Sony Ericsson W580i	Helio Fin	Razr2 V9m (Sprint)
Score	5.61	5.94	4.84
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Upstage	LG Chocolate VX8550	Samsung Blast
Score	3.85	4.69	4.48
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (0.36)
To see how much noise is present in photos produced by a cell phone's camera we take photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels. These photos are then run through Imatest and the amount of noise produced is measured. The W580i did not perform well in this test. Although the amount of noise produced at the three brightest lighting levels wasn't too bad, it was inconsistent. At the lowest lighting level noise levels shot up, producing one of the worst scores we've seen. The result of this is a rather poor score, as we judge not only the level of noise but also consistency in our final score. As you can see below, the W580i put up the worst score among our comparison phones.

Cell Phone	Score
Sony Ericsson W580i	0.36
Helio Fin	1.46
Razr2 V9m (Sprint)	1.00
Samsung Upstage	1.45
LG Chocolate VX8550	1.27
Samsung Blast	1.44

Live Preview (5.0)
The W580i's live preview does a good job of reproducing colors, with few artifacts when panning and a reasonable level of detail. The problem is that the live preview only uses up a little more than half the screen, with the rest assigned to controls and indicators. Because the W580i has a small screen to start with, your viewfinder ends up being postage stamp-sized. We much prefer phones like the Razr2 that use the entire screen as the viewfinder.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (7.41)
This test measures how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have captured a photo. We repeat this test until we start to get reproducible results. The W580i took 2.7 seconds to capture a photo from standby. This is a decent time. What's more impressive is that many of our comparison phones have a shortcut to the camera while the W580i does not. Instead, you have to go through the menu system. The W580i puts up such a good score despite this handicap because the camera launches very quickly, while some other phones take quite awhile for the camera to launch.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sony Ericsson W580i	2.70	7.41
Helio Fin	6.20	3.23
Razr2 V9m (Sprint)	4.10	4.88
Samsung Upstage	2.70	7.41
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.36	8.47
Samsung Blast	3.75	5.33

Shot to Shot Time (8.10)
Shot to shot time is a measure of how quickly you can take a series of photos. When possible we use a Burst mode, and the W580i does have a mode that allows you to take four photos in quick succession. It should be noted, however, that when using Burst mode on the W580i your photos are taken at the much lower VGA resolution instead of the full 2 megapixels the camera is capable of. If you're willing to live with this, the W580i can take four photos in 1.46 seconds, which works out to 2.7 frames per second (fps). This is an excellent score. However, if you need the photos at full resolution be prepared to see this performance drop significantly. In our test it went from 2.7 fps to 0.6 fps.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
Sony Ericsson W580i	2.7	8.10
Helio Fin	0.19	0.57
Razr2 V9m (Sprint)	0.84	2.51
Samsung Upstage	0.20	0.60
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.38	1.14
Samsung Blast	2.11	6.33

Shutter to Shot Time (16.67)
Shutter to shot time measures how long it takes the phone to actually capture a photo once you've pressed the shutter button. We repeat this test until we get a consistent result for our score. The W580i took 0.12 seconds to capture a photo. This is a very good score, and the W580i blows away all of our comparison phones. This is an example of the fast interface we've seen throughout the W580i, and the quick camera response means you may even be able to capture some action shots with the W580i.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sony Ericsson W580i	0.12	16.67
Helio Fin	0.60	3.33
Razr2 V9m (Sprint)	0.38	5.26
Samsung Upstage	0.30	6.67
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.22	9.09
Samsung Blast	0.35	5.71

Interface (3.0)
The W580i's interface is different from many phones we've recently reviewed. The trend in the industry seems to be to use the entire screen as a viewfinder, with icons overlaid and menu systems resembling a digital camera. The W580i's camera interface is primitive in comparison; the viewfinder is postage stamp-sized and takes up the middle of the screen. The left soft key is assigned to capture, while the right soft key opens a menu to access additional options. At the top you see tabs that indicate whether you are in Still or Video Capture mode, and you can easily switch between the two using left and right on the directional pad. To the right of this is an indicator showing the resolution setting, where you are saving photos, and how many photos you can capture. At the very top is another bar that displays brightness and zoom settings. Brightness is controlled using up and down on the volume keys, while zoom is controlled using up and down on the d-pad. Overall, we found the interface fairly easy to use, but feel there is a lot of wasted space here. We think Sony Ericsson could have done better to create a more elegant and usable interface.

Photo Album Software Internal (4.0)
The W580i's photo album software is similar to that found on most phones. You have a 3 x 3 grid of thumbnails that thankfully load very quickly when the software is launched. The left soft key is assigned to view the selected photo, a function also fulfilled by the center select key. The right soft key opens a menu where you can access various additional functions. As we saw in the camera interface, the W580i's album software doesn't make great use of the screen real estate. The thumbnails only use about half the screen, with a large bar at the top to show you information about the date and time the photo was captured. Although this is nice information, it takes up a large amount of space. Combined, it's a lot of wasted space and makes the thumbnails tiny. Worse, when you open the photo it leaves large black bars above and below, although at least here the left soft key allows you to view the photo in landscape view. There are also a couple of nice extras here, such as a time line view that allows you to organize photos based on when they were taken. Overall, the album software is adequate, but we've seen better.

Manual Control (1.0)
The W580i does not provide much in terms of manual controls. There is no manual white balance or more advanced options like a Shutter Priority mode. There is a single Scene mode available for panoramas, but that's about it.

Zoom (0.0)
The W580i has a digital zoom, however it is not available when taking photos at the full 2-megapixel resolution. Digital zoom is of limited utility under the best circumstances, but is rendered completely useless when you can't use it at the camera's full resolution. As such we won't be awarding any points in this section.

Focus (0.0)
The W580i's camera is fixed focus, which is standard for cell phones. Some phones are now shipping with auto focus cameras that can improve the quality of the photos you take at the cost of speed, as they take time to make sure the scene is in focus. We do not award points for fixed focus cameras.

Flash (0.0)
The W580i does not have a flash.

Metering (2.0)
The W580i has brightness controls, however it lacks any true metering controls. Metering allows you to control from which point or points in the scene lighting is judged. We have started seeing basic metering controls on some phones lately, but not here.

White Balance (2.0)
The W580i has white balance presets available for Daylight, Cloudy, Florescent, and Incandescent light, plus the Auto setting, as is common on cell phone cameras. There are no advanced white balance settings like Evaluative white balance, however.

Image Handling (6.0)
The W580i has a photo editing program available via the album called PhotoDJ. This program provides a very nice selection of image handling options such as adjusting levels, light balance, brightness and contrast, and removing red-eye. These tools are far beyond what most cell phones allow you to do, which is usually just adding a caption and perhaps rotating the image. This is a definite plus, as it allows for some editing of images before e-mailing them.

Video

Overall Video Score (2.5)
The W580i can only capture video at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144. This doesn't make for very good video quality; we found videos showed serious pixelation and poor color fidelity. Panning doesn't produce too many artifacts, however. Overall, the video is really only useful for watching on a small cell phone screen; watch it on your computer or TV and it will become a blurry mess.

Video Resolution (1.32)
To measure the resolution of video captured by the W580i's camera we took video of the same resolution chart we use for the stills resolution test. We then run frames from the video through Imatest to produce a line widths per pixel height (lw//ph) score, which measures how many alternating white and black lines can be discerned before they start blurring together. The W580i did not perform well in this test, scoring 122 lw/ph horizontal and 108 lw/ph vertical. This is one of the worst scores we've seen from any phone; only the Upstage did worse in this test. As we mentioned above, the video camera on the W580i is only useful for sending an occasional video as an MMS message.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
Sony Ericsson W580i	122 / 108	1.32
Helio Fin	214.1 / 217.7	4.66
Razr2 V9m (Sprint)	342.5 / 351.4	12.04
Samsung Upstage	77.11 / 109.5	0.84
LG Chocolate VX8550	218.3 / 200.8	4.38
Samsung Blast	107.1 / 129.2	1.38

Video Compression (2.0)
The W580i captures video in 3GP format, with no option to capture video in any other format.

Interface (2.0)
The video capture interface on the W580i is very similar to the stills capture. This means there's a lot of wasted real estate, as the window for viewing what you're capturing only uses about half the screen. The rest is taken up by indicators and controls, which frankly take up far more space than they deserve. We would have much preferred to see an interface that used the whole screen for the viewfinder. That being said, options are fairly easy to find and use, although we still don't recommend taking video using the W5801.

Manual Control (0.0)
The W580i's video camera doesn't have any manual controls.

Zoom (1.0)
There is a 4x digital zoom available on the W580i's video camera. However, since digital zoom just crops and enlarges what you're seeing and the W580i captures video at such a low resolution, you'll find the quality of your video suffers greatly when you use the digital zoom.

Editing (2.0)
The W580i has a program called VideoDJ that can be used to string videos together to create a longer video. You can also add a soundtrack or insert text or pictures between the videos. Due to the terrible quality of video captured by the W580i, however, this is more of a gimmick than anything else. Hey, at least it's there.

Modes (2.0)
The only mode offered by the W580i is a separate mode for capturing MMS video. Given this is all the W580i's video camera is good for it's nice to see it there. Of course you shouldn't be fooled by the "High Quality Video" mode, which gives terrible results.

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