Sony Ericsson W580i Cell Phone Review - Tour & Design
|
Alfredo Padilla Published on September 24, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Front Closed
Front Open
Left
Top
Bottom
Right
Back
Back Open
Battery Out
In the Box (6.5)
Handling (5.0)
The W580i is a small phone, measuring 3.9 x 1.8 x 0.5 inches and weighing in at a light 3.3 ounces. This makes it easy to hold up to your head during long calls. When closed, the controls are located low on the phone, which means you have to hold it along the lower end, but the light weight makes this fairly comfortable. We liked the "lip" on the bottom of the handset where it curves back, as this makes it easier to open the phone. Those with large hands may find the controls and keypad a little too small. It's not the most ergonomic phone ever, but there are no glaring deficiencies in handling either; it fits comfortably in the hand.
Portability (9.0)
The W580i is an eminently portable handset due to its small size and weight. It's not as slim as the Helio Fin or the Razr2 V9m, but it's not fat. It should fit comfortably into all but the tightest pants and any jacket or bag. We were very happy with the W580i's portability. Our only issue is that you have to use the included adapter with the headphones, which ruins the design and makes it less portable; putting a 3.5-mm socket right into the phone would have been preferable.
Aesthetics (6.0)
The W580i is a difficult phone to peg in terms of aesthetics. Some will love it, others will hate it. Like most Walkman-branded handsets, the W580i has orange highlights. Now, we happen to like the color orange, but others may find it garish. Thankfully the orange is tastefully underdone here, unlike on the W600i. The black casing that covers the AT&T version of the W580i gives it a nice understated look despite the orange highlights, and it's even vaguely professional looking. The W580i is "cute" rather than "sexy." Sony Ericsson has gone a bit overboard when it comes to adding lights to the phone; there are a variety of multicolored LEDS in the body that can be set to blink in a number of ways when a call comes in. We've produced a short video showing these color effects here.
Durability (3.0)
Like the Samsung Blast, another slider phone, the W580i feels plasticky and a little cheap. We certainly expect the handset to get scratched up fairly easily. Any phone that has moving parts like the W580i also causes us concern, and the flimsy plastic construction of the W580i makes us worry more than we normally would. We would be very concerned about how long this phone holds up under heavy use.
| Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
