Sony Ericsson W760 First Impression Cell Phone Review - Imaging & Software

The W760 has some great imaging software, and really rivals Motorola's Z10 in terms of its capabilities. The W760 has a 3.2-Megapixel camera and a good -- albiet screen-consuming -- capture interface. You switch from still to video capture with left and right on the d-pad, ala the tabs at the top. The rest of the top also contains various icon reminders, including the degree of digital zoom, brightness setting, and storage location. We thought the live preview was average, blurring and lagging a bit during quick pans. Fans of sending videos in texts will be happy to see the MMS-optimized capture setting.

    

Impressively, the W760 also has a wide array of both video and image editing software. The image editing options are better than those found on Windows Mobile phones, and the video editing software looks to be about on par with the Z10's -- at least from the limited experience we had with both. There weren't any instand upload clients, however, so dedicated YouTubers might prefer the Z10.

Making/Receiving Calls

Placing calls was easy: just slide open and dial. The keys were snappy and a good size for quick and easy inputs. The call log doesn't have any sort options, instead breaking up the normal incoming, outgoing, and missed categories into tabs. The phone features call and data timers. You'll also be able to use your own music as ringtones, or create your own basic ringtones with up to four different MIDI instruments. 

Messaging

Like most other phones we saw at CES, the W760 separates SMS and MMS messages. It does, however, have an email client, though it's limited to just POP accounts. Though a business user would likely find the messaging options lacking, they seem appropriate for the W760's demographic, who care more about media than messaging.

Organizer

The organizational software is slightly better than average, but only by a small margin. The calendar is basic, as are its three views. There were also tasks, but they didn't grow any more complex since the W580i. Basically, when you create a task, you're given a graphical representation of a spiral-bound notepad where you enter the title; that's it for screen one. After hitting continue, screen two will let you input the reminder. Contacts are receive better than average support, and the myriad fields are separated into tabs. You can also opt to synchronize your PIM and music either via a USB connection and the included software, or perform over the air synchronization via SyncML or Exchange Active Sync.

Multimedia

You can play back MP3 or AAC files with the W760. We're not sure if any DRM are supported, or what video files the phone can play back. As a Walkman device, music playback is a priority, and the new interface improves upon the already good functionality we saw from the W580i. Album art and visualizations are both supported. Video playback doesn't receive the same caliber software, which is per usual for handsets.

There are quite a few bits of multimedia software on the W760 we don't often see. First of all, the handset is capable of tuning in FM channels, and displaying information about the songs or shows currently playing. Secondly, the phone supports podcasts, which is a rarity among modern phones. As previously alluded to, the phone will also let you edit just about anything, via its various DJ programs, such as Music DJ. The ability to edit your songs to isolate a section for ringtone usage is very rare on handsets. On a more minor note, there's a specific application for audio books.

Software

Though the software on the W760 is of a very high quality, the OS itself is proprietary, and therefore not very extensible. Again, however, given the features on the phone and the "walled garden" tendency of most phones, many users won't miss the extensibility. The OS seemed to have about average responsiveness; it didn't keep us waiting unless we were opening a resource-intensive application. We did like the tabbed structure of many menus, and the short menu with customizable shortcuts seemed as though it would be a great help for navigation.

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