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The W index in the phone's name comes from the abbreviation of Walkman so we can figure out that music is the key in Sony Ericsson's first Walkman handset, the W800i. Outstanding audio quality combines with a user friendly interface to make for a compelling music experience fully capable of replacing lower-end MP3 players. The w800i weighing in at a mere 99 g and measuring 100 x 46 x 21 mm, the W800i is both slim and light considering its heavy feature set. The W800 completely copies Sony Ericsson K750, so let's see the differences between these 2 phones.

We find the W800i keypad to be very comfortable in use, providing good tactile feedback as well as low audible noise. Both the numeric keys and the action buttons are flat, well-rounded buttons, and Sony Ericsson has also found room for a dedicated short-cut key activating the Walkman music player. A player button is placed under the screen instead of Activity Menu. This seems functionally useless at the presence of a side Music Button. But due to the marketing means it's necessary to stress the main component of the device. The rest of the design coincides. In terms of navigation the W800i offers a rather small yet ergonomically sound 5-way joystick, which provides a quick and easy way of scrolling and selecting while in the menuThe backlighting is also orange and well seen in various conditions.

MS Duo or Duo Pro is the main data carrier in the phone an it can support cards up to 2 GB,an if the K750i has a 64 Mb card included the W800i has a 512 MB ,such memory is needed due to the phones walkman function. The kit includes HPM-70 earphones (a copy of Sony MDR-EX71) which sound better than the ones in the K750's package.
Whe turned on you will find a relatively small 1.8", 262K colour screen but one as both bright and clear as well as unusally sharp due to its resolution of 176 x 220 pixels - more typical of smartphones than ordinary handsets.The screen uses the TFT tehnology.

Sony Ericsson W800 is the first phone that can work with a radio component off and even more without a SIM-card.Whne you start the device you will be asked if you want to activate the phone or only the musical player.If you select the only the player you will be able to listen to the music not only from the internal phone's memory but from the card also but you can't use the phone functions(games, organizer, and a phone book..).Another minus is you that can't switch to a player mode smoothly,it's necessary to restart the phone.For instance, Sony Ericsson S600 offers another step forward, pre pressing an on/off button you can switch the profile.

The producer claims the increase of the battery life from 15 to 30 hours with a radio component off (only listening to the player, and for the K750 that is 15 hours only). Other changes concern the appearance of the W sign in the main menu, that signifies a player. The player interface is quite reworked, but still no principal changes. An important difference is the appearance of a status bar on the top of the screen, it shows the title and the performer of the current track. This appears only in the standby mode when you start playing with Music Button, it holds for 3-4 seconds and then disappears. In the standby mode neither a track number nor a song's title are shown. Having the same hardware as the K750i, audio quality has been updated significantly as compared to the K750i, and given the good quality of its bundled earphones, the W800i as a music player would have no problems competing with many existing portable audio players out-of-the-box. What it doesn't offer, however, is compatibility with tracks purchased from online music services such as Apple's iTunes or PlaysForSure compatible varieties including Napster and Yahoo! Music.Dedicated hardware buttons for play/pause and volume control are of course available, all of which are especially useful when in phone mode. The W800i doesn't provide an integrated 3.5 mm jack but rather relies on a bundled dongle.

The W800i has a 2 mp Megapixels with good white balance, and performs admirably well under poorly lit conditions.The W800i's implementation of auto focus and macro focus deserves praise for its good performance and relatively short response times. Still, despite offering a solid improvement over its predecessors, it cannot replace a dedicated digital camera.

Here are some photos take with the W800i:

(click on the photo to enlarge)

As far as mobile phone related features are concerned, the W800i supports GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz networks, as well as HSCSD and GPRS. Unfortunately, EDGE support has been left out, but at least Bluetooth and Infrared are present for short-range connectivity. Offering a Memory Stick Duo expansion slot and an USB 1.1 port, the 512 MB Memory Stick storage card and the USB cable to be found .in the box allow for easy transfer of MP3 files to the phone. Furthermore the W800i also sports an FM radio, 38 MB of non-volatile internal memory, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, SMS and MMS, instant messaging and e-mail, and lastly Java MIDP 2.0 as well as WAP 2.0 support.