When Sony Ericsson presented its Walkman labeled W800 music phone in the spring last year, music in mobile phones started to live a life of its own. W800's MP3 player soon became one of the main functions of this multifunctional device attracting this way plenty of customers. Its huge success was boosted even more by the orange touch of its cool design.

Naturally, the successful Walkman-mobile W800i was followed by a new model - W550, which was a little bit cheaper at the expense of certain technological equipment. Sony Ericsson W550 attracted customers with both its top-class MP3 player and its swivel construction. The last Sony Ericsson model from the Walkman line so far is the W900 model, in which the manufacturer has apparently tried to install everything techno fans long for.

I could get used neither to phone's size, nor to its rotating construction. When I am working with closed phone and I need to start to write a text, I have to only push the phone's upper part with my thumb and it opens of itself. Not bad at all, I agree, but in this very moment I find out that I am holding the phone upside down. And again, when I need to close the phone, the move with the thumb turns to be scant for the spring mechanism does not help me anymore. I have no choice, but to use both my hands.

The construction of Sony Ericsson W900 is very solid, including the joint. It did not give out a single creak, although I bended and twisted the back cover quite a lot. At the same time though, the sound of phone's two parts locking together is pretty cheap. Both the friction between plastic surfaces and the following clap are much too loud. In all other aspects Sony Ericsson W900 gives the impression of a luxury device with silky covers. The latter are truly elegant, yet fingerprints-prone. Fortunately, the relief of the phone's surface is broken, so fingerprints are usually visible on the display and the back cover only.

The model we are testing is white. The combination of white color and glossy plastic covers reminds me of the most famous MP3 player ever - Apple iPod. Sony Ericsson W900 is also available in black. According to our humble opinion, the black color suits this phone far more than the white one.

Since we are having a Walkman to do with, orange is a must. Sony Ericsson W900's design is more modest in comparison with the forerunner W550, which was literally swimming in orange. The only elements elaborated in orange here are the logo below the display, the frame around the control button and its legends, and the fine frame around the camera lens on the rear side of the device. When you open the phone you will see other two orange logos - one is located below the keypad, the other one is on the back side of the display part. Orange elements go perfectly with the orange menu scheme on the display, when the latter is alight.

Pleasant both at look and touch

Sony Ericsson W900's display is one of the best on the current market. It occupies a lot of the space on phone's front cover. It has 240 × 320 pixels with 262K colors. Below the display there is a group of functional keys, dominated by a control button with confirming central element. The control button is chromium-plated. The functional keys gathered around it are elaborated in the same color like the plastic material that surrounds them. Here you will find a pair of context keys accompanied by the Back and the C buttons. The lower line constitutes of special functional keys, which provide access to Internet, establish a video call connection and open the Activity menu.

More buttons are to be found on the sides of Sony Ericsson W900. On its right side there is a traditional volume button, which controls both the volume and the zoom, and a camera release button. On its left side you will find a tiny chromium-plated button, which starts the music player, and a sliding key that locks the keypad. BTW, this type of locking system is usually quite practical. In this particular model, however, the rotating construction may puzzle you as to where the locking button should be looked for. When the phone is open, the locking key is on the right, when closed, it is on the left. No matter how simple it sounds, it is in fact quite confusing. Besides, the keypad lock suffers from another drawback, the most serious to my opinion: it gets automatically deactivated when the phone is opened, which happens at the slightest swing of the rotating part. When you close the phone again, the keypad lock does not resume anymore. Due to this I would often pull the phone out of my pocket only to see that its display is covered with gibberish.

The numeric section of the keypad consists of separate large buttons, whose surface slightly differs from the surrounding plastic material. However the difference is however recognizable and facilitates orientation in the dark. Keys' touch is fluent and allows for fast SMS writing. Considering the abundance of space on W900's surface, its keypad is located a bit far from the display, which I find helpful, for it prevents this long device from bending over.

The backlighting of the keypad is very interesting. In the dark entire keys radiate in white with a slight green nuance. Due to poor light distribution, however, stray streaks on the keys are clearly visible. In result, the final effect is quite impressive, no matter how much intention was placed in it, if any.

Durability

The most attractive element on the back side of the device is the assembly of the camera lens, the tiny mirror and the LED flash, all framed in orange. The camera is not protected by a removable cover as usual in other Sony Ericsson models, which is a pity. Next to the camera lens there is a grid covering the loud speaker and a blank connector for the external antenna.

The battery and its removable cover dominate the rear cover of the phone. The accumulator is lithium-polymer with a capacity of 900 mAh. According to official sources SE W900 has a stand-by of 370 hours and can back up 500 minutes of phone calls. Of course, the truth usually is somewhere else. During three days I had Bluetooth constantly active, I would leave the phone on through the night, I listened to music for approximately an hour, I had a 10-minute video conversation and 20 minutes of phone calls, and I played an infinite number of games, sent plenty of messages and browsed the internet quite frequently. SE W900 managed it all. It ran out of energy on the fourth day. Charging is over within an hour and a half.

Top-class call application

Sony Ericsson W900 is perfectly equipped to manage all kinds of phone services. The only obstacle in this sense is its rotating construction, which complicates the overall control of the phone. While the numeric keypad comes handy when you search the phonebook, phone calls are executed more easily when the phone is closed, because the volume control buttons located on phone's side are easier to access. What I do not manage to understand is why a rotating phone like W900 does not use rotation for call answering and ending.

The phonebook has undergone no modifications; except for the fact that the bigger display, which shows 6 contacts at a time, makes it look more panoramic. The new Sony Ericsson' phonebook fits in 1000 multi-field contacts (500 more in comparison with the W800 model). On the other hand, the phonebook in the cheaper W550i has no less than 1000 contacts either. Contacts can be sorted into groups, which mainly serve for bulk message sending.

Information to go with each contact is entered in a well-organized tabbed structure. The first tab contains the relevant name and phone number, the second keeps emails and internet sites, the following tab contains a picture, a ringing melody and voice orders etc. Each contact name can be assigned up to 27 fields. Here are some of them: 5 phone numbers, 3 email addresses and a full street address - both home and at work. As I already mentioned, each contact can be accompanied by a picture, which appears when the relevant contact person calls you, and identified by a particular melody, which plays on the same occasion.

Each number in a contact entry is marked with a symbolic icon to differ it from the others. When you select a contact person, a list with all fields starting with the relevant default number unfolds. Use the horizontal ways of the control button to search the list, including emails. Further on, you can choose, whether you want to call the selected number in the usual way (by pressing the left context key), or through a video conversation (by pressing the correspondent button), or you prefer to send a message (this option is accessed from the context menu).

Searching can be even faster if you apply the voice dialing function. Each of the numbers saved under a certain contact can be given a separate label. To dial one of these labels you need to long-press one of the volume control buttons and pronounce the label. A matter of course is the Shortcut option. It assigns a particular number key to frequently dialed phone numbers. Once you have done this, you need to only press the relevant key and start dialing. If you long-press it, it will take you directly to the respective letter in the phonebook.

The Sony Ericsson W900 audio reproduction is good. The sound is clear and loud enough. The people I called did not complain about it either. They did not make any difference between calls executed with open phone and those made when the phone was closed. Ringing sounds are praiseworthy as well. In comparison to the D750 model, for example, Sony Ericsson W900's sound is mellower, with accentuated bass elements. Naturally, you are free to select your preferred ringing sound with the help of pre-installed ringing profiles. To quickly mute the phone, press and hold the grid-protected button.