Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman review: Music to go

Nice web browser

The Obigo Q7 web browser on the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman is good enough. It lacks Flash support but considering the small and low-res display and the slow CPU even if there was Flash on board, you wouldn’t have been able to fully enjoy it.

The browser user interface is rather minimalist – all you get on the screen are controls on the bottom of the screen. Those include four large buttons – back, search, reload and more.

The Mix Walkman web browser • turning the Smart Fit on

Tapping on “more” will bring you to a few more on-screen keys which allow you to add the visited website to the main menu or to send the link (as text or email).

There is no way to zoom in or out on the page and there is no support for multiple tabs either.

Speaking of missing Flash support, there is one more thing missing – the YouTube app which would’ve made up for the lack of Flash video. But you could always use the mobile version of YouTube, it works just fine.

Friends app and social networking

The Friends app is one of the highlights of the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman. It is sort of like those SNS-enabled, tabbed phonebooks that we've seen on custom Android skins. It has five tabs - call log, list of text messages, a tab each for Twitter and Facebook updates and finally some contact management options.

It does great but supports up to five contacts and no more, which some might find not enough. Anyway, each contact is represented by their contact photo - the five are always visible at the top of the app and you can tap them to switch to that contact. The second homescreen holds the five contact photos that work as shortcuts - there are no status updates displayed there.

The Friends app supports up to five friends and their Facebook and Twitter accounts

Facebook status updates can be "liked" and you can comment on them, but there's no way to post a status update of your own, the Friends app is purely for following. You can reply to tweets, but again, you can't send a new one from here.

There are conspicuous Go to Facebook and Go to Twitter buttons available - there are even Facebook and Twitter shortcuts in the menu - but unfortunately they all lead to the mobile site of the respective social network, viewed inside the native browser. That overall is an unattractive, barely usable option that we're not happy with.

Facebook's mobile site in the native browser is not pretty

Facebook recently released an official Java app, which looks very much like the Android app and works great on touchscreen. It supports most of Facebook's features (Chat is missing though), including things that the Friends app can't do (like viewing your friends' galleries). You can even add and manage Facebook apps, which are an easy way to add a lot of functionality to the basic app.

The Facebook Java app is great

If you are into Facebook, the Java app is the best way to stay connected on the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman.