Sony Ericsson W890 review: Thin Walkman refined

The W890 is really feature rich in terms of applications

The Sony Ericsson W890 offers the traditional time-management features. There is an Organizer icon in the main menu and it contains several applications: File manager, Alarms, Applications, Video call, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Synchronization, Timer, Stopwatch, Calculator, and Code memo.

The Calendar offers monthly, weekly and daily views. When you enter a birth date in the phonebook, the phone prompts adding it to the calendar.

Tasks can be two types: simple Tasks and Phone calls. Notes are written similar to messages; T9 dictionary can be used here as well.

The Alarms are part of the main menu. There are five alarm slots available. Each one offers a lot of options - you can opt to repeat the alarm on chosen days of the week, as well as everyday. Text and a picture can be added to the alarm. Furthermore, the alarm's behavior can be defined in case the time it is due to go off comes while the phone is in silent mode.

Calendar and Alarms

The Voice recorder has no limit to recording length, making the free memory available the only restriction. The Calculator is the regular Sony Ericsson application. It offers the basic functions, no bells and whistles. The stopwatch and countdown timer are also the well known basic applications.

Voice recorder • Calculator • Timer • Stopwatch

Some other applications in the Entertainment menu include the MusicDJ, VideoDJ, TrackID and voice recorder. VideoDJ is for making your own video clips by mixing already existing ones with still pictures, text and a variety of effects or for making basic cuts using special transitions and adding background music. This can be a very entertaining, indeed.

MusicDJ is a very simple application for creating custom polyphonic melodies.

TrackID • VideoDJ • MusicDJ

As for additional applications, the Sony Ericsson W890 comes only with the Music Mate 4 preinstalled.

Music Mate 4 helps musician tune an instrument

"...We liked the compact and amiable W880, and we believe the W890 is a welcome successor. It does address some of the major letdowns in the older W880: the tiny keys and the lack of FM radio. The user interface of the hi-end W910 and the added HSDPA and quad-band GSM support are a commendable effort to set the Sony Ericsson W890 above its predecessor..."

Playing Sims 2 on your mobile

There are three games preinstalled in Sony Ericsson W890 - Lumines Block, Sims 2 and Tennis Multiplayer. Lumines Block is a Tetris inspired game, Sims 2 is the mobile version of the largely popular strategic life simulation PC game. The Tennis Multiplayer is a classic tennis game with several player modes, including Bluetooth gaming with another Bluetooth-enabled phone.

Three games in W890: Lumines Block, Sims 2 and Tennis Multiplayer

Final words

The Sony Ericsson Walkman lineup is diverse enough to cater to all tastes in terms of design and functionality. With the W890 we have a nice update in the slim bar form factor.

We liked the compact and amiable W880, and we believe the W890 is a welcome successor. It does address some of the major letdowns in the older W880: the tiny keys and the lack of FM radio. The user interface of the high-end W910 and the added HSDPA and quad-band GSM support are a commendable effort to set the Sony Ericsson W890 above its predecessor.

We expected a bit more from the camera, the size of the display and the loudspeaker performance. The missing Shake Control and auto-rotate capability may also raise a brow or two.

Sony Ericsson W890 is an undoubted improvement over the W880 but we can't help being wary. We frowned at the overpriced tag of W910, never mind its high-end status. Let's hope the asking price won't kill the appeal of Sony Ericsson W890. The neat and compact handset is a worthy offering for its solid feel, nice handling and good feature set.