31 May 2008
The Sony Ericsson W580i mobile phone is another magnum opus. Physically, it is made popular by its slider design that mirrors the sophistication of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman in its high-end features. Users may select the phone according to colour preferences of gray, white and black, and dark gray.

Although a certified looker, Sony Ericsson in general is yet to embrace the trend of slider phones. The W580i succeeds Sony Ericsson’s W850i, which was apparently bulky and less user-friendly controls. These flaws were ultimately improved by the W580i, which features a lustrous shape and more compact dimensions of 99.06 x 45.72 x 1.8 12.70 millimeters, and weighing just a bit over 3 ounces.

With its lightweight and handy feature, the Sony Ericsson W580i can be conveniently taken by its owner wherever he or she goes. The Sony Ericsson W580i’s slider mechanism, though imperfect, is undoubtedly well-constructed. Opening the phone’s slide is seemingly difficult when using only one hand; however, it is not too loose, either.

Sony Ericson W580i boasts of a colour display featuring 262,144 shades, which screen is small at 50.80 millimeters and pixels of 240 x 320. Despite its tiny screen display, the colours are vivid and bright, while the photos and graphics show up clearly. The W580i’s screen's level of brightness is easily adjustable.

Located just right below the screen is the pleasantly designed set of navigation buttons that are found by users to be better than those of the earlier W850i. The Sony Ericsson’s central button with the OK key and the circular toggle are both tactile and large. The handset’s toggle may be used to get more quickly to certain applications that are user-defined, and also for controlling the Walkman while listening to its music.

The exterior part of the mobile phone is completed with a port for the charger located on the left spine, along with a thin volume button on the right. The camera and its lens is also part of the Sony Ericsson W580i’s exterior. The camera is located right on the siding face’s rear part; hence taking pictures is possible with the slider lifted up. The camera has no flash and the phone offers no self-portrait mirror.

Standard of modernist phones, the Sony Ericsson W580i is able to store 1,000 of the user’s contacts in its phone. The rest of the essentials include the vibrate mode, multimedia and text messaging, a voice recorder, alarm clock, a task list and calendar, a speakerphone, a notepad, a timer, a calculator and a stopwatch. The mobile phone’s interface exudes a minimalist approach, but it allows skin colour and simple visualization selections. The Sony Ericsson W580i has a relatively low internal memory of 12 Megabytes; hence a micro card is the remedy.

The Sony Ericsson W580i also supports Bluetooth, an e-mail support, syncing capability with computers, USB and cable support. Additionally, the mobile phone allows coding for purposes of storing information that are deemed sensitive. The mobile phone also has a host of various fitness applications, capitalizing primarily on its being a famous Walkman handset.

Its other phone perks include an activities pedometer such as for jogging or walking, fitness trainer device that tracks workouts and sports trivia games. Interestingly, the Sony Ericsson W580i calculates the user’s distance and time to be spent when walking to certain locations all over the world from his or her home city.

Being a Walkman phone, the Sony Ericsson W580i’s built-in music player houses settings that are similar to standard music players’, such as playlists, an equalizer and loop and shuffle modes, among others.

The Sony Ericsson W580i is even more popularized by the shake-control feature. While a song is playing, a user will simply flick his or her wrist while pushing the Walkman button to proceed to the following track.

The handset also allows its user to listen to FM radio. The MusicMate program shows the appropriate use of fingers when playing the piano or the guitar. The phone may also be used as metronome. The quadband W580i is also found to be satisfactory with respect to quality of voice calls.

While Sony Ericsson W580i’s 2-Megapixel camera captures photos in great quality, the camera lacks a flash, while the phone itself does not offer a self-portrait mirror, which most flip-top and slider phones have. Also, users have observed that similar with other phones by Sony Ericsson, the absence of Talk and End buttons make it confusing, especially for new W580i owners. There have also been complaints regarding the cracking of the keys.

Though not entirely flawless, the Sony Ericsson W580i is relatively good in terms of performance and features. Users have appreciated the handset both for its usability and stunning appearance.

Reviewer: amy - UK
Reviewed on: 31st August, 2008
Rating: 3/10
Don't let this phone fool you, its attractive and has great features but everyone I know, including myself that has it, it has broke.

Reviewer: Keiron Hopkins - South Wales
Reviewed on: 13th July, 2008
Rating: 10/10
An awesome phone by a great brand. It is one of the first Sony Ericsson Phones I have had and I have had it for about 5 months. Awesome for listening to music with a great clear sound on the speaker. Nice Sleak design and cathcy to the eye attarcts people as I have noticed that a lot of people have these phones have have all given it praise. I will be sure to get anotehr Sony Eircsson in the future as I feel this is a good phone and brand when you want a good design, Good for Music and a brand that has a good price tag as well. This phonoe has impressed me!

Reviewer: amy - london
Reviewed on: 9th June, 2008
Rating: 10/10
i love this phone when u have one u cant get overit i mean is the best phone ever i love it let me tell u something this phone is wwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww i mean wow my friend told me not to get it beacuse it brakes and it is a lame phone then i said shut up it is the best phone evr i love it and it is going to be mine for ever and ever it is the best of phone evr i cant stop talking about i love it when it shakes and changing the song i my god anyway byexxxxxx
it is the best phone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx kiss kisss kissssssss kissssssssss kissssssss kissssssss kisssssss kisssssssss

Reviewer: francesca - northamptonshire
Reviewed on: 2nd June, 2008
Rating: 4/10
the Sony Ericsson W580i i thought at first was a really pretty phone, with many features that drew me to it, such as the shake button where it changed the song when you pressed it, the coloured lights at the edge, and the funky design, however, after a few months of buying it, i regretted it. it wasnt durable, (with my old samsung, i cud drop it a million times and it wud still be perfect). the first time i dropped this Sony Ericsson W580i, the casing broke off, the screen fell out and detached.. i managed to fix it although the casing does not sit back properly.
the buttons have all cracked where i have used it and now about 4 of my buttons have fallen out, leaving it not unusable but very hard to use.
on the off occasion i have had it freeze or randomly turn off.
i spoke to a worker at 02 and they also said exactly the same, aswell as numerous friends. i wouldnt recommend it in the slightest, if you want a phone for a while that is pretty and stylish - this is the phone for you. if your lookin long term then it isnt.

Reviewer: Abi - Wigan
Reviewed on: 1st March, 2008
Rating: 8/10
well i fink this fone is a brilliant walkman fone the sound is great and it is really easy to download music onto in from ur p.c the camera is just ok not perfect but ok. if u really like music this is the fone for u it is available in grey & blue white&orange Pink and black&orange. p.s 1 slight problem is that the keys can crack easily from just general use.

Reviewer: holly - nml.;
Reviewed on: 17th February, 2008
Rating: 9/10
i think its grate but th batry life int

Reviewer: farzana - london
Reviewed on: 2nd February, 2008
Rating: 8/10
the w580i is good but 12mb memory is bad for a walkman phone it has 2 megapixel camera and a last longing battery time it counts your foot steps and running speed it comes in black grey pik or white

Reviewer: gabriela - las vegas
Reviewed on: 25th January, 2008
Rating: 10/10
This phone I love the color. Have used the gray and the black. Been waiting for the pink phone and am happy that it finally came to the US.

Reviewer: Sara - London
Reviewed on: 15th January, 2008
Rating: 8/10
This phone is the best phone i've had its great the camera could be better but the phone is fantastic it has great memory takes lots of songs.

Reviewer: Daniel - Merseyside
Reviewed on: 22nd December, 2007
Rating: 7/10
I recently bought the w580i a couple of months ago from o2.

I believe it is a reasonably good phone, easy to use, nice and light and slim and great for anyone who is looking to stay active.

First impressions on the style of the phone are very good. The look and feel of the phone are rather impressive. Its rather stylish and looks good. One thing that has been incorporated in to the design is the sort of fligh at the bottom of the phone. This is effective for design, however rather annoying when wearing tight pants!

The keypad isn't the most greatest of things, and kind of lets this phone down. They keypad could have been improved as for example, when texting, it is sometimes rather annoying because it is so flat. Also, people say the keys aren't the most strongest as when you push the little silver dots between the keys, the key kind of lifts off.

The navigation on the top half of the phone however is good. Unlike the w850i, where the arrow keys are very odd, this phone has a good menu and arrow keys and easy to navigate. Also on the top half we have the menu choices, cancel and the back button. We also have the walkman button (which we will look at after) and the shortcut button.

Music is the key factor to this phone. Its rather Ideal if you are a music fan. You simply push the walkman button and you are left on a smart looking msuic menu which you can choose your tracks, volume settings etcetra. THe feature to this is that you can play your music whilst texting a friend,writing notes or simply playing with your phone.

Fitness is great too. There is an inbuilt pedometer inside the phone, that counts up all your steps and you can view it on the main menu screen. On the fitness is also a chart of your progress and an option for running, counting your time, adding music, checking how many kcals burnt excetra. You also have a menu for graphs and sport checks etcetra.

This phone is a good option for kids, as it comes with lots of inbuilt games such as the sims, luminez e.t.c. and is great fun to play without having to pay £5 per game!

The poor thing about this phone is the camera. The camera is a 2.0 camera, which is ok. What is dissapointing is there is no autofocus and no flash, so taking pictures in the night is impossible, however for slightly dark areas, there is night mode.

The phone also includes bluetooth. Unfortunately in this phone, there is no 3G. There is a Memory Stick Micro Slot (M2) which usually comes with a 512MB stick for free.

Overall, for daily use, the w580i is a top performance phone, easy to use, very stylish, great for music, ok for daylight pictures e.t.c.

I am giving this mobile a rating of 7.

Reviewer: carla benson - UK
Reviewed on: 14th December, 2007
Rating: 10/10
i think its a genious phone

Reviewer: Chloe o leary - kildare
Reviewed on: 21st November, 2007
Rating: 8/10
This phone is a stylish yet multitask phone it is perfect to use as a training partner as it counts your steps, calories and it monitors your running speed, distance and time ..!! It is a perfect christmas present and it isn't an easy to phone to break which comes in perfect if yur clumsuy! overal this is a very clever walkman phone .!!

Let us know what you think of the Sony Ericsson W580i. Leave your comments on the mobile phone using the form below. Please also score the phone out of 10, and leave your name (first name is OK) and location.

1. You must own or use the phone to leave a review
2. Do not use this form to ask questions
3. Inappropriate submissions will not be accepted

Your Name:
Your Location:
Email Address:
If you leave your email address and your review is more than 50 words long and includes the name of the handset, you will automatically be entered into our free prize draw to win £100 on 28th July 2008. The email address will not be used for any other purpose and will not be displayed on this page. Terms and Conditions
Review:
Score out of 10: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

copy the text from the image into this box