Sony Ericsson W910i

The latest in Sony Ericsson's ever expanding range of Walkman phones, the W910i introduces a couple of nifty music features. SensME technology and 'Shake it!' should keep music lovers busy, while other features certainly haven't been overlooked -- the W910i boasts HSDPA connectivity, a large 2.4in display and an all-new multimedia menu.

The slider W910i is thin and smooth, and its construction feels very solid. A handy battery cover lock makes it easy to remove and despite the flat buttons, operation is intuitive and comfortable. A five-way navigation pad and selection buttons do the grunt of the work, while the keypad has small, soft buttons. They are a little close together, but despite this, messaging is comfortable and most should be able to generate decent speeds. The matte finish (available in either red or black) handles fingerprints surprisingly well.

For calls, the W910i has a reasonable voice quality, but volume could have been louder -- it is sometimes difficult to hear when there is background noise.

The Walkman and general media interface of this handset has been completely redesigned and is similar to the K850i. Conveniently, an accelerometer auto-rotates between portrait or landscape modes. You can access and edit photos, music, videos and adjust settings, and it uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, while the relatively large display is crisp and clear for watching video. For photos, X-Pict Story, an automatic slideshow created based on four moods, adds music and transitional effects with a single button press.

SensME technology, exclusive to the W910i, uses track metadata to create a playlist based on mood and tempo. Tracks are plotted on a visual graph and matched to sad and happy emotions and fast and slow tempos. SensME allows you to create playlists based on these choices, though to use these functions you'll have to upload your music using the included Walkman software. The W910i also allows you to skip tracks with the flick of your wrist using 'Shake it!'; simply hold down the Walkman button and flick your wrist left for the previous track and right for the next track. The location and small size of the Walkman button doesn't help in this regard though.

The W910i also offers access to PlayNow, a music download service, and Track ID. PlayNow lets you listen to samples and then download tracks to your phone or PC, while TrackID allows you to record a few seconds of any song you wish and the title, album and artist name are sent back to you. It then allows you to download the full track if it is available.

A 2-megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom is included, but it quality is poor with no auto focus or flash. There is also video recording, but this suffers from the same issues as still photography. If you're looking for a great camera phone, we'd advise to look elsewhere.

SMS, MMS and e-mail messaging -- all with T9 predictive text input, an FM radio, voice recorder, Java games as well as Bluetooth with A2DP and USB connectivity are all included. 35MB of internal memory comes standard, but a 1GB M2 card is included.

Battery life is very reasonable, rated at up to three and a half hours and of talk time up to 350 hours standby time on a 3G network.