Sony Ericsson W880 Revealed/Reviewed

[drewprops]

Any of you SE fanboys see the review of the new Sony Ericsson phone (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_w880-review-127.php)? Why, do you suppose, the thing isn't Quadband (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadband)? I was looking at the 850/1900 overlay for Cingular and am led to believe that since the only supported band for the USA is 1900 that you're limited to areas with strong coverage, otherwise it reverts to being a dumb phone, is this correct?

[Kraetos]

If there was no iPhone, I would buy that phone in a nanosecond.

[Electric Monk]

Meh. Is my reaction. I want a squared off much thinner Z610. Something like the N703iμ (http://www.nttdocomo.com/features/fomaspring2007gallery/n703iu.html) or P703iμ (http://www.nttdocomo.com/features/fomaspring2007gallery/p703iu.html) but with the Z610's cool invisible OLED screen on the front.

Those buttons look ugly and uncomfortable. The garish orange back (for that orange is my favourite colour) is ugly. Not least it's SE screwing the North American market (for now, but still…) out of another cool phone—check out their rather nice Japan-only W51S (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/sony-ericsson-w51s-brings-style-back-to-the-clamshell-233557.php) for example though it is a little thick.

I was waiting to see how the W880 turned out, and if my dreams of Z610 successor that went all the way to meet its promise of a cool front were revealed as well but since I was let down on that front the Softbank 707SC (http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/707sc/index.html) will be my next phone. Lacks the 850 MHz band but up here in Canada that only costs me about 30% of the spectrum, rather than range/rural coverage as Rogers sticks both bands on all towers.

It's hacked of course but since all I look for in a phone is to look pretty, be small, and make phone calls none of its limitations bother me.


Sony Ericsson: I love your user interface, I love your invisible OLED screens, I like the direction the W51S and Z610 are going in. Start making them quad-band, and carry-through more fully on those design details and you'll get me. Oh. You're a Japanese company in part—make them smaller like all those other phones in the Japanese market, the W880 is a great step in that direction.

[drewprops]

I still don't understand what's going to happen if I stray out of range of the 1900MHz band with a Sony Ericsson Tri-Band phone.... will it continue to work as a cellphone?

[Electric Monk]

I still don't understand what's going to happen if I stray out of range of the 1900MHz band with a Sony Ericsson Tri-Band phone.... will it continue to work as a cellphone?

Anywhere that has 1900 MHz your phone will work. Anywhere with 850 MHz only and it will not work. Anywhere with both it will use only the 1900 MHz band and performance will degrade, but I don't know how much Cingular relies on 850 MHz where they already have 1900 MHz coverage (Rogers, as I said, is about 70% 1900 MHz everywhere, 30% 850 MHz everywhere since they stick both bands on all their towers).

Furthermore since it uses the 2100 MHz UMTS world standard 3G will not work in the USA, Canada, or parts of Australia. 3G will work in Europe, Asia, and South Korea/Japan if you can convince them to let you roam on their networks.

[drewprops]

THANK YOU!
What do you suppose is Sony's problem with adding one more radio frequency to their lineup to make their current and future phones Quadband? And I have to say that the Precious Black (http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Ericsson-W850i-Precious-Unlocked/dp/B000JE2BRM/sr=8-4/qid=1170962492/ref=pd_bbs_4/002-5152990-0798467?ie=UTF8&s=wireless) seems sexier to me than the 880.....

[Electric Monk]

Some of their phones are indeed quad-band. So no particular reason besides they like model numbers followed by little letters?

The UMTS stuff is understandable since even including a single band usually makes for a larger phone but the tri-band GSM? Silly.

That said they have plenty of company (because the North American market sucks for mobiles) and I suppose tri-band world chips are somewhat more common/cheaper then tri-band North America and quad-band chips but it certainly wouldn't be by much.

Take a look at their line-up. The 'a' signifies tri-band North American GSM, the 'c' signifies China, and the 'i' signifies tri-band world GSM. The 'a' model also sometimes means quad-band such as the Z310a model.

Models under 'c' usually lack 3G but there is no other way to sell if handsets have UMTS just from their model number.

[curiousuburb]

Still getting to know my new K800i, but liking it so far.

Haven't bluetoothed it to my mini yet, but like the fact I can use it as a presentation remote in a pinch. :D

[drewprops]

Okay, so if curiousburb wandered outside of his 1900MHz cloud he'd have an expensive paperweight... right? Have you had that happen CB?

[curiousuburb]

Haven't tried it in or out of clouds yet, DP. ;)

Still testing features.

Apparently I get SkyTV streamed over 3G on it. But the 3G coverage isn't complete. Work, sure... home, no. :\

[drewprops]

::shakes fist mightily at complicated world and wishes for a large bucket of money to land at his feet::

[Electric Monk]

Curiousburb is in the UK (I presume, based on the SkyTV reference) which doesn't use the 850Mhz band in favour of the 900 and 1900 Mhz bands, both of which the K800i supports so, um, he doesn't have your problem drewprops. And, of course, he has UMTS for video calling among other things.

God the US/Canada is backwards in mobile technology. (Goes off into a corner and cries).