Sony Ericsson W580 review: Slider Walkman (See all reviews)

Based on the S500 platform, Sony Ericsson W580 is an attractive slider with flashy design and comes equipped with a 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, FM radio and a Memory Stick Micro card slot.

The Sony Ericsson W580 joins the newer W910 and the older Sony Ericsson W850 in the company's music slider portfolio.

Main Features:

- Nice design and only 14 mm thick
- 2 inch 262K color TFT display with a QVGA resolution
- Walkman 2.0 music player
- 2 megapixel camera
- Memory Stick Micro card slot
- FM radio with RDS Bluetooth with A2DP support
- GPRS and EDGE
- Quality headphones and 1 GB memory card in the package
- Light effects

Disadvantages:

- Only 12MB of integrated memory
- Camera lacks flash and autofocus
- Records video in the old QCIF (176 x 144 pixels) resolution
- No notification of missed events

The Sony Ericsson W580 is mid-sized slider with a weight of 94 g and relatively slim profile measuring only 99 x 47 x 14 mm. The bodywork is dominated by round shapes and curved edges. It fits nicely in the hand and sliding is easy, as the navigation key provides a comfortable pushing point.

The fresh looks together with the light effects will mostly appeal to a younger segment of users. The W580 is available in four color versions: Style White, Urban Grey, Boulevard Black and Metro Pink.

Right under the 2 inch QVGA display we have the circular 5-way d-pad with the navigation keys, including two software buttons, back and clear keys together with the Walkman button. Underneath the navigation key you will be surprised to find the loudspeaker.

Due to the slim design of the handset, the numeric keypad is almost flat. The small keys are grouped together in 4 rows and have a good tactile feedback, so you must not fear typing errors.

The sides of the of handset are quite simple and they hide the light effect LEDs which emit blinking light in different colors (theme dependent) to indicate an incoming call. On the right we have the Fast port connector and on the left the volume rocker, which is the only side key.

The On/Off button is on top of the sliding half together with the memory card slot (Memory Stick Micro). The retail package we’ve received for our tests included a 1 GB memory card.

On the back side of the phone we can notice the company logo and the Walkman series symbol. The battery cover lid takes half of the phone’s back. It is very well secured, without any instability but we must say you will have problems trying to remove it in order to have access to the SIM card holder, located right above the battery bed.

The Sony Ericsson W580 has a 930 mAh Li-Pol battery (BST-38) and, according to the manufacturer it must last 9 hours of talk time and 370 hours of stand-by time.

We must point out that during our tests the battery lasted around 420 minutes of talking, which we found to be a pretty good result.