Sony Ericsson W830
from Cell Phone Reviews by Cellphonedia
Sony Ericsson released during the last quarter of 2006 the EDGE capable brother to the W850; the W830 and the W830i. Both phones share the same functions and capabilities. The only difference is that the W850 is targeted towards the Chinese market and therefore comes with a Chinese keypad. The W830i is designed for the rest of Southeast Asia. In this light, this article will refer to the unit at hand simply as the Sony Ericsson W830.
As stated above, the W830 shares many of the same functions as the Sony Ericsson W850, including its looks, which will be much to a lot of people's chagrin, with the most noticeable difference being that the W830 is EDGE capable whereas the W850 only supports UMTS and GSM.
Sony Ericsson W830 Camera and Display
The Sony Ericsson W830 sports a 2.0 mega pixel camera that is not only capable of taking pictures for up to a maximum of 1600 x 1200 resolution, but also capture videos on the go. The lens on the W830 can zoom in on your subject to up to 4x digitally giving the user more flexibility when taking photographs. The user can then store edit and share their pictures right on the handset itself with the use of Photoalbum (MY Pictures). 
And the sharing doesn't end there as the Photoalbum feature makes it possible for the user to store more images or receive pictures from a computer or a digital camera, making it not just functional but also fun. Also, with the camera buttons situated at the top when the phone is held in landscape mode, the user would feel as though he or she is using a real digital camera and not a phone.
Videos on the Sony Ericsson W830 is captured in the now popular 3GP format and the quality is more than sufficient especially for a phone with video recording not regarded as a primary function. After all, the W830 is still first and foremost a Walkman phone. A nice and welcome inclusion with the handset is the VideoDJ feature which makes it possible for the user to edit and piece together various video clips.
Pictures and video clips are then displayed with the phone's beautiful and sleek two inch 262k TFT color screen at 240 x 320 pixels. The screen resolution is not much really but is more than enough for most purchasers, especially considering the many features of the W830.
Sony Ericsson W830 Design and Accessories
The W830 is a slider type phone with only the two inch display screen, the navigation pad, and the Walkman 2.0 launch button being the most prominent keys in front. Sliding the handset open is a cinch and can easily be done so with a single hand. With the W830 open then, the user is presented with the beautiful and ergonomically designed keypad. The different keys are nicely spaced out and can easily be operated. Not the same can be said though with the navigation key in front of the W830 which takes much more effort to operate. The Walkman launch key at the top of the navigation pad is situated too close to the button that one is most likely to accidentally push the launch button instead of the up button and vice versa. But all that can be easily overlooked against the sleek and youthful design of the W830. And with the navigation key hassles aside, the W830 does have a user friendly interface and menu that going through the phone's features can be quite easy and even first time users can breeze through it without much hitches.
The unit comes in two variants: the Precious Black and the Golden White. But it is most likely that the Precious Black variant will be the more popular among the two. For one, although both of the W830's color options are made with the same matt finish casing and are therefore both fingerprint resistant, it is the Precious Black one that can hide those smudges more efficiently,
Now, this article would not be complete when the Walkman feature of the Sony Ericsson W830 is not touched upon. First off, and greatly noticeable is the phone's crispy playback of audio files including codecs for MP3, AAC, and e-AAP+. With the W830's Walkman functionality, Sony Ericsson anticipated the target market wanting to fill up their handsets with tracks and so the Sony Ericsson W830 ships with one gigabyte of the Sony Memory Stick duo. This can easily be upgraded to as much as 4 gigabites via the W830's expansion slot. This means more music for the phone which will be a treat to listen to with the inclusion of exceptional sounding earphones included with the W830 unit.
Summary Sony Ericsson W830 Features
- Weight: 116 g
- Width: 47 mm
- Height: 98 mm
- Thickness: 21 mm
- Network: 2G Network (GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900)
- Screen Resolution: TFT, 256K colors, 240 x 320 pixels, 30 mm x 40 mm
- Data: GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, HSCSD
- Connectivity: Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, Infrared, USB
- Web Browser: WAP 2.0/HTML(NetFront), RSS feeds
- Music: Walkman 2.0 music player, FM radio with RDS
- Camera: 2 MP, 1600 x 1200 pixels, video, flash
- Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email
- Expansion Slot: Memory Stick Duo Pro, 1 GB card included, 16 MB shared memory
- Tones: Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC, Composer, download, Vibration
- Software Features: TrackID music recognition, Java MIDP 2.0, T9
- Other Features: Voice memo, Organiser, Built-in handsfree, Exchangeable covers, 3D games
- Battery: Standard battery, Li-Po 900 mAh, Stand-by Up to 350 h, Talk time Up to 7 h
PROS: The Sony Ericsson sliding design is sure to attract a lot of people. Of course, one can easily get attracted with the phone's design and the Walkman 2.0 player is such a treat to work with. Battery life is more than sufficient. The inclusion of the EDGE network support is a great step up from its model W850.
CONS: A bit pricey though, the W830 would not fit most people's budget. The camera, although not necessarily that bad, is also not very spectacular.
Overall: Overall a nice package if not only for the price.
