Review of the Sony Ericsson W715 Walkman phone

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

The Sony Ericsson W715 is the latest Walkman-branded handset to arrive on the market, featuring the latest version of the Walkman music player application, WiFi, GPS, and a high-quality metallic finish. The device certainly looks the part, but does it have the function to match its form? Keep reading as we put the W715 through its paces to find out.

Physical Aspects

The Sony Ericsson W715 is a svelte little handset, measuring a mere 95mm x 47.5mm x 14.3 mm (3.7in x 1.9in x .6in), which allows it to easily slide into a pocket or handbag. Thanks to the metallic front panel and small dimensions, the W715 feels quite weighty for its size, in a good way. In reality, it weighs in at just 98g (3.5oz). Overall, the W715 seems very solidly built and feels pleasant in the hand.

The W715 sports a sliding form factor, with a metallic silver front and soft-touch rear. The spring-loaded slider action is very smooth and feels solidly constructed. My only gripe was that there's nothing for your thumb to push on when opening the device. I therefore found myself putting my thumb on the screen to slide the phone open, which is not ideal.

The front of the Sony Ericsson W715 is a high quality affair, sporting glass, brushed metal, and chromed accents. A 2.4" 256,000 color TFT^(INFO) display adorns the front, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The display had quite good legibility in bright sunlight, with some slight reflection on the glass, but not enough to worry about. Mounted above the display is the forward facing camera for video calling, an ambient light sensor, and a gold Walkman logo.

While the upper half of our "Luxury Silver" W715's front is clad in brushed metal, the lower half makes do with metallic silver plastic. Here you'll find the left and right softkeys, below which are the 'Call' and 'End' buttons, with the shortcut menu and 'C' (cancel) button beneath them. These buttons are arranged into two circular groups, between which is the circular d-pad and its enter button.

Sliding the front of the device upwards reveals the device's keypad, which is clad in the same soft-touch plastic as the back of the device. The keypad itself is quite flat, although the keys are very slightly convex and are all separate from one another. The keys on each row are also separated from one another by tiny gold circles that tie-in with the other gold accents dotted about the phone. With the keypad being so flat I was expecting a poor typing experience, but was amazed to find that the keys offer amazing feedback and travel, considering how flat they are.

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

Sony Ericsson W715

The rear of the Sony Ericsson W715 is coated in the earlier-mentioned soft touch plastic, which is a metallic blackish-brown color. Although it sounds pretty horrible, it actually fits well with the design of the handset and prevents scratches and fingerprints. On the rear of the device you'll find the gold-colored loudspeaker grille, the usual assortment of Sony Ericsson branding, and the camera lens and LED light.

The sides of the device also have a handful of worthy mentions, with the proprietary power/data/headphone port on the left, and the camera shutter button and volume/zoom rocker on the right. Atop the device is an oddly-placed button for quickly activating the Walkman application. The bottom of the device is home to a lanyard fixing and a small grey switch used to lock the rear cover onto the phone.