Sony Ericsson W550 and says, about the camera on the phone: "The Sony Ericsson W550 snaps stills at a resolution of 1.3 Megapixels with good white balance, and performs well under poorly lit conditions when using the photo light. Compared to similar handset cameras, overall image quality proved very good with accurate colour saturation and good contrast."
Final thoughts on the phone: "The lack of a means of memory expansion is disappointing, but all in all, the Sony Ericsson W550 stands out as the most capable handset available in the crowded mid-range at the time of writing."
Pocket-lint reviews the Sony Ericsson W550i and says about the phone's camera, "Pics are taken via a unique button, but the phone needs to be closed. There is no optical zoom available on the camera, but the quality is high. The flash is bright enough to get a clear capture in a dark room. Video capture is easy with such a nice screen." Pocket-lint concludes, "the W500i fills a small niche market of music-based handsets distancing themselves from the core functionality of a telephone."
MobileBurn reviews the Sony Ericsson W550 and has this to say about the phone's camera: "I was quite disappointed with the quality of photos taken. There was a lot of noise in every one, and in poor lighting the noise was overwhelming. However, the white balance was pretty accurate when taken in Auto mode. The camera prefers portrait shots to sceneries. When taking sceneries, photos tend to appear out of focus. One good thing about the camera is the way its 4x digital zoom made full use of its 1.3 megapixel sensor. In order to maintain image quality when the digital zoom is in use, the W550 reduces the dimensions of the photos it creates, essentially zooming by way of cropping the larger 1.3 megapixel photo. Don�t expect the W550 to take exceptional photos, its better off taking candid shots in good lighting."
HardwareZone reviews the Sony Ericsson W550i, and writes, "With the release of the W550i, Sony Ericsson has finally plugged a void in its product portfolio for a 'Walkman' camera phone priced affordably enough to woo students and young executives. Naturally, styling was one of the key consideration points going into the development of the W550i and what's a more obvious way of seeing this than the swanky swivel form factor design first used in the head turning S700i. Compared to the W800i, the newer, smaller W550i is easier to handle and while the swivel nature of the handset might not suit the tastes of everyone, the ability of the W550i to shed its faceplate for a color change to match your mood adds a sense of freshness from time to time."
3G reviews the Sony Ericsson W550i and likes the phone's camera: "At 1.3 megapixels, the camera on the W550i is a little less powerful than the two megapixel version found on both the W800i and the W900i, but it takes pretty good snaps. The camera is really rather satisfying to use, thanks to the side-mounted dedicated camera key, which allows you to hold the phone and take pictures as you would with a digital camera."
Lord Percy reviews the Sony Ericsson W550i and is not too thrilled with the phone's camera: "The W550i does sport a camera, this one a 1.3 mega pixel one which although it has auto focus, its not a patch on the excellent one on the K750. Apart from the drop in resolution it also struggles in low light and we don't mean near darkness, an overcast day will defeat it." Overall conclusion? "If you are happy with just 256mb of memory or are prepared to use the USB 2.0 connection to fill up your W550i then the Sony Ericsson W550i does make an excellent phone, but if like us you have a bit fore than 100 MP3's then you'll always wish you'd gone for the W800i."
Sony Ericsson W550 News Release
Sony Ericsson today announced a new addition to its Walkman phone family - the W550 - an affordable phone that offers great quality stereo music and integrates a 1.3 megapixel camera, full Internet browsing capability and a credible games console, all in a compact and stylish swivel phone design. This new Walkman phone will appeal principally to expressive fun seekers who enjoy life to the full and want to take their music with them everywhere they go.
“The W550 is an exciting product that combines music, imaging and game playing to offer consumers fun and entertainment wherever they are, while still being a great phone,” explains Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson’s Head of Product Marketing. “This new Walkman phone is aimed at fun seekers who enjoy a good party and like to share enjoyable moments with friends. There are so many entertainment features crammed into this small, sleek handset that whether you are alone or with a group of friends, the W550 can satisfy all your entertainment needs.”
The W550 has an advanced digital music player with excellent sound quality delivered through two external high quality stereo speakers or through quality stereo headphones provided with the phone. Loading music onto the handset is simple thanks to intuitive Disc2Phone PC software and the phone’s 256MB internal memory, enough for storing between 60 and 120 standard MP3 or AAC music tracks (depending on the bit rate). The W550 is the ideal new addition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman family with its stylish design and easy to use functionality. The phone is durable and offers great battery life, allowing users to listen to up to 30 hours of music.
Listening to music on the W550 over headphones means you never miss a call as the music cuts off automatically when a call is received, permitting the listener to take the call before resuming listening to the paused track. A direct music button gives instant access to the Walkman music player, which can be used independently of the phone, allowing the phone to be used in flight mode so your personal music can be enjoyed even on an airplane.
The W550 also offers an authentic games console experience. Games can be played with the screen positioned horizontally and buttons on the left and right of the screen being used for two-handed control. Gamers can enjoy this experience through the pre-installed 3D versions of WormsForts: Under Siege 3D developed by THQ Wireless, Extreme Air Snowboarding developed by Digital Chocolate and a new multiplayer version of Midway’s Gauntlet, developed under license by TKO Software. If users prefer, horizontal-mode games can also be played in portrait mode or an L-Shaped mode using the keyboard. The W550 also supports multi-player peer-2-peer gaming over Bluetooth.
Equipped with a 1.3 MegaPixel camera, the W550 captures stills and video-clips – with 4x digital zoom for close-ups – that can then be stored or shared using MMS or Bluetooth, or even transferred to a PC via USB cable.
Gigs, movie schedules, search engines and webmail can all be easily checked with the full Internet browser from a choice of viewing modes: full scale mode enables users to scroll round the complete page, or information can be presented in a single column. Either way, the bright 1.8 inch 262K TFT display provides razor sharp pictures.
There are plenty of ways to personalise the W550. The user can choose from a range of additional Style-Up covers that can be matched with wallpapers, themes and start-up/close-down animations which can be downloaded from Fun & Downloads. There’s no reason to ever get bored with this stylish, fun phone.
The W550 is a Tri-band / GPRS phone and will be available during early Q4 in two different variants:
W550i - Triple Band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz version for European, African, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Hong Kong markets
W550c - Triple Band GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz version for mainland China
In addition the W600a Walkman phone for the Americas that was announced on June 13 in New York as a Tri-Band/Edge product will now become the W600i for global distribution as a Quad-Band/Edge phone (850/900/1800/1900). The product will start shipping in the Americas from early Q4.
Sony Ericsson W550 - Features at a glance:
Imaging and messaging
• QuickShare
• 1.3 MegaPixel camera
• Horizontal camera user interface
• 4 x digital zoom
• Picture light
• 176 x 220 pixel TFT display
• 262K colour display
• Video recording and fullscreen playback
• SMS and MMS
• Wireless village
• Adobe picture PC software
Entertainment
• 2 stereo speakers
• Style-Up covers
• PlayNow ringtones and 2D games
• Horizontal fullscreen games and video
• RDS FM radio
• Walkman player (MP3/AAC)
• Media player (MP3/AAC)
• 256MB user memory
• Stereo headset
• 40 polyphonic ringtones
• Java MIDP 2.0
• 3D games
• MusicDJ and VideoDJ
• OMA DRM phase 1
• MegaBass
• Stereo widening
Connectivity
• Triple-band 900/1800/1900 MHz
• GPRS class 10
• Access NetFront HTML browser
• BluetoothTM and Infrared
• PC software
• External antenna connector
• USB system connector and cable
