Red is the New Black

The W910i from Sony Ericsson is available in three colors-Hearty Red, Noble Black and Havana Bronze. Other than black which looked a bit boring, the other two colors really add some zing.

The phone is shockingly slim and lightweight and has a glossy exterior which makes it look very elegant. It's got a large bright screen that's visible even under direct sunlight. Interestingly, the phone comes with dedicated call and end buttons which are not generally present on Sony phones. Other than that, there are two soft keys, an application key that brings up the shortcut menu, and the 'C' key along with the large shiny navigation pad that doubles up for music playback. The phone has the same shake control feature from the W580i. Activated by pressing the Walkman key and then shaking the phone, the trouble is that the Walkman key is a bit too small for comfort. The slider worked smoothly and the keypad has large keys that gave excellent tactile feedback.

Being a walkman phone, audio quality was above par from both headphones as well as from speakers. But the vibra alert is weak-I couldn't feel the phone ringing in my pocket.

The W910i is the first phone to come with a 'SensMe' feature that automatically sorts music by mood. To use it, the songs must be transferred using the media manager software. It didn't work very well with Indian songs, and even sorted a few English songs in the wrong mood.

Another interesting feature that the phone has is the motion sensor and accelerometer. The phone's auto screen rotation feature and a marble game that you can play by simply turning the phone left and right employ the motion sensor. The phone is 3G capable and features a front VGA camera and a 2 MegaPixel camera at the back which takes average pictures. Sadly, the camera lacks a flash and autofocus and neither does it have a protective cover. What's worse is that max video resolution is QVGA at 15fps which is disappointing.

Reception was top notch and the user interface was fast, but if the music player is running in the back the speed takes a hit. You get 63 MB onboard memory, a 2GB M2 memory stick and an M2 USB reader which makes the phone an excellent package. If you don't care about the camera, but want a phone that's stylish and comes loaded with tons of exciting features, go for this eyes closed.