It has been three years since the launch of the first Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, the W800. Since then there have been almost 30 different Walkman branded handsets, usually adding new and exciting features as technology progresses. But the original W800 was a pretty good phone, and quite a lot of them are still around today. Certainly, compared to a modern handset the original W800 looks fairly modest, but it certainly still does what it was designed to do. So perhaps it is unsurprising to see the new Sony Ericsson W302, a device that matches the old W800 very closely in terms of basic specifications.
This is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE data, a 2" 176 x 220 pixel display, a basic 2 megapixel camera, Memory Stick Micro expandable memory (with 512MB in the standard sales package) and an FM radio. It is much more compact than the original W800 - measuring 100 x 46 x 10.5 mm and weighing 78 grams - which means that the W302 is about half the thickness of the W800 and is 21 grams lighter. The W302 also supports stereo Bluetooth, track identification, comes with a web browser and email client and a USB cable so that it can be connected to a PC. Sony Ericsson gave no guidance on price, but the W302 is likely to be very inexpensive when it hits the shops in Q4 2008. Two colour combinations will be available: Midnight Black and Sparkling White.
Sony Ericsson W302 at a glance
Available:
Q4 2008
Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Data:
GPRS + EDGE
Screen:
176 x 220 pixels, 262k colours
Camera:
2 megpixels
Size:
Lightweight monoblock
100 x 46 x 11mm / 78 grams
Bluetooth:
Yes
Memory card:
Memory Stick Micro
Infra-red:
No
Polyphonic:
Yes
Java:
Yes
GPS:
No
Battery life:
7 hours talk / 12 days standby
