| Ablang 2005-10-05, 5:48 am |
| October 4th, 2005
Dialed In: The Music Phones
Sr. Assoc. Ed. Grace Aquino
A music phone can mean one less thing to carry in your pocket. You
don't have to lug a cell phone and an MP3 player. But like many
multipurpose devices, you usually have to give up a few features and
top performance for the convenience of using just one gadget. Expect
the same deal with Motorola's Rokr (aka the Apple ITunes phone) and
Sony Ericsson's W800i Walkman.
For my initial take on the Rokr, read my September 7 blog entry:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/...871.html?tk=box
Read "Sony Ericsson Plans Walkman Phone" for background on the Walkman
phone:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...x,
00.asp
Neither phone wowed me, but they do make music transfers a little
easier than with other handsets--not counting phones that let you
download music over the air, which is convenient but you have to pay
for each tune. With the Rokr and the Walkman phones, you can use
included software to rip and download music from your own CDs. The
Rokr, which was made in collaboration with Apple, also lets you
transfer songs that you've purchased from the ITunes music store. In
fact, compatibility with ITunes, both the store and the media player,
is the Rokr's biggest selling point.
The Rokr is available exclusively from Cingular Wireless for $249 with
a two-year service contract. The W800i Walkman costs $499 without a
carrier agreement; for now, there are no carrier subsidies available.
Easy Listening
Transferring music to each of these GSM/GPRS phones is
straightforward--but very slow. You install the included software on
your computer; launch the application; connect the phone to your PC
via the supplied USB; and drag and drop your selected tunes from your
system to the handset. Download times and the number of songs that
each phone holds depend on each track's compression rate and its file
size.
In my experience, both the Rokr and the W800i Walkman took 45 seconds
to 1.5 minutes per track, plus or minus. These transfer times don't
seem so bad when you're copying just a few songs. But when you want to
fill each phone's 512MB of storage to the maximum, the download can
take more than an hour. I managed to squeeze 83 tracks on the Rokr in
about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was such a drag to wait.
Motorola says the Rokr can carry up to 100 songs, and Sony Ericsson
claims that the W800i Walkman can hold up to 150. The Walkman phone
can hold more because its PC software lets you shrink file sizes. Yes,
MP3s are already highly compressed. So why would anyone down-sample
even further and degrade the sound quality? If you're listening to
music on the phone, you probably won't notice--or won't mind--the
mediocre sound quality.
The music playback interface on both phones is simple, but each
interface has multiple layers. Both were very slow. There was a
noticeable lag on the screen each time I made a selection: It took
about a second to go from one menu item (for example, Artist) to a
list of choices. And even though the phones support Bluetooth, you
can't transfer music wirelessly.
If you get an incoming call while listening to music, both phones
automatically pause the song. To resume playback, you select Play. The
handsets are bundled with earbuds, but ones provided by Sony are way
more comfortable than the earbuds that Motorola supplies. Sony's are
small and have a soft, rubberized covers. The Rokr earbuds are hard,
even with their foamy cover; and they were too big for my ears.
Positive Image
White is the new black: The W800i Walkman is white with orange around
the edges, while the Rokr sports a pearly white finish with light gray
edges. The Walkman phone is smaller and looks cooler than the Rokr,
and at 3.6 ounces it's slightly lighter than the 3.8-ounce Rokr.
The W800i Walkman works better as a camera phone: The back side is
designed like a standard digital camera with a small flash and lens.
When you take a picture, ideally you hold the phone horizontally; when
you do, the shutter button is at the top right, just as if you're
using a standard camera.
The W800i is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, which worked fine on
my informal shots. Viewing the files on my PC monitor, the pictures
looked a little better than most images I've taken on lower-resolution
camera phones. But some colors were off and the exposure on some
images was dark. The Rokr's photo quality was worse, in part because
it has a low-power VGA camera that captures less than a million
pixels. Some of my shots with the Rokr were grainy and dark.
Final Call
On a musical level, both phones performed well. The Rokr's ITunes
compatibility is a nice bonus, especially for current ITunes users.
However, the W800i Walkman phone accommodates my needs a little
better: It has comfy earbuds, takes slightly better pictures, and
looks good. Alas, it's too darn expensive. If Sony Ericsson could sign
up a carrier that could mark down the price, I'd be a happier camper.
For more reviews of mobile phones, visit our Info Center on PDAs &
Cell Phones:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/inf...x,00
.asp
Have a question or comment? Write to Grace Aquino:
dialedin at pcworld.com
Read Grace Aquino's "Dialed In" columns:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/col...,5,tk,bo,00.asp
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"The pressure is outrageous. Everyone is picked apart and it's so superficial and not real. I'm not superskinny and not overweight. I'm just normal."
-- Hilary Duff
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