March 2, 2005 Sony Ericsson today kick-started its entry into the mobile music market with the announcement of the W800, the first Walkman branded mobile phone. It will now be possible to listen to music, handle phone calls and take great pictures and video, all with one device and with no compromise on quality. The Sony Ericsson W800 is the first product to combine a mobile phone, a high quality digital music player with up to 30 hours' battery life, and a 2 Megapixel camera. All of this is packaged in a slim, lightweight device with ultra-stylish design.
"We looked carefully at what people want from a mobile digital music player and have designed a product that fits the bill," says Rikko Sakaguchi, Senior Vice President, Product and Application Planning of Sony Ericsson. "The W800 has great sound quality, is easy to use, has superb battery life and can store a large amount of music. It's an attractive, desirable device that combines high quality phone, camera, music and games player."
Sony's world famous Walkman mobile music heritage makes the W800 a serious contestant in the digital music player market. Sound quality is excellent. The W800 is supplied with quality stereo headphones and it is compatible with the proven, industry standard MP3 and AAC music file formats. Storage capacity is also plentiful as the supplied 0,5GB Memory Stick Duo gives capacity for around 150 music tracks, or 10-12 full length CDs from the user's existing CD collection. And loading music into the player is a breeze thanks to the supplied Disk2Phone software, which enables quick, convenient transfer of music CD's onto the phone via a PC. Keeping the collection up to date is no trouble at all as the software makes it easy to browse, sort, find, transfer and delete music files.
The W800's intuitive interface makes it a breeze to use the music player and the functionality of phone, music player and camera are carefully integrated. Also, owners need never miss a call when listening to music, as the phone ring is played through the stereo headphones. If the user chooses to take the call the music is paused for the call's duration. The music player is operated with just one Direct Music button that plays, pauses and stops tracks, and player and phone can be used independently of each other, so for example the user can switch the phone off for a plane journey while still enjoying the music player.
Battery life is a key consideration for owners and the W800's battery has enough stamina for the longest journeys - it will play for 15 hours' if the phone is switched on, or up to 30 hours if it isn't.
Although weighing in at less than 100g, the W800 also offers a 2 Megapixel camera complete with autofocus, picture light, active lens cover and digital still camera interface, so great photos can be taken in a variety of conditions.
Users can extend their use of the W800 with useful accessories such as the MMC-60 Music Cable which connects the device to play out on a stereo hi-fi, and the HCA-60 Advanced Car Handsfree which allows music to be played through car speakers.
The W800 will come in the two variants: a W800i Triple Band 900/1800/1900 Mhz and a W800c Triple Band 900/1800/1900 MHz for China Mainland