Jan. 18, 2006
Some product names are here to stay, especially at Sony. For example, the original Mavica name (derived from “ma gnetic vi deo ca mera”) was first given to Sony's analog still video cameras in the early 1980's. Then Sony logically stuck the same label on its popular floppy disk-based digital cameras in 1997, and expanded the brand several years later to include its line of mini-CD-R and DVD-recording digital cameras. All of that makes sense, but why on earth would Sony Ericsson call its latest 2MP camera phone, the W810, a Walkman?
 I still have my first Walkman portable cassette player tucked away in a box in the basement. It got plenty of use over the years as my primary sound system on several cross-country motorcycle trips and several photo excursions. It was eventually replaced by a Walkman CD player, and more recently by a portable satellite radio. I can understand Sony passing the Walkman moniker on to its current standalone CD and MP3 players, since they are the direct descendants of the original Walkman. But the W810 is an obvious camera-phone, with a decent MP3 added. (So why isn't is it called a Talkman or Cameraman?)
Sony Ericsson is positioning the W810 as just the opposite—a great MP3 player with a camera and phone added (despite the fact that Sony Ericsson is primarily a cell-phone manufacturer). I won't win this argument, so on to the camera details. The W810 features a 2MP camera with an autofocus lens, some manual exposure controls, video/sound recording, and a 1.9-inch color LCD. It also has a bright photo light (not to be confused with a real flash) that's good for a few feet in the dark. For a camera phone, it ships with a relatively large 512MP Memory Stick Pro Duo, which should give you lots of room to store compressed 2MP images—if you don't take up all that space with MP3 and AAC music files.
This camera phone acts just like a straight-forward digital camera when taking pictures, with screen menus automatically switching from cell phone or MP3 controls to camera. From the front, most subjects won't know you're taking photos with your camera phone.
On the phone side, the W810 is well connected, with world-spanning Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) network compatibility and high speed EDGE Class 10 technology for data and Internet access. It also includes Bluetooth and Infrared, and a USB 2.0 connection for syncing your calendar and contacts with your computer, or for rapid download of music files. The W810 also includes Disc2Phone music management software that lets you RIP music CDs straight to your phone's memory card, and music can also be downloaded directly to the phone from specific over-the-air services.
In addition to playing music, the W810 also plays MPEG4 movies and 3D games (albeit on a tiny screen), and it ships with a decent pair of headphones.
While the price for the W810 will vary based on service provider and contract subsidy, expect to pay under $500. That's still a bit much for a 2MP camera phone, but at least this one can keep you entertained in between shots and calls.
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