The lowdown

Although the W800i was almost single-handedly responsible for putting the Walkman brand back on the map and thereby securing itself a place in our hearts, it wasn't without flaws. The W810i makes steps to improve upon it but without straying too far from the original concept. It comes in a very smart black candy-bar design and boasts the same 512MB of removable Memory Stick PRO Duo, 262k colour screen and 2 megapixel camera. For entertainment you've got the Walkman system, compatible with AAC and MP3 format audio, FM and web browsing. For more office orientated tasks you've got the usual array of Sony Ericsson features including Bluetooth, Infrared, Calendar with Outlook synchronisation and a wealth of other minor tools.

What's good?

The numerous small improvements have made a great deal of difference; I particularly like the black design which, on top of looking fantastic, has a slightly rougher feel to it's surface. That makes button pressing and control accuracy somewhat better, which is always a good thing.

Something that has really annoyed me in the past has been Sony Ericsson's camera lens covers (not just limited to the W800i either); these not only have a tendency to pop open in your pocket and drain the battery but are almost impossible not to fiddle with when holding the phone to your ear. Apparently someone at Sony has finally cottoned on to the fact that this was a serious bore and the W810i comes blissfully free of any kind of lens cover.

Generally call quality is pretty decent although I have occasionally noticed a few faint background noises such as ticking and popping. In the most part though, the sound is a lot better than average. The screen also seems to be a bit brighter than previous incarnations - this means that with summer well on its way, you'll still be able to see what's on the screen when you're outside.

What's bad?

Surprise, surprise - the one thing that so desperately needs a make-over hasn't really been touched; namely the Disc2Phone software. Call it the mobile equivalent of SonicStage. While it is useful for converting incompatible formats like WMA, it does seem to take a rather unnecessary amount of time to complete the process and, for some reason, also faffs about with MP3 formats which shouldn't actually need any kind of conversion. In a sense then it is a blessing that the W810i still comes with a relatively small 512MB memory card (although that is still good for around 125 tracks) because otherwise it would take all week to get your music on to it. On the phone itself, the Walkman player is pretty good and easy to navigate through, however it does have a particularly peculiar idea of what 'shuffle' should mean.

Again like the W800i, the phone does have the essential 3.5mm headphone adaptor which is conveniently built in to a handsfree microphone part. The only problem is that this adaptor's cable is rather long, mainly because it needs to be near your face. If, therefore, you want to use an ordinary pair of headphones with it, you end up with way too much cable dangling from your person. I think that it would have been far more useful to have added some media player control to the adaptor as is the case with the LG Chocolate or better yet, integrate the 3.5mm jack into the handset itself. As it is, you can control most things from the side buttons on the handset but to reach them you'll be dipping into a tangled knot of wiring.

Do you need it?

So it still isn't quite perfect and the W810i will never actually be able to replace a dedicated MP3 player. That said, it is a great looking handset which is compact enough and light enough to serve your everyday tasks as well as holding a fairly substantial number of tunes. I think the W810i makes a great partner to something like the PSP because it can take on some of the memory burden - you can then leave your videos in the capable hands of the console and keep your music saved in the more immediately accessible area of the mobile itself.

As we learned from the W800i, it is perhaps unwise to have your judgement clouded by the Walkman aspect and remember that this single feature is backed up by a sturdy all round experience. The W810i has completely succeeded in its aim to iron out some of the kinks in the early Walkman handset.

Overview

Useful Links: Zoodex , www.sonyericsson.com Features: 262k colour display Memory Stick PRO Duo support (512MB included) Weight: 99g Dimensions: 100 x 46 x 19.5mm AAC and MP3 format compatibility GSM/EDGE conectivity Verdict: