Sony Ericsson W380i review | Digital Camera
Sony Ericsson camera
T he built-in digital camera of the Sony Ericsson W380i has only 1.3 Megapixels at its disposal, which shows that the phone is of a slightly older generation. The megapixel race is the cause of mobile phone cameras like this getting somewhat out-dated before their time. Nor is it a camera with many setting possibilities. The only options the W380i offers are: night mode, white balance, picture quality, self-timer and some effects such as black and white and negative. When the light is extremely perfect, a sharp picture may appear in your album but in general, due to the lack of an auto focus, the quality of the captured pictures is disappointing. Do not try to use the 4x digital zoom that this camera offers, as it will reduce the quality even more. Macro and night photography is simply not possible with the W380i; there is no flash available, nor is there the possibility to adjust the ISO sensitivity. Add to this the small size of the monitor and it should be clear that I did not at all enjoy picture-taking with the Sony Ericsson W380i.
Sony Ericsson W380 battery
3.6 V Lithium-Ion battery
The Sony Ericsson W380i comes with a 3.6V Lithium Ion battery. I find the capacity of the battery rather disappointing, even if the talk-time is 7 hours and the standby time 300 hours according to the specifications. While testing, I had to recharge the phone as soon as after 4 days. This should definitely not be the case if you use your Sony Ericsson W380i as MP3 player. Try not to frequently discharge your phone entirely, since it reduces the life-span of the Lithium Ion battery.
SanDisk phone memory
Memory Stick Micro memory
The internal memory of the device is 14MB which is not sufficient if you use the Sony Ericsson W380i for what is was made for (besides calling of course): to store music and listen to it. Thankfully, the memory can be enhanced with a Memory Stick Micro memory card with a maximum capacity of 2GB. The memory card slot is found next to the SIM card. To place the card, the back cover has to be removed whilst the battery can stay in its place.
Sony Ericsson W380 software
Sony Ericsson PC Suite software
The Sony Ericsson PC Suite software enables access to all the files that are on the W380i. Do set your phone in the Phone mode when activating, so that the connection with PC Suite will be made. It is also possible to gain direct access to the memory card via the File transfer mode. In addition to the standard PC Suite items, the software CD carries a few extras such as; the Apple Quicktime player and Adobe Photoshop album SE, to store your captured pictures in an album on your computer. Transferring is quite fast, 40MB of files are transferred in 140 seconds.
W380i gesture control
T he Sony Ericsson W380i is highly praised because of its gesture control, a technique that enables refusing a call or setting the alarm on snooze by waving your hand over the phone. You are reading this correctly: you do not have to touch the device. There is a disadvantage to it; my experience with this function is that you really have to practice your wave techniques before getting it right. The function seemed to randomly work or not work at first. I soon found out that you really have to expose the phone to the light to ensure the sensor perceives the darkening of the light when waving over it. If it is fully dark, the lamp beside the camera lens will burn so the sensor will still notice the waving. However, you have to be quite creative and persistent to get it right, in fact, it might be just as quick to pick up the phone and reject the incoming call the normal way…
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