SONY ERICSSON MIX WALKMAN LIVE MUSIC

The Walkman brand has a special place in the heart of every old school music lover, but its fame and glory have long started to fade away. Still, there is a bunch of music-oriented phones made by Sony Ericsson that keep the embers alive, and the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman is exactly one of them. It is a feature phone aimed at youngsters, who are passionate for music, but cannot afford something flashier. However, going over its list of features shows that it offers a fair amount of bang for the buck. 

Firstly, it's a chunky-but-light candybar phone with a curved, rubberised plastic back that sits fine in the palm but doesn't feel particularly solidly built. Style-wise, it apes the standard black appearance of its higher-specced stablemates, but comes with one of a range of plastic customisation bands that we can only imagine is intended to appeal to the young music-loving audience the phone's aimed at.

Still, the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman certainly isn't ugly, it's just more of a non-descript pebble than a thing of beauty, that's all. The back is smooth and the chassis well balanced, and a 3-inch (400 x 240 pixels) capacitive touchscreen is squeezed into the tiny 3.8 x 2.1 x 0.6 frame that is dwarfed even by our small hands.

Soft key-wise there's a power/lock button on the left-hand side, a thin volume rocker that's almost impossible to find while you're talking, a camera key, home key and two Walkman-related shortcuts embedded into the top of the phone, surrounding the 3.5mm jack.

Powered by Sony Ericsson's own Java-based platform, the capacitive touchscreen (running the Touch UI) is a technological bonus of sorts, offering decently bright picture quality, but the general navigation of the phone isn't particularly smooth or quick. Attempting to scroll through the menu with a light touch, for example, often leads to accidentally opening programmes you didn't mean to.

Despite no 3G internet connection, it does come equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity, which helps internet browsing speeds immensely. Given the target group of young, music-loving people who don't want to spend a great deal on an powerful handset, the internet experience is going to be secondary to the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman, anyway.

Additionally the phone features a 3.2MP camera with video functionality, microSD slot (up to 32GB) and micro USB port and an external speaker that is astonishingly loud for such a little piece of kit. All in all, the specs are not too shabby for a feature phone.

SPECIFICATION

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - WT13i
	Announced	2011, June
	Status	Available. Released 2011, August

Size	Dimensions	95.8 x 52.8 x 14.3 mm
	Weight	88 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 400 pixels, 3.0 inches (~155 ppi pixel density)
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity
		- Scratch-resistant surface

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Phonebook	Yes, Photocall
	Call records	Yes
	Internal	256 MB (100 MB user available)
	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory

Data	GPRS	Up to 115 kbps
	EDGE	Up to 200 kbps
	3G	No
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Camera	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, check quality
	Video	Yes, QVGA
	Secondary	No

Features	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Black with pink cloud band, Black with pink band, Black with green bird band, Black with green band
	GPS	No
	Java	Yes
		- SNS integration - Walkman player (MP3/eAAC+/WMA/MP4/H.263) - SensMe - TrackID music recognition - Document viewer - Voice memo - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 465 h
	Talk time	Up to 9 h 40 min
	Music play	Up to 13 h