Sony Ericsson W705

Call us jaded hacks, but when we opened up the box of the Sony Ericsson W705 we did so with a feeling of tired familiarity.

SE has unleashed countless Walkman handsets onto the market since it launched the range a few years ago and each one has promised to improve dramatically on its predecessor. The actual enhancements have been slight at best.

In many respects, the W705 continues this trend. Some aspects of the handset are unlikely to cause anyone’s jaw to drop: the bog-standard 3.2 megapixel camera, a paltry 120MB of internal memory and the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack all contribute to that unwelcome feeling of déjà-vu.

Cradling the phone in your hands results in mixed feelings: it’s incredibly light at 98 grams, but the plastic casing feels a little cheap and nasty - an impression which is in direct conflict with what you eyes are telling you: the W705 looks fantastic from a design perspective.

The sliding mechanism is solid and reassuring, but unfortunately what it exposes is less pleasant. The keypad is a disappointing mess of bunched keys and the lack of actual ‘buttons’ (it’s just a flat plastic membrane) means that texting at speed results in a worrying number of botched key presses.

However, in other areas this phone takes massive strides. It comes with wi-fi, for example - something that's almost unheard of in such a modestly-priced mobile.

While wireless communication is commonplace on the pricier smartphones, its inclusion here will undoubtedly cause something of a mini-revolution in the mobile phone market. Expect to see a flood of budget devices with wi-fi as standard.

Being able to access services such as the ultra-useful Google Maps and everyone’s favourite time-sink YouTube on a phone of this calibre is something of a revelation. The only negative thing is that viewing these applications through the 320 x 240 pixel 2.4 inch display is sometimes awkward - especially if you’ve previously dabbled with these features on the iPhone and Android G1.

Naturally, we can’t review a Walkman handset without addressing the music prowess of the phone, and in reference to the W750, the phrase that instantly springs to mind is ‘service as normal’. SE’s Walkman media player continues to make baby steps in terms of functionality and this iteration - which is Version 3.0, if you’re at all interested - is as good as it’s ever been.

Shake control (something that made its appearance some time ago) is included: holding down a small button atop the device and flicking your wrist allows you to move through your music library.

With only 120MB of on-board storage there isn’t going to be a massive collection to sift through, although predictably there’s support for memory cards and SE kindly included a moderately spacious 4GB variant with the phone we reviewed.

The aforementioned lack of a 3.5mm jack continues to stupefy us - surely such a feature is required for a music phone to be taken seriously - but the headphones bundled with the W705 are at least of an impressive quality, which mitigates this complaint slightly.

From a gaming perspective, the big news about the W705 is that it comes bundled with the Zeemote JS1 wireless controller.

Unfortunately, the review unit we had didn’t come with this innovative little device so we weren’t able to put it through its paces, but the phone boasts excellent 3D capabilities as well as accelerometer control, so we envisage that with the addition of the Zeemote the W705 will be a particularly enticing proposition for gaming fans.

The W705 is a pretty perplexing mixture of negative and positive features: we love the inclusion of wi-fi, the aesthetics are top-notch and the promise of a free Zeemote is also something to be applauded.

Sadly these positives are neutralised by myriad shortcomings, including a poor keypad and an unimpressive camera.

Even so, this remains a thoroughly attractive option for those of you that are looking to gain cutting-edge technology but don’t want to break the bank in the process.