Shopping Guide: W550i or W800i

Though there hasn’t been an official press launch, the Christmas gnomes (elves make the toys; gnomes put them in stores) have been slowly displaying the new Sony Ericsson W550i Walkman Phone. The 550i is a marriage between the hinge-swiveling S700i and the W800i Walkman phone features.

I managed to take some shots below comparing the W800i to the W550i. As the Christmas season gets closer, tech shoppers may feel daunted by the arrival of new phone models because it resets their convictions of having made up their mind to buy “insert phone brand and model here.”

One such apprehension is the new W550i. It looks cooler with the swivel thing, it is much cheaper by around US $100.00 and it seems to be able to do the same thing the W800i does.

The W550i seems to look much smaller (93 x 46.5 x 22.5 mm) than the W800i in posters. This is actually not very true. It occupies more or less the same space as the W800i but sports the new “spoiler” design which allows you to hang the phone over your neck as a fashion statement. The phone is also slightly heavier which may be due to the presence of a second speaker located on the phone’s side.

I don’t know why SE included external stereo audio for this phone when you can just connect the bundled In-Ear headphones. But at least your ringtones will be in surround sound. The W800i does not come with a second external speaker. Strange, but true. Both ways.

Another big difference is that the W550i only has 256MB of memory and NO %^#$&& EXPANSION SLOT. This can be a huge turn off for music lovers and for those who use their phones as flash drives. Big. Turn. Off. The W800i has an expansion slot with a free 512MB Memory Stick.

I’m not really a fan of camera phones but the W550i has a 1.3MP camera that takes decent photos. You can view a quick sample pic I took (highest quality) here. Compare these pics to the N90 and W800i camera.

Well, my final verdict is that if you’re so craving for a Walkman phone but can’t afford the hefty ~ $450 price tag, you can opt for the ~ US $350.00 W800i Lite W550i which gives you no expansion options, a 0.7MP camera quality drop (like it really matters), a more compact swivel form factor and an extra Stereo Widening Effect speaker.