GREEN TEA WORLD!!: DiGi AND SONY ERICSSON W8 PRESS LAUNCH

The world's first Android-powered Walkman smartphone has finally arrived on the Malaysian soil. Sony Ericsson W8 (also referred as Sony Ericsson Xperia W8 in certain market) is the latest invention for which Sony Ericsson is hoping to be able to revive the market interests on the culture of "Walkman" or music-based mobile phone. The revival takes us to the next level and Sony Ericsson is presenting and marketing W8 as the first phone from the Walkman series to run on Android OS.

It was first been released in the early of May and DiGi is strengthening their market share on the competitive digital music sector by launching the smartphone, while integrating it with the existing DiGiMusic(TM).

On 5th of July 2011 at the Mist Club, Bangsar; DiGi and Sony Ericsson unveiled the metallic red W8 version to the press in a soft and moderate press launch of the much awaited smartphone. Courtesy of invites from Nuffnang Malaysia, GTB was there to witness the press launch and had my first hands on working around the phone. Details on the phone right after the gallery of pictures during the event; both after the jump.

GALLERY OF EVENTS

Watch Kugiran D'Tepi Pantai performs "Bunyi Gitar":

PHONE REVIEW

Sony Ericsson is taking itself into another familiar zone of mediocre when they try to bring creativity and the "awesomeness" factors merging together into this W8. It is an intriguing concept of revamping the Walkman series by incorporating the much beloved Android OS into the model, but that technical-merging does very little to make it an awesome phone itself. Instead, the first glance on this phone will never let you to be unsure if this W8 looks anything similar to X8. Downright, the first disappointment - W8 marks a rather quiet announcement from Sony Ericsson because there is no revamp of design curves to differentiate this from X8.

The second disappointment must be directed to its choice of Android software. Instead of going for more advance version, the people down at the Sony Ericsson lab decided to put this with Android 2.1 Eclair. Simply to say, the W8 users will stuck in the time warp by going retro back in the days of Android revolution. I personally think that incorporating Android 2.2 (Froyo) or 2.3 (Gingerbread) would have been a decent choice of all.

W8 may have lack the quality in terms of OS choice and the curves, but it is a rather average phone to begin with. It is equipped with HVGA resolution (320 x 480) touch screen, running on Android 2.1 Eclair with 600 MHz processor and 168MB RAM. For browsing experience, W8 is 2G and 3G enabled plus ability to access WiFi, GPRS, HSDPA and EDGE. Standby time runs at 446 hours (18.5 days), talktime at 476 minutes (8 hours) and music playback for 24 hours. It also has a 3.2 Megapixel camera packed on its back, albeit no flash for the camera. An astounding news is that W8 lacks Flash and Java.

Touch screen property is quite smooth and not jagged. The home screen of the phone has four navigation shortcuts on its four-corner - that's a smart move. Social media junkie will have Timescape(TM) integrated but I shall comment less since I did not tried this feature that day. Typing seems pretty flow-able, but people who has big thumbs and fingers may find it hard to handle the typing. With a low spec on its processor specs, certain high-end apps are totally a no-no if you wants to install it. Since it is a Walkman series, it is made to awe you on its music department. Infinite Button is incorporated into the MP3 experience for users to learn for more information and content.

In the nutshell, Sony Ericsson W8 is an affordable, on average Walkman phone attempting to be "smart". The down side is that W8 sounds small on its bigger technicality issues of Android choice and lack of ambitious design. However, it feels slightly better when you use it but nothing more than just a little gadget for revamping the era of Walkman and MP3 experience. Not a bad phone if you consider having an MP3, Android and mobile phone at the same time - but exclusively not elegant or awesome!

If you are interested in getting Sony Ericsson W8, check this link at DiGi and learn more.