The Sony Ericsson W980

Sony Ericsson has plumped up its Walkman line just a tad today with the introduction of the W980, a pretty well power-packed flip sporting 8GB of internal storage, a generously sized external display, and something the company calls "Walkman on Top." The technology (if you can really call it that) replicates the music player interface in its entirety on the external display, allowing full player control without popping the phone open. Other goodies include an FM transmitter and PlayNow support -- a Walkman phone through and through, if we do say so ourselves. Look for it to launch in Q3 in quadband EDGE flavor with HSDPA 2100 (read: no good for use in the US). Sorry about the microscopic photo, by the way, SE's site is having difficulty at the moment.

[Image via Sony Ericsson Blog]

[John @ Feb 10th 2008 1:57PM]

hm, this post seems to be displaying twice on the engadget homepage...

[robert @ Feb 11th 2008 2:00AM]

Well, that must be because Engadget is just a bunch of Apple-hating, SONY FANBOYS!!!!!

[Isaac @ Feb 10th 2008 2:02PM]

ZOMFG, DEJA VU! SOMETHING HAS CHANGED IN THE MATRIX! Tell neo!

[John Stracke @ Feb 10th 2008 3:13PM]

My Nokia N75 already has something like "Walkman On Top"—it's not the exact same interface, but the only functionality that's left out is editing playlists. Very nice.

[Hung @ Feb 10th 2008 3:40PM]

No 3.5 mm jack on a music-centric phone.

Sigh...

[Mehul @ Feb 11th 2008 12:18AM]

They all come with a microphone adapter which supports 3.5mm.

[Hung @ Feb 11th 2008 4:11PM]

You mean they all come with cords that destroy sound quality. Yeah, I know; I know a little too well.

I'm really impressed at SE's love for and appreciation of currency. Except for Motorola and Samsung, no one else releases a music centric phone and makes consumers pay extra for an adapter when a 3.5 mm jack is more practical and reasonable. It's especially difficult to lose and have to repurchase a component when it's built into the device, wouldn't you say?

[gershom w wynn @ Feb 10th 2008 6:41PM]

If anyone was wondering what "Orange Girl" is.......http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE57A16D246A87120C3972D57C1BB7EE51EFE5AFB86112F0456D3B82D46BF0946D868CDDB81B3E574B466ADFF2EAC1609D9C9EA5CF8DE765D40&sql=10:g9foxz9gldte

[roole @ Feb 10th 2008 8:36PM]

No one is.

[Panathas17 @ Feb 10th 2008 11:52PM]

Nope, nahah, not one person, nope...

[Nestor C. @ Feb 11th 2008 2:54PM]

the link on the press release doesn't work, here's the correct one:

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/products/phoneportfolio/specification/key.MobilePhoneWrapper.W980i

note that it says "Possible limited market availability"

[Naz @ Feb 29th 2008 4:35AM]

Hi!
Im thinking of buying a phone/ Mp3 abd i like the ide if Sony Ericsson W980. is it a good fhone?