Overview:
Sony Ericsson W508 is a new clamshell phone and in fact it is very similar to Sony Ericsson T707 which we recently reviewed. The two phones have similar specs, design and performance and the difference between them is that the Sony Ericsson T707 is more women-oriented. The W508 has Shake control, Gesture control and multi-tasking support.

Sony Ericsson W508 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
+ 3.15 megapixel camera
+ 2.2″ 256K-color TFT display with 240 x 320 pixel resolution
+ Secondary monochrome OLED external display
+ Touch sensitive external music control keys
+ Hot-swappable M2 card slot, 1 GB included
+ Walkman music player with Shake control and SensMe
+ FM radio with RDS
+ Gesture control

Sony Ericsson W508 cons:
- Camera with disappointing image quality
- Low-quality video recording (QVGA@15fps)
- No web browser screen auto rotate
- No document viewer/editor

The design:
Sony Ericsson W508 measures 93.5 x 50 x 14 mm and weighs 98 grams. Inside the Sony Ericsson W508 you will see the main 2.2” display working in QVGA resolution. The screen displays 256K colors and had very good sunlight legibility. Above the display is the video call camera along with the earpiece. The keyboard is very comfortable to use and the button are placed in a way that makes errorless writing almost certain. The left side of the Sony Ericsson W508 features the FastPort, whereas the right side houses the volume rocker and lock slider. On the front of the phone are music controls and the secondary display. Both displays are covered with scratch resistant surface, yet the external one is monochromatic. It is very handy and shows you time, battery information, network type and signal strength. Although the phone looks cheap it seems very durable.

Performance:
The Sony Ericsson W508 has quite a decent battery performance and good reception. Also the voices are always audible while making phone calls. The phonebook in Sony Ericsson W508 can store up to 1000 contacts with multiple fields for information. Although the name and surname are written in only one filed you can search contact by either of those and the phone knows what you intend to find. The Sony Ericsson W508 features gesture control which means that if you get a call the phone activates the front camera and uses it as a motion detector. So when you wave your hand in front of the cell phone the call is silenced. Messaging with the Sony Ericsson W508 is a pleasure and the phone supports push email. It also supports threaded messaging and you can view it as the so called conversation style.

Multimedia:
The Sony Ericsson W508 has the Walkman 3.0 music player and supports shake control. The music library can be sorted by artists, genre, album. The music player displays album art, or visual effects. The audio quality is really good so the Sony Ericsson W508 may be used as a MP3 player replacement. The phone has also radio with RDS and can remember up to 20 radio stations. Both the music player and radio may be minimized to work in the background.
Sony Ericsson W508 comes with the Access NetFront web browser which makes surfing the interned a real pleasure. All the websites are rendered very well and thanks to the virtual pointer and ‚find on page’ feature you can easily and quickly get to the most important information.

Camera / Image quality:
The Sony Ericsson W508 comes with 3.15 megapixel fixed focus digital camera built in. The maximum image resolution is 2048 x 1536 and there is no flash so don’t count on taking excellent photos in low light. Although the phone has no GPS receiver the cell inserts geolocalization information right into the photos. There is a bunch of manual settings such as white balance, color effects and shooting mode. In fact, almost entire camera interface and performance is identical to the recently reviewed Sony Ericsson T707.

Menus / ease of use:
The menu structure in Sony Ericsson W508 is quite standard. It has the usual theme-dependent icon layout. The entire User Interface is visually appealing thanks to the choice of a few flash themes and it works fast. This Sony Ericsson cell phone can also work in flight mode, yet it requires a SIM card. The Sony Ericsson W508, of course, comes with the usual time saving applications such as calendar, unit converter, timer, stopwatch. Additionally, you get the Walkmate – useful for sports-oriented people, AccuWeather and Music Quiz.
Selected Sony Ericsson W508 features and specifications:
Network

• GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• HSDPA 2100

Screen

• 256, 000 colors, TFT
• 2.2 inches, 240 x 320 pixels
• Auto rotate accelerometer sensor
• Scratch-resistant

Memory

• 1,000 x 24 entries: with multiple contacts storage per entry
• 30 (received, missed & dialed calls)
• Internal memory: 100 MB
• Memory Stick: Micro (M2) up to 16 GB

Data Service & Connectivity

• EDGE Class 10
• GPRS Class 10
• 3G 384 kbps
• Bluetooth v 2.0
• USB

Camera

• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
• Video recording

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-Ion
• Talk time up to: 10 h
• Standby time up to: 400 h
• Video call time up to: 2 h

Others

• SMS, MMS, IM, EMS, Email
• WAP 2.0, xHTML, HTML (NetFront)
• Speaker phone
• Organizer
• Built-in hands free
• T9 function
• FM-Radio with RDS
• Walkman media player
• Image viewer & editor

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

BlackBerry Bold 9000, Sony Ericsson T707

Overview:
Sony Ericsson T707 has excellent connectivity, 100MB built-in memory and support for up to 16 GB memory cards, FM radio with RDS, 2.2-inch main display and a secondary monochrome external display. Moreover, the phone is available in 5 different colors and supports gesture control.

Sony Ericsson T707 pros:
+ 3.15 megapixel camera with Cell-ID geotagging
+ Basic multi-tasking support
+ 2.2″ 256K-color TFT display
+ Scratch resistant secondary external display
+ Hot-swappable M2 card slot (up to 16 GB)
+ Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
+ FM radio with RDS
+ Gesture control

Sony Ericsson T707 cons:
- The light effects are too dim
- Camera doesn’t have auto focus or full-featured LED flash
- Low-res video recording (QVGA@15fps)
- External display not legible under sunlight

The design:
Sony Ericsson T707 measures 93.0 x 50.0 x 14.1 mm and weighs 95 grams so it is very pocketable. The keypad is very comfortable and all the buttons have pleasant feel and feedback. The phone generally handles very well. On the left side of the Sony Ericsson T707 you will find the FastPort without any cover, whereas on the right side you can see the volume rocker. The back, as usual, features the Sony Ericsson logo and a loudspeaker grill. As it is made of matte plastic it attracts fingerprints. The front panel is home to the second, 3.15 megapixel camera lens, external display and some light effects. The external display is supposedly covered with a scratch resistant surface so you should not worry about it too much.

Performance:
The Sony Ericsson T707 can work in flight mode, but it requires a SIM card and a restart of the phone. The phonebook in the Sony Ericsson T707 can store up to 1000 contacts with multiple fields. You can choose to view only contacts from your card, or the phone but bot both at the same time. Although the name and surname of a given contact are written in one files the phone searches both so no matter what you type it is very easy to find the desired contact. Unfortunately, the Sony Ericsson T707 does not support any type of document files, such as .doc, or .pdf.

Multimedia:
Sony Ericsson T707 features the flash-based Media Center which you can use to listen to music, view photos and watch videos. As I mentioned before the phone does not have screen auto rotation so you will have to do it manually. The music player has a few equalizer presets and very decent audio quality. The video player supports the most basic features such as fast forwarding and rewinding.
The Sony Ericsson T707’s 3.15 megapixel camera can take photos of up to 2048 x 1536 pixels. As the camera has neither autofocus nor flash you cannot expect miracles. Of course you get a basic set of manual controls (white balance, modes, effects) and the camera supports geotagging, yet all in all the camera disappoints. You can also record videos but only up to QVGA resolution and at 15 fps.
Sony Ericsson T707 has quite a good web browser with virtual pointer, ‚find on page’ feature and zoom. The web browsing experience is quite good as the pages are rendered visible even on such a small display.

Menus / ease of use:
Sony Ericsson T707 has a standard Sony Ericsson menu structure, so you get the usual menu layouts and features. The overall impression of the user interface is positive, you get a few themes to chose from and in that a few flash-based. However, unlike many other modern phones the Sony Ericsson T707 lacks accelerometer so there is no screen auto rotation. Of course, the phone comes with a bunch of time saving features such as unit converter, calculator, calendar, alarms.
All in all, if you use a cell phone for making phone calls and not for watching videos, or showing off the Sony Ericsson T707 might be just the right choice for you.
Selected Sony Ericsson T707 features and specifications:
Form factor Clamshell
Color Black, Blue, Pink
Network
Phone Network EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA (3G), UMTS (3G)
Service 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
Connectivity
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared No
Wi-Fi (WLAN) No
USB Yes
Fax / Data Yes
Display
Main display Color QVGA
Color display 262144 colors
Dimensions 2.2 in.
Resolution 240 x 320 pixels
External display Yes
Memory
Internal memory 100MB
External memory Yes
Memory slots Yes
Storage types MemoryStick Micro
Basic
Battery Standard Li-Ion battery
Standby time 400 hours
Talk time 10 hours
Calling
Vibrate alert Yes
Photo ID No
Ringtones AAC, MP3, Polyfone
Camera
Camera Yes
Megapixels 3.2 megapixels
Digital zoom 3.2x
Optical zoom No
Auto focus No
Flash No
Recording video Yes
Messaging
SMS Yes
MMS Yes
T9 text function Yes
E-mail Yes
Internet browsing Yes
Entertainment
FM radio Yes
Java Yes
Audio player MP3
Video player Streaming
Features
Add ringtones Yes
Organiser Alarm, Calendar, Calculator, Stopwatch, Tasks, Timer
Video call Yes
Other features Gesture control, Day and Night theme, TrackID, Speakerphone, Flight mode, Google maps, Photo Geo-tagging