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Sony Ericsson W585i – same problems, new wrapping

Having fixed the keypad issue in the Sony Ericsson W580i, for some reason the manufacturer made the same mistake with the W585i (Linda) that is to replace it. I don’t know if they will change all faulty keypads, being aware of this problem, before these units reach retail stores or if Sony Ericsson will opt to let irritated owners crowd around service centers. Anyhow it will be very interesting to see the outcome.

The W585i is set to land in most regions in late August or early in September at a price point of 350 Euro, which is way too much. However the W580i was no different in terms of price and still managed to find a niche of its own and picked up a lot of followers along the way as its price kept falling down. The question is, what new features and attractions does the W585i bring to the table? First and foremost, it’s a 3G-enabled handset; secondly the loudspeaker is now mounted on the top edge, plus its volume has been boosted quite a bit. Then there is a 3.2 Mpix camera, which is pretty average in terms of image quality. All up, compared to the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, the W585i pales as a music playing offering, but we'll get to that later in this preview.

On the downside, the W585i utilizes cheap plastic, and its dark color schemes don’t look particularly appealing (although the white-and-red edition is pretty neat). Sadly, Sony Ericsson is trying to cut costs in every possible way these days in an effort to boost its profits, hence the W585i’s subpar plastic (which is way worse than that employed in the W580i). So it came as no surprise when my dark-grey prototype lost its pristine conditions in a couple of months. What’s worse, they are very unlikely to rectify this issue – Sony Ericsson prefers not to waste its time and resources on nonsense like that these days.

The handset’s software is nothing to write home about – same A200 with Walkman 3.0, FM-radio, bog-standard applications and Google Maps. Unfortunately, no sporty applications or hardware – truly, why would they bring about a competitor to their Sony Ericsson C702, it’s always better to make your portfolio as clear-cut as possible. But in my opinion it’s complete nonsense – a lot of consumers went for the W585i’s predecessor largely because of its pedometer. But apparently Sony Ericsson know better what we really need.

The W585i is a pretty late call, since the Nokia 5610 has been around for ages and its price has been on a downswing of late. And while the W585i will go for 50-80 Euros more, it won’t have much to offer – the 5610 already trumps it in terms of player functionality, camera and sales package. This way, the future of the Sony Ericsson W585i appears to be vaporous at best; but probably they haven’t thought about it much, releasing the remake of a marginally popular device. Hello? I can see no owners of the W580i lining up for such a steep upgrade.