The Sony Ericsson W518a is one of the few Walkman handsets to find its way into a US carrier’s roster. It’s a good choice too, being a capable music player with a handful of useful features to boot.
Music quality is naturally a high point, offering a terrific onboard player with plenty of options, including a good range of equalizer settings, playlists, album art, airplane mode and stereo widening. If your own library of tunes doesn’t suffice, you can also enjoy the onboard FM tuner and XM Radio app, as well as AT&T’s broadband video and music services.
Controls are a particular focus on this phone, which responds to both movement, shakes and gesture control. The accelerometer-powered movements might seem an odd way to control the music player, but it makes 100% sense as soon as you get used to it.
As a phone, it fits in the usual range of basic handset features and messaging talents, to go with overall good voice calls. Conversations sound clear, although there is an occasionally buzzing present, at times. It supports POP3 email.
The clamshell form factor is well-done, with very good music controls outside the flap. Inside display panel is a 2.25-inch screen, with 320 x 240 resolution. UI looks good and intuitive, but the phone controls offer much to ask for (as is the usual issue with Sony Ericsson phones).
Hardware features include a 3.2 megapixel camera (great image quality, with plenty of options), a GPS tuner and 3G connectivity. It also comes pre-bundled with a lot of useful third-party apps, including Facebook, JuiceCaster and more. Unfortunately, it only offers a WAP browser.
Overall, the Sony Ericsson W518a is a very good entertainment phone. For the $49.99 price (with contract), it’s an especially attractive purchase, given the high-quality music experience and the wealth of onboard apps.
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