Sony Ericsson W705 Walkman: Socket to me

By Nate Lanxon on 06 November 2008, 11:45am

Sony Ericsson has just announced its final phone of the year -- the W705 Walkman. It's an aluminium-crafted slider with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3.2-megapixel camera and LED flash.

In terms of form factor, it's got the typical Sony Ericsson haven't-we-seen-this-a-dozen-times-before look and feel, combined with the usual 2008 run-of-the-mill specs: a 240x320-pixel screen, a 4GB Memory Stick Micro M2 card to complement a meagre internal memory, a fixed-focus camera lens, an LED flash and stereo Bluetooth.

But it's sure as hell a pretty melon farmer, and we applaud So Eric for injecting Wi-Fi and GPS into the mix, not to mention the pre-loading of Google Maps.

It's just a shame that, once again, it's a music phone with no headphone socket. It instantly chokes us with bitter tears. We just don't understand Sony Ericsson's logic on this matter, and never have. In fact no-one has. Proprietary headphone sockets are like flashers: no one wants one anywhere near them, and we're yet to give a flasher a good review.

Apart from that though, we think this could be a cracking handset. If it's anything like the W760i from earlier this year, we'll be erecting our this-is-a-phone-to-snag flag and saluting its ass off.

But for the love of all things good, pure and sacred, in 2009 we don't want to see any of this proprietary headphone crud. If you bought a cat and it came without legs, you'd take it back. The same is true for music phones without headphone sockets. So come on, guys, make 2009 the year of 3.5mm. Then maybe in 2010 we can have a good version of Windows kthxlol!

Expect Q1 2009 availability on Orange, with prices to be announced in the new year. We'll have hands-ons with detailed specs for you as soon as humanly possible.