The Sony Ericsson W580i fits nicely in to the middle of the well renowned Walkman range as a slim music focused slide phone. It comes complete with a 512MB Memory Stick M2 card in the box in addition to stereo headphones, PC software for managing your music library and a USB data cable to transfer them.

The Sony Ericsson W580i comes in four colours, but none of these make fathoming out the keys on the front any easier. There is a mix of music player controls and menu function keys which take some getting used to, but this improves with familiarity. Slide the top up to reveal the closely packed number keys needed to dial out. The Sony Ericsson W580i feels well engineered and of solid build, something that can't always be said of its competitors.
Utilising the Walkman 2.0 music player users can create play lists and organise favourite tunes, but an FM radio is also provided and this benefits from RDS station information. Listening to the excellent sound quality is possible via the wired headphones supplied or using Bluetooth A2DP wire free items available separately. The W580i is also capable of identifying music using the clever Track ID service which can recognise a song, then send you the artist and album information ensuring you never miss out on the latest hit.

In addition to the obvious music credentials the Sony Ericsson W580i benefits from a 2 megapixel camera, image from which are well represented on the 256,000 colour TFT display. Network coverage should not be a problem with the quad band GSM antenna, and web browsing is aided by EDGE class 10.

In all the W580i is a logical choice for those wishing to only carry one device when on the move but it is bettered in each area by other handsets now 5 megapixel cameras are the norm and larger memory music players drop in price.
A true phone of all trades but master of none.