Sony Ericsson's W205 - affordable mobile music

The Sony Ericsson W205
The Sony Ericsson W205

Sony Ericsson has decided that not everyone wants (or can afford) a 42MP full touchscreen mobile phone with 80TB of storage, and instead has released the W205 Walkman slider phone.

This handset, with its 1.3MP camera and 5MB of onboard storage (with the option to upgrade to a 2GB M2 memory card... you'll probably want to as 5MB will hold roughly one song.)

But as a handset from the Walkman stable at Sony Ericsson it comes with the normal set of features, including TrackID that can name tunes when you play them, an FM radio and record songs from the airwaves to use as a ringtone.

Emerging

In a hint that the W205 is designed for the emerging markets (ie affordable and robust) the phone also has multiple phonebooks, so a number of people can use the handset and have their own personal experience, as well as torch functionality (which is probably a brighter screen rather than the phone bursting into flames).

Despite the lack of 3G connectivity, it still has an integrated Opera Mini web browser, so you'll be able to look at your favourite sites, albeit a little bit slowly.

"The W205 is a stylish slider phone allowing you to enjoy your music wherever you are – whether it's on the bus, at college or chilling in the park," revealed Timo Maassmann, marketing business manager at Sony Ericsson.

"You can also share more than music with the 1.3 megapixel camera. [Probably pictures]. Capture the action in stills or video and send them to friends via MMS or via Bluetooth [Ah yes, pictures. And video]."

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.