New Flip Walkman.

Now I can’t dispute the fact that Sony Ericsson make good phones, in particular the camera quality and music players are pretty darn good. But why oh why did they decide to make their latest flip phone look like it does? Flip mobile phones were once all the rage, however they seem to have taken a back seat to slide phones which have become more and more popular.

Now the particular mobile in question is the Sony Ericsson W980i, it is a black flip walkman phone. It has good features with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 8GB internal memory (although this is it – it has no memory card slot for expansion), it is 3.5G HSDPA meaning your web browsing and downloading will be very quick, and of course it has the obvious Walkman player and FM radio.

The walkman player can be used well even when the flip is shut as there are external controls to play, pause and skip tracks on the front flip – as well as a display to show your current songs and messages about incoming calls and text messages. The Sony Ericsson W980i also has shake control to skip tracks with the mere shake of the phone, just like the W910 does.

It also has an FM transmitter like the recently announced Nokia N78 which means you can transmit the music on your phone to your car stereo or radio without the need for wires, just like the iTrip does for iPods.

While all that makes it seem like a great choice it is an acquired taste – it has a rather strange retro look to it, and without seeing it hands on it is difficult to tell if that is going to work and make it look quirky and attractive or if it is just going to look odd!

The Sony Ericsson W980i is due for release in late summer 2008, so watch out for it and make up your own mind on the unusual styling.