We reviewed Sony’s original Walkman phone (W800i) back in November. The W810i is a minor update with a sleek black finish, much sharper than the previous ivory and orange. Physically, the chassis has few notable changes beyond shortcut buttons being better laid out: making virtually all features accessible in two clicks without reprogramming menus. The excellent two megapixel camera is now virtually flush with the back, and speaker grilles have appeared to improve loudspeaker performance. Sound is impressive considering the size, though the bass is weak, not surprisingly.

As before, the wired hands-free adapter has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and Sony bundles some respectable ear phones to use with it. Transferring music to the phone is done with the clunky Disc2Phone application over USB or Bluetooth. Both MP3 and AAC formats are supported. Disappointingly, there’s no WMA support but a generous 512MB MemoryStick Duo is included.

Elsewhere, the phone is now Quad band and EDGE is supported. We found it lasted five days under middling usage before needing to be recharged. Fans of the legendary T610 will warm to this phone as a great-looking, great-functioning update. It’s a shame there’s no 3.2 megapixel camera as with its sibling K790i but there’s no bulky lens cap in return. If you’re new to phones the W810i is a great, easy-to-use choice even when ignoring the music features. There’s little reason to upgrade unless your previous Sony Ericsson is approaching three years of age, though.