Sony Ericsson Live breathes life into Walkman

The Gadget Show  Monday 22 August 2011

The Walkman is dead – long live the Walkman! When Sony finally killed off the Sony Walkman earlier this year it seemed as though we had seen the last of the iconic music system brand. Never fear, the Walkman didn’t reach the ripe old age of 32 without learning to cling on for dear life. The Walkman name lives on in the form of a range of phone handsets from Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman (exactly the kind of catchy name the kids will love, no doubt) is the first off the block. This Android smartphone has a 3.2-inch screen, 1GHz processor and will run Android 2.3. In short, it is a major step-up from the merely ‘OK’ feature phones that Sony Ericsson last tried to flog with the Walkman brand attached.

Nikolaus Scheurer, head of product marketing for Sony Ericsson said of the new phone: “consumers want smartphones to deliver a rich and social entertainment experience. Rather than a one-dimensional music experience, they want instant and seamless access to new content, combined with the ability to share and connect with their friends. The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman provides exactly this, in a powerful package with great style.”

He may have a point about the style – the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman is compact and looks great with a choice of white or black cases and matching headphones. Unlike other Android devices, the SELwW (as we really hope people start calling it, to save our typing fingers) has an ‘Infinite Button’ – a context-aware button that will activate special features such as searching for music videos and artist info about the currently playing track.

A ‘Walkman’ button will instantly fire up the custom media player and play your music choices via the headphones or internal speaker, which uses Sony’s xLOUD technology.

The phone comes with 2GB of on-board storage although this is expandable by memory card. Facebook is integrated into the OS and you can post to your page from most of the built-in apps such as the Gallery and calendar. Facebook contacts are also integrated into the phone’s contact list.