Keypad
The keypad of the W880i is a cause for concern. Each of the number and symbol keys are simply half-centimeter 'lines' that CANNOT be pressed individually by fingers – you need to use your thumbnails and you need to use them vertically, since the keys are horizontal lines. This is extremely odd, but the good news is that it won’t take you too long to get used to it. I’ve been using the phone for a few weeks and it’s become a very natural process for me. The soft keys, back, cancel keys etc. are a little bigger, being small arcs of a circle. The soft keys slope downwards, while the back and cancel keys slope upwards. These buttons are not too difficult to get used to, but the keys in the middle of these – the web and the shortcut keys – are too small and placed too close to the bigger keys, so you WILL end up starting the web browser or bringing up the shortcut menu accidentally while navigating through the phone.
The other buttons on the W880i are the tiniest of the lot. The orange Walkman key on the left of the phone, the camera/shutter key on the right of the phone and the volume rocker, also on the right of the phone. The keys are flush with the side of the phone, so not only are they easy to miss, they’re also difficult to press, even with your nails. The camera button is a bigger problem when used as a shutter button – because it’s so difficult to press, an effort to do so will move the phone, leading to a blurred or off-frame shot.
Display
The display on the W880i is high resolution (QVGA; 240x320), but it’s just 1.8 inches small, which is smaller than the cheap Samsung E250’s 2-inch display that’s less than half this resolution. The unnecessarily high resolution makes the screen look just as good as a 176x220 at the same size. It would have been a better idea to include a lower res screen to drive the cost down. Other than that, the display is great. The 256k screen shows vibrant color and sunlight doesn’t blind the display completely.




