Over the past couple of years, Sony Ericsson has been something of an enigma in the cell phone world. Not only has it introduced far fewer phones into the U.S market than many of its rivals, but it doesn't let the absence of a carrier sway it from rolling out new models. More important, the company has shunned the industry's major trend--skinny phones--in favor of high-featured, well-performing models. Both the Sony Ericsson W800i and W600i fit this bill, and the company now introduces America to its third Walkman phone, the W810i. Encased in an eye-catching black, the W810i offers all its predecessors' high-end, powerful features, such as a high-resolution camera, Bluetooth, and a media player, while making a number of design changes. Overall, it's a quality phone despite some minor performance issues, but it's not a huge upgrade over the W800i.

Last year, Sony Ericsson definitely had orange on the brain. Both its W800i and W600i Walkman phones came in orange skins (granted, you could replace the faceplates on the W600i), as did the Walkman music player interface. For the Sony Ericsson W810i, however, the company took a slightly different track and dressed the phone in basic black. Sure, the Walkman interface is still the color of the Florida-grown citrus fruit, but the black exterior provides a nice contrast. At 3.9 by 1.8 by 0.8 inches and 3.5 ounces, it's exactly the same size as the W800i, and it retains the solid, comfortable feel in the hand. Surpassing many other cell phones in quality, the rich, vibrant display supports 262,144 colors and measures 1.8 inches diagonally (176x220 pixels). It's fantastic for scrolling through the menus, viewing pictures and videos, and playing games, but it's harder to see in direct light, and it goes completely dark when the backlighting is off. Unfortunately, you can't change the backlighting time or the text size.