Sony Ericsson has one of the widest ranges of smartphones on the market today and, unlike Samsung, there aren’t four different versions of the same device just because it’s released in a different continent. The range of smartphones offered by Sony Ericsson is marketed specifically for different segments of the market, such as the gamer, the businessman, or something in between. No prizes for guessing which segment the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman was aimed at. Although I don’t find myself purchasing many portable music players and the likes, I still thought that reviewing this device would be interesting, and different to the other handsets reviewed previously.

As with all the other Sony Ericsson smartphones I’ve reviewed in the recent past, Live with Walkman is packaged with Android 2.3, along with the Timescape UI, and an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later this year. Before you think that there’s no difference then with the UI, this version of Timescape has a bit of a different flavour. The first notable difference you’ll find is on the homescreens. Away from the standard icon layout, the homescreens now have the icons docked in the four corners of the display, with an additional ability to add more than just one icon to a given corner. Although not the most novel of designs, it’s quite a refreshing change from Sony Ericsson. Another modification to the software is the Walkman app, which is actually the music player, although the UI is somewhat better than the default found on other Sony Ericsson devices. In addition, the device also enabled with Sony’s xLOUD enhancement, which, to be honest, might make some difference to someone with a keen ear for slight sound changes.

The design of the phone is modest. Surprisingly, Sony Ericsson have done away with the physical buttons on the device (at least two of them), and replaced the Back and Menu buttons with touch sensitive equivalents found on most other Android smartphones. This was a step in the right direction, as they even threw in a dedicated camera button.

Things were going good up to this point, but then I became very critical of the device (as I should be). The words Live with Walkman lead me to believe that this smartphone bares some resemblance to an mp3 player, or at least offer similar features. The only addition in this regard is the Walkman button on the top, which opens the Walkman app. When opening the box, I expected to find a really good pair of headphones/earphones, but the contents were no different to any other smartphone. Then there’s the lack of Walkman buttons on the device that would have made it a really useful mp3 player, which is what I thought Sony Ericsson were going for. I would have expected at least a Forward or Backward button to skip between tracks while listening to music. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been all that difficult to remove the dedicated camera button to add these extra buttons to the device. And to top it all off, an SD card with a storage capacity of only 2GB was included. I can’t speak for everyone, but I am almost certain that most people who store and listen to music on their smartphones, and that would purchase this device, would have more than just 2GB of music they’d want to listen to at any given point.

Sony Ericsson has made an effort to change things up with the Live with Walkman smartphone, and on its own, and excluding the title, it would have been a fairly good device, with enough there to interest a buyer. Although this is still a very good deal for a budget smartphone, at under R2000, the name alone has most likely killed it, as the expectations are very different to what was offered. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play stands out from the other Android devices on the market with its dedicated gaming buttons resembling a Sony PS controller. The Live with Walkman could have done the same thing with the simple addition of a few physical buttons.

The verdict? If you’re interested in purchasing a really good budget smartphone, then you won’t go wrong in choosing the Live with Walkman. If you’re expecting more from a device clearly meant to be a cross between a mp3 player and a smartphone, then I’m afraid you have to keep looking, as most, if not all, smartphones can offer the same in the way of music portability.

You can find the full specifications here.