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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 174 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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43 out of 43 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"You get what you pay for."
Pros: Great display, great camera, nice interface!
Cons: Expensive; also, Cingular has hobbled WAP
Summary: I simply do not believe the reviewers who complain about the "easily scratched" QVGA display, or comment on the alleged size of the S710a. I can only assume they haven't actually used one to review (and I dubiously note a lot of these "reviewers" only show up once, and claim to use and throw away $500 cellphones like old newspaper! Yeah, and I'm replacing my Maserati with a Porsche next week to improve my gas mileage...).
I've had the S710a for over a month, and once I did put the phone in my pocket with my car keys. I freaked out 15 minutes later when I realized what I'd done, but the display was fine. Not that I'd do that twice, certainly not on purpose, but I think SE put together a reasonably rugged phone for its apparently worried users. Keep it away from your barbed-wire and diamond-saw collection and I think you'll be fine.
The S710a does a ton of PDA stuff, though I have the minor complaint a lot of alarms are fixed to their choices. (Ringtones are infinitely selectable, but alarm signals are not.)
Connectivity via IM, text message, SMS, and e-mail is great! My minor complaint here is that you can't alias your identity with Cingular; your cellphone number is your phone's texting address. This hasn't been a problem for me, but your mileage may vary.
My main diss of the phone is not of the phone, but the fact that Cingular has crippled the WAP so you can only access the Web via their portals. Feh. At least Bluetooth and IR work as expected, big plus over Verizon's crippled Bluetooth phones.
As I said in my "Pros" on the phone, beautiful bright color display, and I'll stack my photos against any 4-MP standalone camera on the market. (Yes, I realize the S710a's camera is only 1.3-MP, but I'm bragging.) Keep in mind that in low light, the camera's shutter speed goes down to 1/15th of a second, which is tough to do handheld. Color balance and contrast are much improved over the old attachable MCA-25 camera which I used on my previous T300. Did I mention I love the S710a's camera?
Big con to the S710a - it's a Cingular exclusive, so there's no discounts. You have to really want it at Cingular's prices. Let's just say I'm not buying any more toys through 2006.
You can buy the similar S700i on the open market, but that doesn't come with EDGE (it has an FM radio instead). Also, the S700i is for European cell networks, which are only partly the same as US frequencies.
- 5 replies to this review
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I protect most of my electronics equipment with cases-- my iPod is the one I'm most careful with, and even though it's NEVER outside of its soft case, I still have scratches. My Sony S710, though, I ditched the case because it was too bulky with the clip, so it free-floats around in my purse with pens, money, hair clips, nail files, whatever... and let me tell you, there is not a SINGLE SCRATCH on the phone. I even commented to a friend the other day, wondered why Apple didn't use the same material for the 4 gazillion dollar iPod. I love this phone for its functions, but I'm a photo-freak, and this camera doesn't cut it. It's better than my Treo 600 was, but it's obviously just a 1.3mp camera. It's fine in a pinch to prove you were somewhere, but that's about it.
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The easiest way to avoid scratching this phone's face is to purchase some PDA screen protectors. They usually come in packs of a dozen or so and cost around $10. I picked up mine at Best Buy. All you have to do is trim the clear protectors to the size of the face and you're in bizness. They say to replace the protectors once a month, but I have had the same protector on for about 3 months now. They do work b/c it is starting to show some scratches on the protector...but NOT on the display! I also bought a case for my S710a on ebay. Cost me a whopping $12. It too has a plastic cover, in black leather trim. Hope this helps save face.
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One of my S710's acutally broke when i brought it to philippines. Being that it is a worldphone i expected it to work there. When i brought it back, My phone just stopped functioning (sim card could not be read.) Another thing was that i bought a case for my s710. That really didn't help. The next day my screen was scratched from top to bottom and the stainless steal was scratched.
so i say that this phone needs a scratch proof something... -
The camera has to be held perfectly still, or its blurry, and thats in good lighting conditions, and using the phone in low lighting is a joke. Other than that, i like the phone but doesnt even remotely compare to a normal digital camera.
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When i got my phoone in the mail the first thing i noticed was that it wasn't huge. I was expecting it to be quite large, but it seemed so small.
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