Sony Ericsson W760a (red, AT&T)
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"great concept but one major flaw" on by kirteentex
Pros: Great display, great sound, good sized buttons, easy controls
Cons: The interface with an added M2 memory card seems to have severe problems
Summary: My mother and I both got this phone, mainly for the MP3 player. When we added a 4GB M2 memory card the phone became glitchy. Sometimes it would see the memory card and other times it would just say no file or memory card not installed. When connected to a data cable attached to my laptop it would not always show the memory card, would not let me transfer thing saying memory card had stopped responding or would only show part of the memory card files. After going through three of them, I brought my laptop with me to the AT&T store to test another exchange. The assistant manager set up the phone and connected to the laptop. It did not show all the files so he disconnected and tried viewing them on the phone. Same error I kept getting, no files, no memory card installed, ect. I tried other memory cards to be sure it was not the card and the same thing happened. So they tried another one while I was at the store and it too was defective. The phone it self is great it just has a problem with the memory card interface. I hope they are able to correct this soon.
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"Best phone available for ATT" on by angryangryamy
Pros: Good call quality, great camera, easy to use.
Cons: Short battery life when used often
Summary: I spent a lot of time researching what AT&T phone I should buy. After reviewing every phone available right now, this one seemed to be the best bet for me. And so far it has exceded my expectations. If you are looking for a phone with good reception, a good camera and easy texting, this phone is great. The only thing I have noticed is that the battery lasts about two days which is worse than my old phone, but I have been using the camera/ video feature a lot, so I think its my own fault.
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"I like it so far..." on by jacy_00
Pros: SonyEricsson makes good phones.
Cons: ATT bugs me.
Summary: The red is beautiful. Cool themes available on lasyk.net. Slider is easy to operate and feels sturdy. Address book is improved, by which I mean you can select open and view all the info you entered for that person. It also allows you to select message alert tones for individuals, in addition to the usual ringtone option. GPS is a helpful feature. Walkman player is very good. Menus are easy to navigate. Auto-Rotate is nice for browsing net pages. Accelerometer games are neat. Up to 5 alarms can be set, each with many options. HOWEVER...I miss the light that my W810i had. The flat keypad can be difficult to adjust to if you're switching from a phone with raised keys. Also not sure about the plug being on the side. WE'll see how that holds up. And I guess I expected auto-rotate to work on everything, but it doesn't. But most of my complaints are not with the phone itself but with ATT's branding of it. ATT wants to charge for EVERYTHING. Navigator requires a $9.99 plan on top of a data plan(unless you want to pay big data charges). What SE calls Track ID is called Music ID by ATT and there's a monthly fee. Games and many of the apps are demo versions only. And ATT does not include the headphones or USB. Bottom Line: If this is the first SonyEricsson phone you've had you will probably be very impressed. But if you have ATT you need to be willing to pay $25 to $30 per month on top of your basic plan to make use of all it's features.
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"Excellent phone but requires proprietary accessories" on by costco888
Pros: Well designed, compact, easy to use, excellent display screen, clear sound quality, superior 3.2 megapixel camera, fine music player, easy-to-connect Bluetooth, global range (quad-band GSM + tri-band HSDPA), synchronizes with Microsoft Outlook.
Cons: Keypad feels a bit flimsy. Requires proprietary Sony accessories, such as USB data cable, FM radio cable, audio cable (no stereo jack). Uses M2 memory stick micro (up to 4 GB), a format which is being discontinued by Sony.
Summary: This is a very good choice for someone looking for a phone for making calls, texting, taking pictures, and listening to music. But it is not a substitute for an iPhone 3G or 3G S if you want extensive Internet or e-mail capabilities. Also, it is not a substitute for an iPod because of its limited memory capacity and lack of a standard stereo jack. It works well with Bluetooth headphones, but only if the phone is stationary.
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"Works Great as a phone, CostsExtra to use OtherFeatures" on by stancilmor
Pros: Phone calls are loud and clear, but a broken up when the phone only has one bar.
Cons: The backlighting for the keys isn't very uniform and at some angles and lighting conditions the lettering is very hard too read. The phone is a bit off balance when texting and entering numbers while talking is a pain.
Summary: I just bought this phone yesterday (bought three of them for a family plan). The phone capability seems great so far and it was working a bit better in areas where an older v501 and v551 had trouble.
Sony needs to work on their quality a bit. One of the three phones had the microphone die, so it had to be replaced. Also I picked up a pair of HPM-70 wired headphones. The sound quality is comparable to any sub $20 in the ear headphones, but wire is too stiff and kinks easily. The head phones did enable me to try the FM radio. I haven't figured out the presets yet, but it does have a search up for next station and manual tuning. I also listened to a few mp3 songs. The w760 suffers from multi-function syndrome; by this I mean music will sometimes stutter or pause if you start navigating the menus. Also when pushing certain buttons or accessing certain features there is a strange "electronic sound" in the head phones...very irritating. If you get the USB cable you will need to download the SonyEricsson PC Suite Software to make the phone work with MS windows. The update service software and media manager software aren't worth the trouble.
The lower left of the outer keypad has an AT&T media net connect button. This will be useful if you have the web and data features in your contract, otherwise (if it can't be disabled, be prepared to hit the cancel often and keep the keys locked to avoid data charges.
The phone has lots of features, but they all cost extra to use :( The GPS will give lat, long, and speed, but the mapping/direction features cost a monthly subscription. The FM radio wont work until you buy and plug in headphones (it uses the cable as an antenna.) You'll need to buy a data cable to transfer songs, pictures, and calendar sync information with a computer. You'll need to buy an M2 micro memory stick flash card to hold information; you may also want to buy a M2 USB adapter so you can plug the card directly into your computer. If you travel, you'll need to buy a car charger. If you want to charge the phone and use the headphones at the same time, then you need to buy a special wall charger that has a pass through connector, so the head phones can also be plugged in. If you have oily skin, the screen is going to be covered in fingerprints, so you might want to buy an optical lens microfiber cleaning cloth.
The phone comes with all sorts of software applications, but it isn't clear at all which ones AT&T will bill you to use (this is more of a fault with AT&T, and I'll be making a trip down to the store for them to explain everything again.) Another grip about AT&T (they are the only carrier that works in my area otherwise I might switch), it is very easy to add services, but nearly impossible to cancel them.
The voice dialing works, but its pain to use. The microphone isn?t very sensitive when using the voice dialing; you have to talk really loud. Voice dialing starts by pushing and holding the volume rocker until you hear a very faint tone, then you speak the name and the phone will repeat the name and call the number. The delay before the tone is played is much too long. On my previous phone I used the voice dialing as a speed dial function with single syllable words, that doesn?t seem to work too well on this phone. The feature is slow and seems to like double syllable words.
The camera seems to take reasonable pictures even without a flash. The speakers work just fine for playing music in quiet indoor environment. The internal antenna is located top of the base and gets quite warm during long phone calls. The phone has a small video camera on the lower right of the screen for video calls; haven't had a change to try that out yet, but seems cool. The battery cover seems really thin and flimsy, but how often does one need to open the battery compartment.
The computer sync/management software doesn't come in the box, so you'll need to down load it from Sony if you plan using those features.
Of the three phones I bought, one of them did have a tiny piece of lint or chip between the LCD and the screen cover. Check out the screen closely if this sort of stuff bothers you.
I'm taking off a half star for the uneven lighting of the keypad and the off balance feel in my hand and the other half star for how much extra stuff you have to buy just to use the non-phone features of the phone.
Updated on Jan 4, 2009
PS: CNET, 3 LinesToType1000chars? :(
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