Sony Ericsson W760a (red, AT&T)

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.

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

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.

PS: CNET, 3 LinesToType1000chars? :(