Sony Ericsson W810i user reviews (AT&T)

Pros music player; build quality; speakerphone; camera; gorgeous screen

Cons PROPRIETARY HEADPHONES GRRRR...; mine is on cingular; candybar style (im not a huge fan); not a smartphone

Summary CAUTION: This review is from a US Cingular customer and the review is influenced by that fact. If you're not a US consumer, the review might not apply in some instances. If you want to buy this phone for Cingular in the US, then you'll want to read this entire review.



I bought this phone strictly on the positive buzz I heard about it and good experience with previous Sony Ericsson phones (I used to sell cell phones). The fact that Amazon gave it to me for free AND gave me a $100 Visa Gift Card was icing on the cake.


Pros:

-first thing that struck me is the build quality of this thing. unlike many other US phones which feel noticably cheap and plasticky, the W810i feels very nice and solid in the hand. The buttons are perfect and easy to use and one rarely makes a button-pressing mistake. this is definitely a phone that is built to last and, outside of a few Sanyo phones, one of the best-made phones out there for the US.

-the second thing that REALLY stood out was the speakerphone. This thing rivals some of the standalone iPod speaker setups Ive heard. Although, most of the time Ive listening with headphones or my car stereo, the speakerphone is incredible for conversations or if you need to hear some tunes in a pinch. Playing your favorite song through the speakerphone sounds AMAZING considering that its a cell phone speakerphone.

-the camera is good. 2 MPs and its better than most 2MPs Ive seen and worse than a few. clearly good enough for a cell phone. The 4x digital zoom is a really nice touch, though.

- the screen is gorgeous and watching movies on the phone is almost exactly like watching them on an iPod. the screen is perfect.

- the Walkman application is not perfect (its a tad slow and is missing some features) but its the best music player available for any cell phone or smartphone. it has an equalizer w/ MegaBass, playlists, shuffle/repeat, FM radio. its basically an iPod nano once your get a good-sized Memory Stick Duo.

-which brings me to my last Pro: The MS Duo might be proprietary (which i usually hate) but Sony really hit the nail on the head. Except for a few huge smartphones with SD slots, the most you can get is a 2GB MicroSD card for a cell phone. but for the W810i, you can get up to 8GB. i currently have a 4gb MS Duo card (dunno what they charge in stores, I got it off eBay for $40) and it stores a good amount of music and/or video. once again, its like a nano. and this is ONLY possible on Sony phones. very cool



Cons:

-proprietary audio output: wow, what a stupid, stupid move. i just dont understand why they couldnt add a 3.5mm jack for common headphones. instead Sony packages an adapter that turns the proprietary output into a 3.5mm. which seems fine, but what if you forget the adapter at home? or you leave it in your car? or you dont want lug around a cord everywhere? or God forbid, you lose it?

well, sucks to be you. thats it. it doesnt make any sense b/c its not like Sony is gonna make money of this "feature". this is the only thing holding this phone back from being one of the best phones every created.

-cingular sucks. but my 2 yrs on Sprint was up so I had to move (b/c cell phone companies try their damndest NOT to keep customers). i hate cingular, i knew I would, but at least this phone has Edge so the call quality is fine. but cingular has crippled this phone's OS. they stripped it of many ringtones and themes and replaced them with cingular themes and tones. they moved the menus so most of the buttons you hit result in buying something from Cingular. the first item on the menu is Cingular Mall (ugh...). basically, Cingular took a great phone with an awesome and intuitive OS and made it slightly less awesome and intuitive in order to get you to buy more things from them. boo.

-candybar style. i dont mind it, but id rather have a slider. if the W850i had 850 on its GSM bands, id buy it in an instant. but style depends on the user, so not much of a con.

-its not a smartphone. i dont care b/c I have a ultra-portable laptop, but some people do. w/e



all in all, this is about as good as it gets in the US for a non-smartphone. i highly suggest unlocking and debranding the phone with DaVinci (google "davinci w810i") to remove the Cingular yucky-ness.

for the price, you cant NOT buy it. pull the trigger and enjoy this great phone.

Pros Excellent mp3/camera/phone

Cons Slow mp3 loading, call quality

Summary After using Sony's T610 for 2 years on T-Mobile, I was looking for a good candy-bar phone upgrade that had a quality camera and mp3 capability. I don't carry my 60GB iPod out with me as much, and I was thinking about getting a Nano or Shuffle, but why not get a phone with that built in? So after much research, and a near purchase of the Pearl, I found this on Cingular. I love it. I bought a 4GB card for about $80, and I've now got a Nano and phone in one. I just went to Niagara Falls this weekend, and the pics I took with the 2MP camera also turned out great. As for the music player, the dedicated buttons are well placed, if not a bit small. You can totally control it by feel while it's in your pocket. Plus, you can use your own headphones with the included mic attachment, or use the headphones that come with it. I've been using the FM tuner quite a bit as well, although it can be a bit patchy (and I'm in the middle of Chicago). This thing continues to surprise me with features. Some might be superfluous, but it's fun to be surprised (e.g., the novelty overlays you can use with the camera). Battery life is pretty good, although using the mp3 player can eat it quickly. Recharge is very fast, though. Been dropping more calls than I did with T-mobile, but I think that's just as much a Cingular issue. Buttons are a bit small, but I'm used to that, and it's a small price to pay. Screen is bright, and adjusts to ambient light. Menus are simple and straightforward, and you can reprogram shortcuts. I could go on, but suffice it to say that I found what I'm looking for, as I kept telling my girlfriend this weekend, "I love my new phone!"

Pros great phone as all suggested here

Cons Voice Answer feature does NOT work with bluetooth as suggested in manual; bottons a bit too small for my small hands; left and right buttons can't be retrained to other features

Summary It's a great phone; it's versatile, modern looking and all other reasons why people like it; however, the VOICE ANSWER feature does NOT work with bluetooth as suggested and instructed in the manual...at least not in Toronto anyway--try it and share your experience! I called Sony, and they actually apologized for the misleading info. Buyers beware

Pros Design, features, 2mp camera, keypad, plays MP3s & 3GPs, fast interface, Bluetooth 2.0

Cons Minor creaks in battery door

Summary I've been using this phone for little over a month, and it's by far the best phone I've owned. Using it on the Cingular Wireless network, reception is top notch, much better than my previous Motorola SLVR phone and Sony Ericsson T637. I like the design of this phone as well, it's very unique in a way with the different color buttons, and orange highlights throughout the front and back of the phone. Simple yet stylish at the same time. The keypad is very responsive and nice. The buttons remind me a lot of the Sony Ericsson T616/610 phones of the past, and to me that thats a good thing since they are not cluttered like other phones out today. The D-pad is a new twist, since most other SE phones use the joystick, but I like it. The display is tack sharp, a tad bit bigger than a T637 display, but jampacked with more pixels resulting in a very clear and sharp display. On the back you'll find the 2mp camera which is a lot nicer than I thought it would be. Definetly not Canon replacement, but it will do the job much better than those VGA cameras on other phones when needed to take a quick snapshot. The Walkman player is a real treat, as this is my first Walkman phone too. When using the included headset, the MP3s have deep bass to them, and the settings can be adjusted for no bass, bass, and mega bass which is nice. Converted video files to 3gp play very smoothly too, at 176x144, 30fps at 192kbit/s, you would think you were watching it on your PC, major video processing power this phone has, and Im very impressed with it, could the SLVR do that, nope! The menus are very fast, literally to none lag time switching back and forth in the menus. Another good thing is that this phone features the latest Bluetooth v2.0 profile, which adds more security between the phone and whatever Bluetooth device you are using with it. The only thing, and I mean the only thing, that may be a problem is the battery door, it may be creaky at some times, but I took care of that by slapping a piece of adhesive on the door, and your set. Definetly worth picking up, either by eBay or wait until Cingular hopefully picks this phone up.