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"Cool device. Too bad it stinks as a phone"
2.0 starson by GotMBAPros: great screen, keypad, battery life
Cons: HORRIBLE call quality, background noise
Summary: I do not understand the problem. Sony keeps adding more and more features to their wireless phones, but they cannot get the phone portion right. What good is a device that combines all of these unnecessary and unused features and cannot get the one important feature, the phone, to work properly.
Do NOT buy this phone if you plan on using it anywhere other than a quiet room with the door closed. Any background noise whatsoever will be amplified and overwhelming apparent to your callers. Whats more, even the most basic background noise is picked up and turns the phone into single duplex. In other words, if you are using this phone while driving you will not be able to hear your callers because the phone will pick up the background noise and shut off the speaker on the other end. I drive a very quiet car, but callers constantly gripe about hearing loud road noise. And in an office or public setting, callers complain of hearing background noise at the same volume as my voice.
I cannot figure out how CNET tests supposed "call quality", because I have used many phones they rate well that pick up and amplify background noise to such an extent as to make the phone completely unusable. Like this one and every other Sony I have had, most Treos, and a lot of candybar-style phones.
- 5 replies to this review
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I have this phone for a month and no, absolutely no problems.nobody's complaining 'bout the voice, its crystal clear.I believe you're from competitor manufacturer,cuz ya don' send it back to SE. well next time, do lies better.
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I have this phone too, and I wrote in an ATT forum that it sounds like you are listening to a sea shell, with a deep static whirrrrr. My Nokia 6230 had a lot of background noise too, and people would freak out if I folded a paper grocery bag while on the phone. I guess the noise is horrible on the other end. The Sony seems a bit worse in both of these regards. Also, the phone has been buggy, either not ringing, not showing missed calls, not paging when I get a text, etc, about 10 percent of the time so far. Further, the charger for this phone has got to be one of the stupidest pieces of design work I have ever seen. The tiny filaments that stick out of the charger and headphone plugs will break soon, in my opinion. I still have another 26 days to return it to ATT, so I'll see how it goes. At times the call clarity is the best I have heard, at others it is quite poor. The screen is amazing. Operating system fine. A nice toy that needs perfecting. I may have to go back to my old Nokia because ATT refuses to stock any of the good Nokias.
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All phones with a good mic are going to pick up loud background noises. Good phones are designed to cut out the noises that stay constant, i.e. the noise a car makes or maybe a vacuum in another room. In order to be certain they aren't cutting out the normal noises, they generally pick up anything that isn't constant. Why someones wife would be on the phone wrapping a caserole is beyond me. You are asking for your phone to fall in your dinner! <br><br>Looking at GotMBA's other posts... they all seem to be blasting one phone or another! With an occasional spectacular on certain phones. I can't imagine any one person has 20 phones. If so, you need to either get a life or get a job testing cell phones!<br><br>Just my opinion, no disrespect intended.
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I don't know if GotMBA's a troll or not, but my wife's W810 (predecessor to this phone) has the same problem he describes. It literally makes my ears hurt if she's, say, covering a casserole with aluminum foil. God forbid my child screams in the same room. The phone is actually great EXCEPT for this problem. Perhaps it is a defect and not something inherent with the product?
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I'm 99% sure that GotMBA works for Nokia or Motorola and part of his/her job description is to blast competitor products on web sites.<br>Well, next time you should probably write something that is believable.<br>While riding as a passenger in a car (only idiots talk on the phone while driving, and I'm sure GotMBA fits that description), I've used the W580 both with bluetooth and wired handsfree sets, as well as using it "plain" (holding it to my ear), and nobody has complained about sound quality, and other peoples' comments here agree with me and the CNET review.<br>Either GotMBA doesn't know how to use a phone, or he's a simple troll who's never used the phone.
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