Sony Ericsson W810
Phone Scoop Review
Apr 20, 2006 by Eric Lin
In-depth review of the new Sony Ericsson W810 Walkman phone. with Video Tour. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
W810 SUX
I had a Sony Ericsson W600 prior to this one and thought -- oh cool, I am going to upgrade.
Well I bought the Sony Ericsson W810 and it has all the features of my old phone with the added feature of an expandable chip.
After buying the phone I discovered the following:
1. The feature of being able to assign an MP3 as a ring tone has been severly limited, so severe it is not even worth saying you can do it. According to Sony Ericsson, this was a feature limitation requested by Cingular to curb illegal MP3 sharing. Someone tell me, how is limiting the size (which is the way they limit it) of the MP3 going to stop me from sharing ALL THE OTHER MP3s on my phone with others? I can send any song I want to any MP3 capable phone I want and yet the size limitation is on the use of the MP3s as ring tones.
2. I was also using the feature in the W600 that automatically changed my profile (from Home to Handsfree for example) when I plugged in my headset OR connected a blue tooth headset. This feature was also removed from this phone. I could not get a straight answer from Sony OR Cingular about WHY this feature was removed, so who knows why or whom had it removed.
3. I really thought having a memory chip in the phone was a cool feature, And according to Sony Ericsson, Cingular was the limiting factor on the size of the chip. Sony can sell that phone with up to a 2GB chip, yet Cingular in there INFINITE WISDOM decided to cheese out and give thier customers the 128MB chip.
4. I was trying to set up my email on this phone, as I had before on my W600. I discovered another BRICK WALL. On this phone you MUST go through MediaNet to access your email. So when you merely GO TO THE EMAIL SCREEN you are charged data, no matter what you do you are charged data. The W600 in contrast had email built in (not as a web based application). In addition, this phone also requires a web interface for other types of email too. It is a Java Application.
Amazingly Fantastic!!!
This Phone Rocks! I am convinced that there isn't a better phone on the market right now.
The Media Player is by far one of the greatest advantages of having this phone. The sound quality is superb! I go as far as to connect this phone in my car and use it as an iPod. The Expandable memory is a definite upgrade from the W600. I loved my W600, but the W810 is what the W600 should have been, especially with the 2 Mega pixel camera. Flash is much better than the W600.
It's small, have a good weight, and looks great! You can easily navigate through the menus. The Screen has the potential to be ridiculously bright.
It's a must have!!! I love this phone!!!!
VERY GOOD PHONE
I've had the phone for about 2 weeks now and loving it:
Pro's:
One thing nobody's mentioned is that the 512MB memory card bundled with the phone, means you have a 512MB Memory stick on you at all times (as long as your USB cable's handy)... and no you don't have to install the software on a pc to use it. Sony very cleverly allowed the phone to switch off and temporarily switch on in USB Disc mode as soon as you press File sharing once you're plugged into a pc. (Just cancel Windows' attempt to install SONY W810i software). Very clever! - Don't know about a Mac.
Love the sound - do NOT know what everyone's complaining about. Try playing this baby through your hifi - exactly like an iPOD. Phone quality also excellent.
Well thought out phone overall - features like minimising applications while busy with something else (eg radio) Also ability to cut and paste I really liked.
Camera is fantastic.
Phone is RELIABLE. I had the Siemens SX1 before - very feature rich and brilliantly thought out (even smarter than this one) but crash after crash after crash. What a pleasure to have the W810i's reliability and feature-richness in comparison to that dud.
Lots of extra apps like music mate, and news reader.
It's a sexy little thing - nice themes - Sony Ericsson really did their homework.
Excellent reception!
Cons:
Battery was VERY disappointing compared to all the rave reviews - don't know what everyone else is (isn't) doing with their phones to get such classic talktime. I'm recharging every second day.
VERY disappointed they took away the lens cover present on the W800 and K750.
Diary seems to be missing the repeat entries (e.g. anniversaries, weekly reminders etc) - BAD oversight. Fortunately if you're synchronizing to a pc, you can get around this by creating the reminder on the pc, and then synching, because for some reason the phone recognises repeat reminders - it just can't create them.
Overall: Fantastic phone - biggest plus - 512MB Card
Pretty nice phone
I've had this phone a little over a week now and have logged about 3 1/2 hours of call time so far. Overall it's really quite decent and the more I play with it the better it gets.
The phone part is very quiet and cannot be turned up as loud as the mp3 player for whatever reason. The speaker faces away from the user which doesn't make any sense either. Unless I am in a very quiet surrounding I cannot hear the phone ring at all (none of the ring tones are very good), the only saving grace is that it vibrates as well.
The games are pretty fun for killing time (no PSP though), the radio works well and the mp3 player does it's job (albeit, clumsily) but the camera is what really surprised me. It actually takes a decent picture (for a camera phone). The lack of a lens cover was a horrible mistake though as it sits right under where your finger wants to rest. Oh, I almost forgot the Panorama effect on the camera! What a wonderful feature! I used it on a sunset the other day and it made a wonderful image. Really shocked me!
The sound quality is good and the supplied headphones are very nice. I did however order a Sony/Ericsson Bluetooth headset (HBH-IV835) and now I can actually hear the person on the other end of the line perfectly. Because the headset is a Sony/Ericsson as well, installation was a matter of turning it and Bluetooth on (totally painless).
Overall I am quite pleased so far but it does take some getting used to really appreciate.
Pros:
Nice screen
Excellent reception (Cingular, Rhode Island USA)
Expandable Storage (I bought a 2GB MS Pro Duo)
Included headphones are great (and double for hands free use)
Surprisingly good camera
Sound Quality is very good
Fun games for killing time
Battery seems to last forever (and charges fast)
Cons:
Very small and hard to hold (without poking the camera lens)
Interface could use a lot of work
Phone is VERY quiet
Speaker faces the wrong way
Buttons can be difficult because some have funny shapes and are quite small.
Absolutely the BEST there is ...
I bought this phone "unlocked" about six months ago from an online vendor and truth be told the phone was "sim unlocked". However,I kept having dropped calls on the Cingular/ATT network and this was a phone problem because as soon as I tried one of my other phones, the dropped calls would stop.I called SE and they requested I send my phone in for repair since it was still under warranty,so I did. I received my phone about 4 wks. later with an explanation that there was an error on the sim lock,so they "fixed" the problem sent it to me and when I received it,it was locked to ROGERS in Canada. I tried to no avail to to get an unlock code from SE and from ROGERS. I thought that I had a "paper weight" on my hands until I came upon a forum and saw that I could get it unlocked by iNLOCK.com , so I checked their websight and I sent it in to be unlocked,de-branded and re-flashed.I now have full use of my phone and no more dropped calls. They did an outstanding job and I got it back very quickly. This phone is,in a word,awesome. It has a great still shot camera,video,mp3,mobile e-mail and many more features and functions that one can use. If your are "on the fence" about this phone,stop waiting and take the plunge, but get it completely "unlocked" by a reputable company and you won't be sorry. Now I don't need to get a Blackberry since this phone does it all and then some. I am so glad that I bought this phone and eventhough I had all those issues I now have the absolutely best phone phone that I have ever had.
Best Phone Ever
Pros:
Great Camera
Great Video recorder
Clear Display
mp3 player( great with a 1 or 2gb sd card!)
voice calls
Cons:No qwerty keyboard!!!(I'm a texter)
For everyone with this phone that want sfull mp3 ringtones get it flashed at wotanserver.com...I repeat wotanserver.com...No matter how many people say Davinciteam, use wotanserver.com..It's cheaper and it worked the first time.I wasted like $36 on buying credits from davinci...anywayz..If you want to enjoy this phone's fulll potential then get it flashed..you want be dissappointed!!
Overall a good phone
Phone reception is clear, though at times low.Camera is good for a phone.Many features on phone all work fine.Phone is a little small.THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE PHONE,ITS WITH CINGULAR WHO CARRIES THE PHONE.I actually wished T-Mobile carried this phone.Up to 2 weeks ago I had cingular.Now I have T-Mobile.T-Mobile is superior in every way,and for less money.I kept this phone, got it unlocked and now use it with Tmobile.Works great.
really great phone
First off i want to say that I have gone through about every phone cingular has to offer and then some. coming from an LG cu500, this phone is amazing! I always liked Sony Ericsson's, and this is just another one on the list. Form factor of this phone is perfect, the size is just right. The 2 biggest pros with this phone are, you get Walkman features, and a 2 MP camera. Music is extremely easy to load, just plug in the usb cable, and drag and drop. Camera takes great pictures, I was very impressed, for a camera phone. Call quality seems to be good so far (better than ANY LG) Compared to other Walkman phones, I want to say the music volume is a little low. Included ring tones are not the best. Wallpapers are OK. Sony always gives you a few themes to chose from, something other brands don't do. there are plenty of music applications to keep anyone happy. Phone comes with a 128mb. memory stick duo card, expandable memory goes up to 4 gigs. Included ear buds should great!! I really think this is the best phone cingy has to offer at the moment. its going for 150 bucks,..I actually got it as a replacement for my LG cu500 through warranty exchange. I really think this is the perfected walman phone. I'm extremely happy with it, and really, I think you need to pick one up ASAP!!
the W stands for WOW!
Finally, a phone that has everything I could want and more. I LOVE my W810i! This phone allows me the freedom and versatility to do whatever I want.
PROS:
* great sound quality
* stylish
* just because you want to use the walkman feature doesn't mean you're a slave to it while doing so -- this phone lets you access everything (menus, text messaging, even camera!!)
* i can use ANY song as a ringtone!
* it came with EVERYTHING! (usb cord, memory card, software, headset)
* FM radio detects song names and artists
THIS PHONE IS A DREAM.
CONS:
NOPE NONE HERE
great
this is one of the best phones i have ever used as far as function wise. my only complaints is that reception is very weak using cingular in L.A. i think i have to update the firmware. Ive had 8 dropped calls in the past 2 days. oh well. mp3 player is great, speakers are loud and clear. out of all the phones ive had, the w810 is the best, and ive had a lot of phones. ie. d807, t809, 6230, v3, v3i, s710, 6682, 6680, 3300, ngage, v551, slvr, smt 5600, been through it all. this one is a keeper
