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
It's the shmexy phone ever[:
i love this phone!
enough said[:
but don't get this phone x]
cuz' it's too shmexy for other people :D
just kidding but i love it xD
Good from far but far from great
This has got to be the best phone I had feature wise, but reliability wise it is the worst. I had it for less than a year and its been broken quite a few times. First the camera broke and there was a big black spot in the middle of the screen, yet it was not physically damaged. Next the USB cable broke, and then one of the headset speakers broke. Now the phone turns off by itself pretty frequently but I'm not gonna do anything about it because I'm getting a new phone soon. I also had to get it reflashed when the firmware got corrupted. It needs to be restarted to use it as mass storage, its really slow in that mode. The camera is pretty good but horrible at night. Battery life is also very poor even with an upgraded 1400mah battery, and it turns off if you shake it just a tad.
PROS:
Camera good in day
MP3 Player, software is bad but can't complain, quality is good, and the 8GB card is nice.
Bluetooth & Infrared connectivity is flawless
Screen is good resolution and nice colors
Good Mic
Easy to upgrade drivers, customize & hack
Nice overall styling
CONS:
Overall finish is cheap, scratches easily, wears fast
USB connectivity could be alot better
External speaker sounds quality poor
Camera poor at night, video mode is disappointing
Need the sony dongle to connect headset
Battery life is pathetic, 3 days in idle with 5 bars, 1-2 days with minor use and roaming, I got a 2nd battery because of this and a travel charger.
Bulky
great phone
great phone for someone who is up to date with technology BUT MAKE SURE TO BUY THIS PHONE UNLOCKED
pros:
great amount of talk time
2.0 mp camera
flash
awesome themes
mp3's as ringtones
bluetooth
one hell of a flashlight
cons:
one of the greatest phones I have used
Terrific little phone
I'm an AT&T support rep, and from my side of the business I love this little phone, when you drop it it doesn't break or malfunction, and it doesn't have any software issues that cripple so many other phones. I've had less than a dozen support calls for problems with this device, vs hundreds each for most other phones.
On the personal side, I'm a Nokia guy, I love how they work, I'm comfortable with them, and I had a bear of a time adjusting to the SE way of doing things, I spent the first month hating the small size, the tiny keys, the complicated menues, bumping keys and triggering things I didn't want while in my pocket. I disliked it enough I didn't put much effort into learning it for quite some time.
However, a little bit down the road I decided to really study it in between calls, I grew accustomed to how it works, which is more like a computer than the quick reference system on the Nokia.
What really sold me on it was the camera which blew me away, I haven't used a disposable camera since because my phone was better. I just pop my memory stick into a Kodak kiosk every so often and get wonderful 4x6 pictures and it does decent 5x7 too, though larger gets grainy. Low light photos are even better than my $700 digicam, though high contrast dramatic shots confuse it and come out poorly. A super plus is a steady flashlight that is quite bright
The video camera function is a stinker though, the resolution is so low you have to play it at original size on a computer. On the up side I once recorded six hours of video on a single battery charge, when my camcorder's batteries died after just two hours and its memory filled up around the same time.
That same battery life is terrific though when playing music and stuff. My main use is actually downloading audiobooks in MP3 format and listening to them on my phone, I can get nearly 7 hours of audiobook listening off a single charge, and if I don't use it much the battery lasts 4 days between needing a charge.
Solid features, but still a solid device
After my Moto V551 went senile, I needed to replace it. I tried a CU500 for a few days, but the battery life and audio quality were poor. And it overheated. I returned it for a W810i. The call quality is excellent, and so is the battery life (about 5 days with my usage).
What drew me to it was the 2 megapixel autofocus camera. The images it kicks out are a little noisy, but stellar for a phone and on par with my old 2 megapixel camera. The flash is very bright.
The MP3 playback is excellent. I replaced the headphones with retracting-cord ones (it comes with in-ear headphones, which I don't like). Mine came with a 256MB stick, which I replaced with a 1GB one. The sound is loud enough and the quality is very good. The FM radio has RDS (a surprise) and it has excellent reception.
It's also durable. I've dropped mine hard several times and it still works great.
There are some rather offbeat features too, like a Bluetooth remote control function. The organizer has a password-saver, and a basic MSpaint-like image editor (PhotoDJ) is in there too.
Video is where it falls on it's face. The recordings aren't that good, and getting video onto it is a challenge.
It's a shame AT&T discontinued it.
Best phone Ever
This is by far the best phone that i've ever owned. I bought it used about two months ago and i haven't had a single problem yet. The camera is great, I really love the Walkman feature, and despite the buttons seeming small their actually easy to use
Pros
2 meg Camera
WALKMAN Music Feature
Takes same memory card as my psp
Good Battery Life
above average screen
Menu is easy to navigate
Loud speaker
Cons
Cant really think of one
great phone- built tough
Excellent phone. I've used it for about 3 months. Due to my job demands, I use my phone constantly, and it's typically thrown around, hits the ground, and gets a fair bit of saw dust inside it. Due to the durability of my S710, I stayed with Sony in my upgrade. This phone hasn't disappointed at all.
Pros - Great MP3 player that I use a 4GB card with. downloading can be done in a variety of ways, some faster than others. Read the forum to find what works for you.
-Good voice dialing;better than the s710
- Great reception, rarely a problem with customers not hearing me
- FM radio - nice perk
- good camera; you probably won't mount the pics on the wall, but it's great for kids, taking pictures of finished jobs, documenting ANYTHING with pic/video/voice
-syncs easily with Outlook so I have all of my contacts including address and email.
- good battery life
- tiny compared to the s710
- great screen - works well even outside, it does seem to scratch easier than the s710, but I am harder on my phones than most.
- quick internet hook-up. Just WAP connection, but that's fine for what I need
- download free games off of Sony's website to take care of spare moments at airport, doctor's office etc,
- free themes off of Sony's website that aren't bad
- Nice flashlight feature - very handy in attics, crawl spaces, under sinks, behind desks etc when you need a little extra light.
Cons -
- It's too easy to hit the internet connect button without realizing it
- keypad buttons feel a little flimsy, but they work fine
- I'm not wild about the 'sony' headphone converter I need to use
- overall volume could be a little louder, but I use the phone in noisy conditions too
Overall, I have been completely satisfied with the phone. I researched many phones out there including the blackberry pearl, and due to the conditions I work in, this was the choice for me. No regrets.
great, thanx to all these reviews
I really love this phone and it was everything all these reviews said about it.
The pros, I love the 2mb cam. it takes great pictures during the daylight. It has a video light/flashlight that is really bright and has helped me out a few times. The earplugs that comes with it rock. You can play 3gp movies on it (apple movies) for those who have quick time pro you just convert any video file to 3g
I love using the remote control for the computer, it's a gas, great for jokes too.. controlling your pc from your phone.
The radio is pretty good with little drift in stations. The alarm is great to wake up to any mp3 or radio.
and I love that every person can have their own profile with individual ring tone/mp3 and their own photo. 2 gig memory stick holds plenty.
The cons:
I am using cingular and one thing that makes me FURIOUS is they have their hot key to the internet one the end button, so when you hang up on a call you log onto cinguilars web and get charged for it,, it is on the very same button so you will hit it too.. I don't have big fingers,,this is such a fregin scam and I had to take off my internet service all together to get rid of it.
Also cingular includes 3 games that are demos only. Search the web you can put on any java game for fee. Also it wont let you use most mp3's as rigntones..(WORK AROUND) just cut an mp3 to about 15 seconds of the song and save it and use this cut as an mp3 ringtone, I use this Free program called audiodacity and it is great for audio edit.
The phone by itself is not loud and the ear speaker is low, I got this phone to listen to my music so I have my headphones on anyway and have no problem hearing people that way.
BIG CON: the screen stays light on bright while you are on the phone, so a long call kills your battery quick, What I did as a work around was put my calender into the short cut key, and when I am on a call I hit that short cut and it turns off the display and I get much better battery life..
The appointment book stinks!
Awesomely Customizable, does more than most phones these days
I cannot disagree more with most of the cons that i see in this user review section. There are several points that are un-tue, and I know this because I prove alot of them on a regular basis.
Here's a short list:
-You CAN use MP3's as ringtones if you are so inlined. I use Audacity to cut ANY song i want to to less than 600KB (around 36 secnds) and save it as an MP3. I then wirelessly send the ringtone through bluetooth to my phone and can use it as a ringtone. What's even better about this is that i can then send these ringtones to almot anybody who has a phone that plays real audio ringtones, including out of network.
-Cheap, plastic feel? I think not. If you want a cheap feeling phone, get an LG from at&t. That's a cheap feeling phone. I've also heard that buttons creak? I'm not sure what that even means... they aren't on hinges.
- Size? I've never heard of anyone complaining that a phone is too small... As long as you can put it up to your ear and hear them and talk and they can hear you, there shouln't be a problem. I think that this is a phone that alot of people put in their pockets, and i'm definately not losing it in mine. It's no smaller than most phones that i've owned.
-To all who complain that they can't hear: YOU ARE DEAF. I don't even have this thing at full vlume and it's more than perfet for me. Go get a hearing aid.
-Call quality always dpends on the service. I have no problems with that either.
-To all who complain about customization: There is not anybody else on the planet who has exactly the same setup as my phone. If you go to developer.sonyericsson.com, you can create your own themes! Absolutely every graphic (aside from icons on the menu) can be changed on this phone (and many others by SE).
