Sony Ericsson W300 / Z530
Average Ratings
Amazing
Ok, this phone is great!
pros:
1. great interface
2. music( and music id)
3. F.M. radio
4. has a camera
cons:
1. not the best camera( but still ok!)
Feature Packed! Impressive.
This is my first Sony Ericsson phone. I have never been so impressed with a phone before. w300 is full featured,intuitively designed with nice placement of menu options. I keep finding other cool features it has. Much attention to detail. Use on AT&T.
Pros:
-540 minutes talk time (9 hours) and 16.7 days standby
-Send a call to voicemail with one click.
-One click Walkman button, sounds great on equipped headphones, sounds decent on speaker. Loud in a quiet room, faint while driving work truck, thatâs what car radios are for.
-Mute option
-Back key placement is on left side of center MENU button. I am right handed and my thumb hits button on the left side of phone much easier than below or on right side of a center MENU button.
-Excellent signal strength even on the outskirts of town.
-Clear call quality.
-Increasing Ring Option. Nice option to have in certain environments.
-Profiles Option, there are 8 of them. Normal, Meeting, In Car, Outdoors, Handsfree, Home, Office and TTY Accessory
-Not sluggish to use
-One Click Access to phone Status, see what percentage of battery you have left
-FM RADIO with ability to store preset radio stations and it shows you song title name etc..
-MUSIC ID â Now Identify the name of a song while its playing
-Nice camera quality in good lighting and ability to adjust brightness
Cons:
-NO REGULAR CELL PHONE RINGTONES - Not everyone wants music melodies for a ringtone and itâs near impossible to find regular cell tones online without extensive hours searching.
-No Speaker phone button, enable through quick menu shortcut while in call.
-Semi-recessed multi functional volume button is a bit difficult to press, maybe I am not used to it.
-Lightweight phone. I prefer more weight. I like the feel of a heavier 4 oz. phone like the new razor.
-Equipped with 16MB Micro SD. If you have a 2 gig card lying around then you are good to go.
-no way to add different message alerts. You have 8 to choose plus None Option.
Wouldn't buy again
Pros
The software that accompanied the phone was very useful. I liked that I could update my calendar using this.
Cons
I had a very difficult time finding the memory card for this phone. My carrier (Cingular) didn't offer the card.
The audio through the earpiece was not loud enough. The only way to adjust it was through preset volumes for home, office, outside. When I am outside, I was unable to hear.
The phone does seem to be poorly constructed - the handle gradually became loose and the screen would work on and off. Now the screen does not work at all, only after owning the phone for 6 month - I no longer can use my phone. The phone experienced normal wear and tear. The great software that came with the phone became useless.
So so phone
I have had this phone for a few months now, its not a bad phone just a few things that I didn't like about it:
It didn't come with the USB cable, I spent $30 for it but it did come with headphone/earphones to use for the phone and MP3.
Uploading pics, with the USB cable I was able to change the background but sometimes I found that when I did upload pics to the phone it went somewhere on the phone and not to the SIM card or external card I added, was a bit irritating took me a while to find the pics but were there just not in an easy accessible folder.
Text messaging, you have to do 3 steps to send a text message so this phone isn't built for speed if you text fast.
Reception, with the built in antenna you would think it would be a bit better, there were times I only had 1 bar when I was in a city known for AT&T (Chicago, Nashville
and Knoxville had terrible service).
Good things about the phone, I was able to download my MP3's easy, able to record my own ring tones via recording the radio, live music as well as conversations for work.
I would buy another SE, had a Nokia 3300 so this was a pleasing upgrade.
W300i --
I've had to replace my battery charger a few times because the pieces that click into the phone break very easily-
I love this little baby because of the hardcore battery life, but it's a hassle to recharge using mguyver techniques.
I'm upgrading .
I dont know
I have a question i have been seeing in other reviews that the memory card ain't come with the phone but others say that i does pls create a review 2 answer i really want 2 get this phone but i don't want 2 get it without a memory card pls answer me
THANXS
Marginal
I have had this phone about 6 months, so far I am only marginally happy with it. After a month Cingular upgraded my SIM card, well now its dropping calls like crazy. I cant upload the pics I want because it keeps saying they are too large even with the external card. Reception......was told I would have service in certin areas I couldn't get any bars at all even in a major city. I have Alltel now as a back up.....no problem with it. My biggest complaint is that the flip feel like if you continue to use it to much it will break, I dropped it a few times but nothing major few scratches. The camera.....well it's no high profile one its just one for close up shots not one for major photos.
preatty nice!
this is a really nice phone! i just wish that the walkman was able to use recorded features if any one nos how to do this plz tell me. the battery life is awsome! thats sony erricson for ya... overall this is a cool phone id reccamend it
Review after one month of ownership
I've had this phone for just about a month now, which I think is a pretty good amount of time to give a "first impression" review.
OVERALL: Very happy I bought this phone. The OS seems stable and has a short learning-curve.
+ Sound quality on phone calls is very good.
- Reception can be affected by how you hold the phone. If you have your hand covering the loop antenna, reception will sometimes diminish significantly.
+ Thoroughly enjoy the FM Radio and MP3 player.
- Minimalist approach to available buttons for MP3 player while phone is closed is a little extreme. Sure, three buttons can get you through your playlist if you like to skip around, but separate buttons for volume / playlist movement would have been nice instead of the "press vs. press 'n hold" system. Nothing that you don't get used to with time, though.
- Hard-coded demo songs, videos, pictures, etc.. that can not be deleted. This sort of forced-content garbage only gets in the way once you've established your own media library on the phone. At least give users an option to hide these items, if we cannot delete them outright.
+ Screen, though considered small by other reviews, is bright and easy to see in most conditions (direct full sun being the only exception I've found so far)
+ Camera so far has been adequate for impromptu picture-taking needs. It doesn't replace my digital camera, but that wasn't an expectation I had for the phone in the first place.
Very capable "cheap" phone.
I've owned this phone for a while now and I'm exceptionally happy with it. I purchased it unlocked and I've been using it with T-Mobile with little or no problems with service
Pros:
*Good voice quality
*Decent speaker phone
*Pseudo "Smart Phone" features that work well
*Good sound quality when playing music
*FM Radio has good sound
*Un-neutered blue tooth functionality
*Easy to use menu system
*Ability to update firmware via web (no additional cables to buy)
*Excellent battery life
*Pretty short charge time
Cons:
*Radio won't work without headphones cable (minor)
*No Stereo Bluetooth
*Doesn't feel as strong as my old tank T610 but is still pretty durable
*Weak camera (not a big deal to me)
*headphone can't be connected unless you have the adapter in place on the bottom of the phone
*Lack of large capacity Memory Stick Micro cards
This phone has treated me well and with the addition of a free piece of software called "My Phone Explorer" you can easily synch your schedule with Gmail Calendar directly from the web and send and receive text messages from your computer. If you have this phone get that software. It works great and is easy to use. http://www.fjsoft.at/en/
