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139 of 147 people found the following review helpful.
My First Sony Ericsson, A review from a Nokia Fanboy
By Harkanwar Anand
My previous phone was a Nokia 6600. It had a slow interface for 2006 and come on, I wanted to try somethingn new.Initially, I had planned on exploring my chances of buying a Treo but due to the rates, I gave up my plan. Without much pondering, I went and purchased a Sony Ericsson W810i. Now, it's been four weeks. Let me just give you a brief run thru of features, pros and cons.
Features
1. This phone is an mp3 player. This phone is a torch/semi flash light(with an SOS signal that can be configured). This phone has flash capability and further doubles up into a digital camera. Overall, it saves a lot of space to use this phone instead of just going out with a standalone mp3 player or/and a digital camera
2. The interface is fast. It takes around 8 seconds to get an auto focus and click a picture using the camera. I'll try and explain - to come out of the screensaver you need half a second, to activate camera using the shortcut it takes 3 seconds, a further 2 seconds for auto focus and an additional 1 second to click you picture. Overall,8 seconds to click one image.You can browse thru pictures very quickly. It's around 7 times faster than my Nokia. Images can be clicked in sepia, black and white, solarise(kinda yellowey), negative and normal modes. Brightness can be reduced within the click of a button. I noticed grains on images of larger size. I don't recommend using the flash camera unless you really must. Plus while clicking a video, the light goes on and off, if the flash light is turned on.
3. The build quality on the phone is both good and bad. I love the keypad and it is a major improvement from the 800i and sundry walkman phones. It took me three days to get used to the keypad. The dictionary like function on the phone keeps a track of all the words you spell. So they're definitely there the next time around. The front of the phone seems to appear too plastic. Especially the silver scroll keys and sometimes can make your phone look like a dummy piece. The sound speakers are situated on the backside of the phone and can be used conveniently even when the phone is upside down. You can insert your memory stick pro cards even when the phone is switched on. There is NO CAMERA SHUTTER like the previous installment of this phone (800i) The power button is placed most effectively just like the volume buttons on the right side of the phone which can be used for a host number of features.
4. The internal memory of this phone is 22mb and the accompanied card contains 512mb worth of memory. The usable memory,however, is only 431mb. Upon connecting to the pc, both are instantly recognized and act as removable drives on the "my computer" icon. The accompanied software is almost brilliant. I loved "Disc2phone" and there is so much more I keep discovering about the other programs. Despite lacking an English Manual, I found I didnt need one because I don't know too many people who would buy a sony ericsson phone and not be techies in their own rights who like to configure things on their own.
5. The bundled earphones are sublime. I cannot beleive the sound on these. They cancel all the noises in a room and it's a pleasure listening to beethoven playing away or Enya's mesmerising voice or even Tool's prog metal for that matter. The speakers are satisfactory and could have been louder. If used as a stand alone mp3 player with earphones, the phone would stand for around 6-7 hours.Playing the music without using earphones can eat up battery depending on the volumes of course. It supports m4a, mp3 and aac formats(and a few other formats)
6. The messages memory of the phone is limited to around 150+ messages and that is a big blunder. Despite having a 512mb of external storage the phone cannot accommodate a mere 200 messages. The size of notes is limited and you need to make a second note to carry on. Bluetooth transfers to Samsung,Nokia phones runs at 20kbps while it's a consistent 40kbps for Sony Ericsson phones. Very good for transferring media.
Pros
- It can be called an ipod replacement. I don't use mine quarter as much as I used to. This is owing to the absolutely brilliant earphones that sit within your ear and help you celebrate your time.
- I love how the phone slides into a digital camera. Good build quality for the particular feature.
- Good standby, saves battery, easy to work with 50% brightness. Even when I reduce brightness from 100% to 50% (lowest possible) there is hardly any noticeable difference on the screen. The keypad is much lighter but that's hardly noticeable.
- Fast processor, super graphics and wallpaper options, includes a good browser, calendar, good default themes
- The accompanied torch can be used to change a flat tire and can be switched on for 25mins even when the remaining battery is only 15%. (tried and tested)
- Good keypad(KEY FEATURE), good playlist configuring options
- Excellent software for the phone, mp3s can transferred at variable bit-rates without taking too long
- Excellent,fast log, the phones keeps track off the last ten numbers you've messaged and keeps them around for easy usage
- It's easy to store numbers cause the phone prompts to save numbers when a call from an unknown number ends
- Great handsfree
- There is a memory stick converter (The longer ones used in cameras) and that is a handy thing
- The MACRO mode helps in copying handwritten/type written documents using the camera
Cons
- too plastic, looks a bit boring too soon, screen can be scratched if no touchscreen is present
- the accompanied tones for messages is sad, the message memory is very limite (Big DEMERIT) and the size of a note is limited
- Call quality is not as good as can be
- sometimes it takes over a minute for the phone to recognize it has been plugged into a USB slot
- the accompanied FM radio needs to be in place to avoid screechiness in sound and proper volume
- Even though the phone provides 512mb worth of external memory, only 431mb is useable. Ideally, i'd have liked a one gig card so I could have doubled on my usage.
- Not enough upgradations over the W800i. People can settle for that phone because it has a slightly better talk life
- IT HAS NO ENGLISH MANUAL
- noticeable grains on 2megapixel images
Conclusion,
All though I am very happy with this phone, I cant help but throw a fit over the limited message storage, you can save messages onto your pc but come on, who's gonna do that?
Buy this phone if you like what you read. Not enough reasons to upgrade for 800i owners. BUT this phone has more appeal than 800i and has better more smooth graphics. There is a much better display and there is an improvement of 25% which I just noticed.However, unlike the 550i , there are no three way speakers and that makes "Stereo Widening" impossible.
Overall rating - 7/10
Very little to complain about,really
Good luck,fellow techies
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
The iPhone Alternative
By Prasanna Karmarkar
Going from an old Nokia 6200 (which had great call quality and was ahead of its times) to a Moto Razr I suffered the torments of usability hell. No memory, no headphone jacks, terrible address book, substandard camera, terrible alarm clock, etc etc.
The day I got my digits on the W810i (i for international, unlocked quad band) was a happy day for me. Now, one year into using it I can expertly outline the pros and cons, and authoritatively issue bouquets and brickbats.
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Hot -
* Great battery life. I don't measure this in terms of hours and minutes but the reality of how often I had to charge. I use the phone quite a lot for listening to music especially and have never run out of charge when on the road. On days of low usage I have gone 3 days without a recharge, but topping up for 1 hour everyday is all you need. With the Razr I was constantly being stranded with a dead phone.
* Superior voice quality - as distinct from CALL quality, which thanks to Cingular sucks like a vaccuum cleaner!
* Walkman quality music - I use iPod earbuds for a good reason, sometimes a Sony MDR 7506- More later.
* An expandable Sony ProDuo memory slot of upto 2GB.
I bought the phone with 512 MB and have not needed to upgrade yet.
* A feature rich 2 MP camera with flash, white balance controls, macro mode, night mode, zoom, resolution settings, and effects settings. This is quite adequate for point and click oppotunities - but also great for video, I bring out my Rebel XT 8MP only for more "artistic" photography.
* A great FM radio. Works really well, although it does require the customary earphone-jack extension that also works as an antenna. I say "customary" because I don't think there is any phone that can play the radio without having to attach the headset cord.
* The proprietary audio jack (Sony Ericsson only) actually ends in a generic RCA type stero headphone plug! This saved the phone and allowed me to jettison their earbud in favour of the iBud, or my Hi-Fi studio monitor when I feel like it. You can easily switch from whatever you're listening to -- the radio, the MP3 player or the video player and take a phone call by clicking a button. The song is paused, and will continue where you left off after ending the phone call. The iPhone is trumpeting this feature, but its been a part of the W810i for over a year.
* Has an MIDP 2.0 mobile java O/S, which means you can download any and every java app. I use the Opera Mobile browser instead of the packaged Sony browser and google maps which are are also a free j2ME download - *no more paper printouts for me*. I also use a mobile app from cricinfo.tv for streaming cricket scores, and the pre-loaded Music Mate which playes basic guitar chords and also has a pitch pipe for tuning musical instruments.
I am a non-starter in video games so i won't comment, except to say i tried the "JC does Texas" preloaded game - it was fun, but did not convert me into a gamer ;-)
* The Address book is really excellent. It has a full featured contact list system like a vCard that includes full address and multiple phone numbers for the same contact. In theory the calendar and address books can be synched with Outlook if you download the Sony Ericsson PC Suite and connect use Outlook to synch calendar and contacts. I have no reason to believe this won't work, except my work place will not allow personal devices to be installed or synched up on the work machine. At home I don't use Outlook, so I'm missing out on all the calendar and reminder functionality
* A nice alarm clock that lets you select days of the week you find" alarming".
So my alarm does not go off on weekends, then comes back on every day of the week.
This is a big improvement over the old way where you had to manually set the alarm for each day.
You snooze, you lose.
* I found this out very recently - but the phone plays videos appreciably. There is a minor geek factor to this, but well worth it. You can take pretty much any video file you have - from P2P, DVDs, flash, etc and convert it to the 3gp format. I use a free universal encoder that's quite a wonder. Its called SUPER and you will find it at e-rightsoft - For example I watched the final episode of Heroes on my phone in a flight. Downloaded from bittorrent, encoded to 3gp to a 176*144 format that took all of 90MB. You can watch full length movies doing this, but the movie player functions like bookmarking are sorely missing for long files. If you don't watch the full movie at a stretch, you'll spend minutes simply forwarding to the correct spot the next time.
THIS IS HUGE -- you can take any YouTube video with you on this phone. Yeah, yeah its a two step process but which one of you is busy saving the world anyway. Get a firefox plugin for downloading YouTube videos as .flv files (flash videos), then use SUPER to encode into 3gp. Voila! -- I have Rihanna's Umbrella and Fergie's Bumps accompany me on all my rides.
* The phone is recognized a USB plug-and-play drive. Need I say more?
This is very useful, because its easy to move files and also charge it anywhere I have a computer with USB! Forget DRM, everyone is going away from that anyway. Also, Apple's way of requiring iTunes and having to register a device by deviceID before using it, that is way too restrictive.
My kingdom for USB P'nP freedom!
* W810 has Bluetooth and Infra Red ports. Use them for file transfers, synching or for headsets.
* An email client that is configurable for POP3 so I get my gmail, no problems. This is not a business phone so there is none, and never will be support for corporate email. Its easy enough getting to your personal email though, even without POP. Use the browser, doh!
* pretty standard but worth mentioning - has voice dialing, that can save you in some situations.
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Not -
* No WiFi !
* No GPS receiver. This means that when you use google maps you have to manually figure out where you are, then also check if you are sticking to the route. I have had no problems with this myself, but could be incovenient for some.
* The T9 texting system is disappointing. The Razr did it much better. There is no multi-select word completion, and there is not auto-add to dictionary any time you type out a word that was not in the dictionary. The process of adding your own short forms, cute names and whatnot is very manual and laborious. Also, the auto completion with the Razr showed multiple word possiblities in a multi-select as you typed (like the AJAX javascript lookups in gmail adress) so that meant you could really fly through the message.
* An open chat interface called MyFriends (under the Messages menu) using which you can log on to all your chat clients at once - AIM, yahoo, msn and IRC - possibly google chat but i've not cracked that nut yet.
The setup is strictly for nerds/geeks/professionals - an average user could never set this up. After spends hours on many forums I was able to set it up. You need the use of a free third party registration system: Yamigo to create a chat profile to which you can add your chat accounts. When you create your MyFriends profile in the W810, you need to provide the URL as the server and select the Allow Connection tab to "Any Network" or else this won't work.
MyFriends is a very ambitious concept and works in essence but fails in usability.
It keeps the internet connection open always because it relies on an HTTP service. When you lose connection it logs you out of all your chat systems, requiring you to re-login. PAINFUL. It also drains the battery a lot. Sony would have done better to do what the Razr did, have an AIM chat client onboard that connects directly to the AIM server, so you did not have to use a third party http service.
The best option is to set up the AIM and yahoo accounts to forward to cell phone when not signed in. Works like a charm.
* The phone is capable of playing streams really - but bleeds to death on Cingular's cutting "EDGE".
Hear me ye all - Cingular is the one thing that can kill Apple's iPhone. The situation can only be rescued if Jobs takes it over and refurbishes their network from the ground up.
I have NOT found a realplayer for java mobile yet, so it is really a player problem.
I'm sure there's an open source java project out there that can play all the streams.
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Shot -
* The earbuds from Sony are pure product suicide. They are so bad that I could barely hear the music and calls. If I had not tried the iBuds I may have hated this phone, only because of Sony's lazily and badly produced earbuds. That would have been a real shame because this is really quite an instrument.
* browsing pictures on the phone is painfully slow.
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What you got - The W810i is already more and does more than the iPhone will ever be, or do. Hi-Fi music, first class camera, great voice quality (when the signal exists!), calendar, addressbook, reminders, notes, alarms, email, SMS, MMS, bluetooth, video recording and playback. The iPhone will conquer the world anyway, because it has sex appeal and ease of use like never before. Contextual buttons that come and go, basically an expanded interactive menu system. Brilliant breakthrough in usability. For those who don't want to spend the big bucks, you can get all that and more in less than half the price here.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Sony claws back the portable media market
By Mr. Cj Jothi
I won't lie, I'm a Sony fan. Have been for years. When I was at school, I would take the Sony catalogue with me and look at each of the hundreds of products and admire the constantly evolving designs and technologies this company offers. Sad, I know.
There are two things that made Sony what it is today; televisions and Walkmans. Their TVs were and still are today the standard by which all TVs are measured by. And Walkmans, well, they revolutionised the way people listened to music. And of course they are now good, if not the best, at many other things, from video gaming to professional video cameras used by James Cameron and Michael Mann!
The company however has always annoyed a number of people by unnecessarily introducing proprietary formats. Some good, some bad, but ONE company alone will always find it hard to win public support with a format if it is not supported by other manufacturers. This was highlighted by the company's biggest EVER mistake, encapsulated in one word: ATRAC.
Sony were slow to the MP3 market. In the beginning they shunned it, developing the MD and Discman lines whilst Napster was taking on the world. It took computer companies like Creative and Apple to introduce MP3 players whilst the likes of Panasonic, Sony and Philips failed to embrace such a simple concept. Sony were so complacent that they built their own audio compression format, ATRAC, which could only be made by Sony's own Sonic Stage software, and played by Sony's hardware. The software was absolutely appalling, and did not really improve on MP3's already strong compression rate. It was cumbersome to use, and next to the hip image of an emerging iTunes, and the ever improving iPod, Apple did not just overtake Sony, they pretty much obliterated them out of a market they dominated. Heck, they invented the portable audio market.
Come 2005 and Sony execs are looking at themselves wondering what happened to their once-guranteed hundreds of millions a year. They quietly admitted to themselves that they blew it. But their other markets were thriving. Look at the PSPs, the PS2 and upcoming PS3. Look at their Bravia HD displays. Look at their groundbreaking HDV cameras. Sony are kicking butt, but Discmans and MD players are no longer a top 5 option for ANYONE. It is either an iPod video, an iPod shuffle, an iPod nano (get my point) or maybe, for those somewhat bored, a Creative whatchamacallit!
But they have found a way to use the Walkman brand, by using cutting edge technology and simple, ingenious design, and incorporating a music player in their line of phones.
The W810i is one of the more recent additions to an ever-expanding line of sublime phones and I've got to say "it is amazing!"
This phone, unusually so from Sony, allows a great deal of flexbility in terms of how the user can import and export data. The phone boasts a memory stick port, which is such a massive feature, because this means you can replace the standard 512MB stick with a 2GB stick (4GB is now available, but let prices fall before you buy one). 2GB!!! We may no longer be impressed by such a figure, but may I remind you that with an average 4 minute, 4 MB MP3 we are talking a ridiculous 500 song/45 albums capacity. That's an iPod nano my friend! Hook up your phone via USB and two drives pop up on your computer, the memory stick and the phone's internal drive, and just like your own HDs, you simply drag and drop data from folder to folder. It's brilliant, and obviously lends itself well as a USB stick for students. This means you can use it with PC and Macs, unlike an iPod, and it is not restricted to working with ONE program, unlike an iPod, although iTunes does rock!
So just how good is the Walkman feature? Well, it is very similar to the iPod interface, and whilst it may not boast the brilliant iPod navigation wheel it still has some effectively positioned buttons that allow volume change, starting and pausing music and skipping back and forth tracks. They are in the perfect place, and I commend the designers, because this is where the phone truly excels; ergonimics. With such a vast array of features, it must take a pretty smart bunch of people to make it anything but a hassle to use. The devoted Walkman button transports you to Artists/Albums/Playlists etc etc. You can change the equalizer, you can send your tracks via Bluetooth/Infrared to other people, you can basically have fun.
Sound wise? It sounds damn good. Is it hi-fidelity? No, not by a long shot (but then, neither are iPods!). It comes with good earphones, but I like good sound, so will use my best phones, and encode at a slightly lower compression to cull the best performance from this hardware. It does not sound as good as an iPod, but this is a very personal opinion. The differences are marginal, but this, unlike an iPod, does so much MORE!
A test of whether this is a direct competitor with an iPod is whether, if you took away all the other features and were left with just the Walkman feature, would it be good enough, and the answer is yes. It can improve. It would be great if Apple would allow iTunes to work with other players, because integrating the W810i with iTunes would be phenomenal. The W810i could improve by showing the music artwork, having MORE control over how your music is played, and I would argue to somehow make the menu less cluttered, although it is already well designed. The small details Apple lend their products are great, so if Sony could change the font or anything, to make it a LITTLE bit more streamlined I think it would be more or less perfect!. A great extension to this would be allowing Walkman phones to be dockable in cars like the iPod is, so drivers can control the songs through their stereo. Basically it is a great product, and Sony needs to think big like Apple so it can really stop people buying iPods! They have the quality, but they now need to work hard with PR and accessories to convince people who are set on buying an iPod to reconsider.
Next up is the 2 MP phone, which, for a phone, is remarkable (and is now no longer the biggest, with Nokia's N80 offering 3MP). Compared to the first batch of dedicated 2 MP cameras, this wipes the floor with most of 'em. It does not come close to any dedicated digi cameras on the market today, but I took some pictures this past weekend that were full of colour and detail. It is impressive stuff, and serves perfectly well for a number of applications. Yes it is grainy, no there is no optical zoom, but it has a macro feature, which is amazing. Noise is naturally evident, and I won't be taking my holiday photos with it, but considering where we were two years ago with camera phones it has to be said it no longer is a gimmick. In a year or two cameras on phones will be able to take pictures comparable to point and shoot digicams, and that my friends is a fact. Please look here at a picture I took with the w810i! (http://www.auff11.dsl.pipex.com/w810i.jpg). Looks good, doesn't it! The phone comes with flash, white balance, macro, panorama, nightshot, and a number of other features. The video camera is subpar, so I guess another year or two will mean DV quality cell phones coming our way (maybe not, lets not get excited!).
Another massive plus is the RDS radio. Reception seems to vary, but once it hooks onto a strong signal it sounds very good, and if you have RDS services it will show you the name of the station. That's another one over the iPod!
As for the phone. Well you got simple navigation towards your address book. Text messaging and calling is straightforward. The person on the other end of the line sounds good. You have a lot of detail on your Call History. It is so easy to make calling on mobile phones to be frustrating, much like Sony's earlier phones. Thankfully they have not taken anything for granted and made this an effortless task for users.
Sony's unsurpassed battery life lasts for hours upon hours. How they do it I will never know!
The screen is bright, and the phone saves battery power by reducing the strength of the LCD light based on the ambient light.
The phone is very modern, has a good weight, and unlike the Motorola RAZR, is not uncomfortable to hold in you hand (sure, it looks good, but I do want to HOLD a phone sometimes!). The phone numbers are small, but I really cannot expect anything different when you consider just what these designers are having to pull off.
I wish I could comment on the internet capabilities of this camera but my service provider still charges too much for surfing the web via my phone, and I find the whole experience a bit boring and slow. Mobile internet still has some way to go before it can really be an attractive proposition for me HOWEVER, the RSS reader function will certainly serve me well if I want a quick headline from the BBC website.
You see, when you have a camera, a phone, a Walkman, internet, text messaging, radio, games etc all in one package, that because of consumer demand needs to be small, be light, pack in a colour screen, long lasting battery and removable media, then you have to wonder how it will all work together. Sony have done brilliantly here, and as technology becomes more and more advanced (smaller, lighter, quicker, brighter etc) phones will continue to evolve. They are clearly the best place to find the latest technology, and the W810i may not be the absolute cutting edge, but it is certainly the king for the moment. Apple better watch out. Sony want their crown back. Thankfully there will be only one true winner, and that's us, the consumers!
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