Customer Reviews

Sony Ericsson W580i Unlocked Cell Phone with 2 MP Camera, MP3/Video Player, Memory Stick Micro--U.S. Version with Warranty (Urban Gray)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

A long-time Motorola phone user now converted. Not only is this phone lightweight and amazing looking, it's feature packed.

Pros:

- Crystal-clear calling. No static and loud when needed.
- The screen is amazing. The resolution is awesome. By far the best I've ever seen on a phone this size.
- This phone is tiny; in a good way. Super-slim and tucks nicely in your pocket. Being that it's a slider, you'll never have to worry about pocket-dialing. :)
- The software is very easy to navigate. This is nicely improved over the Motorola interface of my older RAZR.
- The MP3 player rocks; no pun intended. The Walkman software lets you sort by Artists, Albums, Tracks, Playlists and more. This is light-years ahead of the my old RAZR's MP3 player. This one rivals any standalone MP3 device I've used.
- The stereo headphones that comes with it include a 3.5mm adapter. While the included headphones sound great, this adapter gives you the flexibility to use your Bose, Shure or other stereo headphones. A very nice option.
- Carbon grey and anodized blue color is slick; nothing else like it. The back side of the phone, when in the up position, is where the anodized blue metal is. Amazon doesn't show a photo of it. It is stunning.
- Unlike "some" other sliders, the camera is protected and kept under cover when the slide is closed. This works great in keeping dust off the lens.
- The 2.0MP camera is actually pretty good. It takes great outdoor photos.
- I LOVE the fitness/step counter. It measures distance in steps and calculated miles along with the calories you've burned. It also keeps a daily average and each days results.

Cons:

- No 3G
- Sony Proprietary Memory Stick Micro M2 versus easy to find and less expensive MicroSD
- No LED Flash or Photo Light

In conclusion, if you are looking for a super-slim phone with great call quality and superb music capability, look no further. This Sony wears the Walkman name with pride.

UPDATE 9/27/07: I bought a SanDisk SDMSM2-4096-A11M 4GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) and it works perfectly. 4GB of music!!!

I have used RAZR, PPC phone, and other "state of art" phones. I think this SE W580i is the best phone I've had. Of course, this is from my personal preference. I don't like big and heavy phone with short battery life time - like PPC phone. I don't and won't ever like text messaging or watching video over phone screen. But I like small and long-lasting device with multiple (and useful) functionalities. Following are what I found with the phone so far

0. This phone is light and small enough for me to do running exercise with. Its size and weight do not bother my running at all. Handfree headset fits well in my ears so while running, any ear piece does not fall off from my ear.

1. Memory Stick Micro (M3) slot with 4GB capacity to store any type of data. With 4GB memory stick micro (about $64 from Amazon) and bluetooth connectivity, the phone can act as wireless multimedia device with 4GB hard drive.

2. 2M camera that is far from perfect but much much better and tolerable than 1M camera from usual phone. picture quality of 1M camera was too terrible to use it for any purpose. But 2M camera actually provides enjoyable and sharable(?) quality of the picture.

3. Media player is very good. It automatically identifies album title, singer, and other info from MP3 and WMA - Yes it can also play Microsoft wma file. This means you don't have to subscribe anything or download/buy any software to convert your existing music files. You just connect phone to PC with USB adapter or bluetooth, and copy the files into the phone. That simple. About ringtones, as one of reviewer said, you have to make music file size less than 600K to use it as ringtone.

4. handfree headset includes 3.5mm (mini plug) adapter. With the adapter, you can connect your W580i not only to any PC speakers but also to car audio system if your car has 3.5mm Aux Audio port. Luckily, my car has the Aux Audio port. I don't even use CD changer in the car any more. When I connect my w580i to the Aux Audio port, I can listen to thousands of songs in the small device.

5. Battery life is surprisingly long. Talking life time is about 9 hours as advertised. As I frequently use bluetooth connectivity for various purposes, I always keep bluetooth on in the device. But unlike other phones, the bluetooth connectivity does not eat up battery life that much. In my case, full charge once a couple of days would be enough with bluetooth on.

6. Internet browser has been much improved. It is still not Safari on iphone. It can only read WAP web sites, not normal web sites PC can display. But it has nice zoom capability and tolerable speed. Don't forget to subscribe a AT&T Media.Net program - cheapest one is $10/Month. Otherwise pay-per-connection may cost you hundreds dollars after you download several files.

7. Email software is automatically checking email arrivals and let you know.

8. Voice Recorder is good enough to record a call session or a lecture.

9. Yes, keys are not big but once you are used to them, it does not really matter.

10. I love screen of this phone. It's bright and sharp. Still I don't like to watch TV on it but I love to see pictures taken with the phone on the screen.

Briefly, this is poor man's iphone. With 2 year contract with AT&T, you can buy this phone from Amazon for 1 cent. The price and many functionalities I mentioned might be the reasons this phone is #1 bestseller in Amazon these days.

I have had several different phones over the years. I am a long time AT&T, then cingular and now back to AT&T customer. My own preference was to get an unlocked phone and not deal with the locked version (when i wanted to upgrade, the current selections sucked).

I do agree with the previous remark on the keys. They are quite small and from the touch, seem delicate. I sometimes wonder if the keys cracking are due to pressing the keys with a finger nail vs the tip of your finger. Time will tell with this phone. I will remark later if any of my keys start cracking.

The OS on this phone is very good, I used to have a nokia and liked the symbian OS, so this feels very similar to that. The Windows OS for the smart phone is not very good. Actually it was quite cumbersome, all the subscreens and white screens of death (oh yes, even the OS's they create for phones have this windows fault).

Reception quality has been very good, the camera is ok (no standard flash like the other sony ericsson phones),the fitness feature is interesting (if you exercise enough), Internet Gui is still better the Windows OS version and the phone is very compact.

This phone overall is good, not perfect (what phone is), it gets the job done and has the extra bells and whistles to keep you entertained at church.

Sony Ericsson W580i Gray Phone (AT&T)

I'm a former Motorola customer. My last phone was the RAZR. I recently purchased the Sony Ericsson W580i after reading several reviews. The size of the phone is comparable to the RAZR (with the RAZR folded) however I find the W580i more comfortable to hold when placing calls.
This phone is feature packed. The MP3 player has a great interface and is easy to navigate. The shake to shuffle feature is also useful, just hold the walkman button and give it a quick shake, then voila a new song starts playing.
The fitness feature is what sold me on the phone, over other MP3 capable phones. It keeps track of the steps you've taken in a day, and if calibrated (easy to do) keeps track of your distance and calories burnt also. There is a training log, and easy to use application to keep track of your training progress.
The phone has the usual calendar and appointment reminder most phones have these days. But the W580i comes with software and a data cable to sync with your Outlook Calendar also. This is a great tool for those who are shy of needing a more powerful PDA, but could still use some help with weekly or daily reminders.
The camera is decent, compared with the RAZR it is fantastic. I do believe there are better cameras out there, but my main concern was the MP3 player, and the camera was an added bonus.
I could write forever about the many features and possible uses for this phone. It is easy to customize, looks stylish, good battery life, and so on. But on top of all this the most important part of a phone should be the phone. The W580i has great call quality and good call coverage. Even my callers claim they can hear me better. What more can you ask for?

I've had this phone for 2 years now. I needed something light enough to clip on while at the gym. I hate carrying around my cell phone and mp3 player. The radio funtion is also pretty handy when at work. With AT&T, I almost always get indoor reception.

As a bonus, it takes great pictures! I personally love the "bursts" setting which takes 3 images in one second. It also takes great video! The external speakers work just like any other mp3 player, nano, etc. that's meant to be heard by one or two people. You wanna rock the house... invest is some external speakers.

I also use it for web, texting, checking my e-mails, and playing rockband. Heavy use of these last items would be more convenient on a smartphone. Time for an upgrade and I have my eye on the iPhone, but it's hard giving up my small phone.

I would not recommend this. Don't be fooled by some of the cool features.

The phone looks cool, the music part is awesome. BUT - the phone is extremely fragile and prone to unexpectedly dying out - forever.

Three weeks after the first one I owned, it did just that - completely die. busted. wouldn't turn back on.

So I called ATT and had them send me a new one (for a fee of $20!). Okay, fine, maybe I had a faulty phone, right? The second one is worse. The buttons fell off and I can no longer see the top half of my screen. Trying to place a call in the daylight is a joke - can't see anything when the sun reflects off the screen.

You may be thinking 'well, he's reckless with the phone.' I'm not. Never dropped it, never washed it accidentally, never gave it to a small animal. It's literally falling apart in my hands.

I don't even know what to recommend, but it's not this. The Walkman part is cool, but you'll need a memory card if you want to make it like an iPod. You'll also need to pay for the internet connection to use most of the features anyway.

Before I bought this phone, I read all the reviews on here. I really wanted it to be a good phone. I already had a phone, but I wanted to get something nice. Trust me, this was not worth it.

The screen on this phone was shattered within 2 days of purchase. The only unusual wear and tear is that the phone was carried in my pocket instead of a case the first few days because I hadn't been able to purchase one yet. Also, now the phone randomly starts the Roger's music player. However, the phone arrived with everything listed in the ad and in the condition advertised.

Pros:

MP3 Player with great sound with and without earbuds, comparable to standalone mps players I own

Bluetooth built in

Internet is fast

2 Mega-Pixel camera with excellent quality photos and videos

Fitness application which counts steps, calories, and records progress

High Resolution screen

Camera protected in slider

Lots of Lights giving a cool futuristic look

Slick look in general

Shake and shuffle mode makes listening to your tunes easy and fun

Memory card allows up to 4 gb of songs

Video upload capablities

Long talk time of 9 hours

Great sound quality, the person on the other end of the phone sounds almost there


Cons:

I got mine last week and the 4 and 6 are cracked in half and the 7 is falling off also with little wear. The keys are made up of very thin plastic and crack if hit wrong; went to the AT&T store to find the store model also has cracked keys.

The keys not only break easily with minor usage but are very crammed and you will find yourself punching in more numbers then desired

The screen also isn't very well protected and very exposed which will most likely lead to future damage

The whole body and frame is made of plastic and feels cheap and flimsy

Memory card has to be a special one for sony phones only and are alot more pricey than the storage disk for competitor phones

No flash on camera



Bottom Line

If you aren't a perfectionist, texter, or cellphone gamer and are looking for a cheap phone with incredible technology and mp3 playback and don't mind if the phone is cracked up this is the phone for you. If you are one of the previously mentioned look to the new lg shine cu720 slider phone offering almost all of the same functions in a stainless steel body and keys. It may be more expensive but it is worth it. It was not in sony's best interest to produce such a top of the line phone from a technological stand point and then skimp on the materials, they should of charged a little more to make a more durable, less delicate phone.

I bought this Sony Ericsson a while but never really got a chance to write my review until now.i thought that the phone was going to be the blue on the image given on amazon, i got orange...apparently the seller is choosing the color for you. The extreme part though is the screen conked out on me after a few months of the purchase, cant see one thing.. its coming on perfectly normal and i am receiving calls but i cant see who's calling me! that is why i gave it a one star.

I have gone through many cell phones in the 10 years that I have used mobiles. This is certainly one of my favorite phones I have ever had!! And I have had many phones that I have used and destroyed in some way or another. I got this phone in an emerald green and I enjoyed the color as much as the phone. I never stored more than 30-50 songs on the phone, which was okay, because you can always add more on and take some off. Camera takes pictures. I have never had internet feature, so I guess I don't know what I'm missing there, but it's not necessary at all = cell phones don't HAVE to have internet to be a good phone.
I could be a tester for phone durability! I have done all sorts of things to phones that either impaired their ability to function or killed them completely...sometimes I would be surprised what phones could live through.
This phone I had for just under two years, and I dropped it all the time, sat on it in my back pocket and put in a small bookbag that it would be tossed around in sometimes. This phone was fairly solid! I loved the slider feature and the up, down, left, and right buttons during texting. However, a cell phone can only handle so much abuse when it's not a "candybar" phone.
The screen eventually went black, seemingly off. Unable to make/take calls. But it was a ghost phone! It tried to live after it was gone by sounding the alarm that I had set every morning at 4:30am! The screen would show the alarm, snooze and sound again...But sadly the phone was no longer more than an alarm clock. I would have purchased this phone again, but my company did not have it available and I didn't think to order online. If I need a new phone again and this one is still available online somewhere I would get it!