Customer Reviews

Sony Ericsson W518a Phone, Red (AT&T)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love this phone. I am a music freak and this phone is perfect for me. I added a 16gb memory card so I have about 2600 songs on this phone. The reception is always perfect and the 3 megapixel camera is amazing. Using MediaGo to transfer music and pictures is pretty easy. I bought a cable to hook up this phone to my car stereo and sounds great. Has a nice "MEGA bass" feature as well as an equalizer option. Took a little while to figure out some of the menus though. I would recommend this phone to anyone who is just as interested in music as they are talking on the phone.....

I have had the black W518a for a year. I use my phone to watch movies and listen to music a lot. The battery can't hold the charge anymore after a year of heavy usage. I like the W518a so much (please read my review on the black W518a), I am going to buy a replacement battery for $18 here in Amazon. But I finally just sign up for another 2 years and pay $18 upgrade fee to get this red W518a instead. I will just take the battery from the red one and put the phone away for spare instead.

I was going to pick another brand. I checked the Samsung A777, LG GU295, and the Nokia 6350.

None of these free phones can match the specs from the W518a. Comparing these phones side by side in the store, the W518a is just much much better in every aspect. The W518a is easy to use. The placement of the keys is just right. The screen is crystal and the speaker is loud. The other free Samsung touch screen phone is very nice but AT&T wants another $20 a month for the message plan. That is going to add up to $480 for 2 years. For $480 more, I can just buy a very nice unlocked phone here in Amazon instead.

People complaint the W518a crashes a lot. The reason is that the SIM card is loose inside the phone. This happens a lot with many of my other phones. Just shim the SIM card with a small piece of paper. This fixes it good.

This phone is great. I will buy this phone again and again. And I just did.

The W518a is one of the best phone you can find for free. 5 stars.

If your looking for a phone that doesn't require an extra data plan, then I think this is a great phone, I was looking for something that would work well with my Ford Sync and this is it. Down loaded my contacts and streams music to my car wonderfully. It does a lot for a free phone. The only drawbacks I have with it, are the ones I saw when i was reasearching a new phone, Would be great if it used a reqular usb hook up, and if the numbers on the key pad were raised a little to make it easier to enter your numbers. But I bought the usb,headphone hook ups on amazon for less than 6 bucks so to me it wasn't a big deal, your gonna buy accesories with any new phone you get, because few of them share the same hook ups anyway. I downloaded songs off my computer to this phone with no problems, (get a mini card when you get the phone if you want to do this) everything snapped in place and did what it was supposed to do, so again i have no complaintants. If you text 50 times a day then you might want to get something different, but for those of us who still talk on the phone, send a few texts now and then, want to replace their mp3 player, and not have to carry a ton of cords around with you, then hey this phone works just fine and If you have microsoft sync in your car, then this one will do most of those functions as well.

If you accidently press the large middle button on the phone it immediately goes on the internet and you get a data charge! The phone is a bit hard to open and it is slippery and easy to drop. It will not play audible.com audio files. When it looses its connection it makes a series of loud obnoxious tones. The battery life is short. The screen is unreadable in bright sunlight. It doesn't come with ear buds which is odd for Walkman phone. I replaced this phone with an unlocked Nokia 3710.

I have been partial to Sony Ericsson cellphones ever since I had the W300i flip phone a few years ago and a Walkman after that. Recent Sony Ericsson cellphone releases seem to be lacking in quality.

I don't use the music features or any of the data options on a cellphone; I am primarily interested in something that has good reception for both the caller and the listener. Ideally, I prefer non-touchscreen camera phones that are durable and uncomplicated with decent-sized buttons. I am also partial to flip phones/phones that open up like a clamshell and phones that come in colors besides basic black.

The 518a has much of what I desired in a phone; however, it's a flimsier phone that what I'm accustomed to with Sony and the battery dies out quickly. If you are one who uses a cellphone for rather long conversations, the relatively short battery-time allowance will frustrate you.

Another problem comes with the screen. It fades and eventually blacks out completely. If I'm lucky it will eventually light up again. This could be a problem with the backlighting, according to the Customer Service analyst I spoke with at AT&T, or it could be something else -- something basically unfixable. My other Sony phone (W300i) eventually died from the same type of problem (lighting).

The positive features of this phone include the following:
1. Ridiculously easy to use compared to some of the newer "smart" phones. This is the reason I chose Sony in the first place-- ease of use and simplicity.

2. Camera takes fairly good shots. It has 3.1 pixels which doesn't seem remarkable, but the picture quality is fine regardless. Camera offers easy-to-use features, including the Night photo option --a feature I definitely wanted. The editing mode allows you to manually adjust lighting, brightness, color and tint, as well as offering some other more whismical features like "cartoon" and "Painting."

3. No mandatory data plan requirement.

4. It comes in RED. I have a habit of misplacing my phone and searching for it at the bottm of my purse. Red is more visible than black, although I sort of wish this phone had come in neon green or yellow.

Incidentally, after the battery life and lighting on the 518a rendered the phone too unreliable, I went out and purchased a Sony Ericsson Vivaz camera phone, hoping and expecting much better but, alas, the Sony Vivaz is much worse (freezes all the time, can't see screen at all when outside during the daytime, horrible results when taking nighttime shots, etc. etc.).

In short I would say that this phone is better than just "okay" as long as you're not paying more than, say, $100.00 or so for the phone and if you want a phone that's easy to use. If you're like me and favor Sony Ericsson phones, you would probably be better off purchasing an older Sony Ericsson phone, even if it is gently used.

This phone is awesome!! It plays music and has amazing talk time. I've definitely talked more than 4 hours on it when fully charged. I'd say about 6 hours when it's fully charged is more appropriate. I don't text or use the internet on my phone--i only talk and listen to music. The only downside is that you need special Sony Ericsson plugs and memory cards to be compatible with this phone, but those were accessories I wasn't worried about buying. I know I'm gonna have this phone for a long long time--so buying a little more for it wasn't a big deal. I found a cheap and useful usb cable and Sony micro M2 SD card for my W518a here on amazon.

**(Only the MICRO M2 SD CARD is compatible with this phone!!! not regular micro SD cards!!!)

All in all, I love my simple phone. I've dropped it many times and now it's a little chipped--I actually ordered a case for it today--but like I said, I'm gonna have this phone for a long time so getting the neccessities isn't a big deal. It still works perfectly and I still get alot of talk time!!

Its a really horrible phone. I really don't know how can people give it 5 stars. Its impossible to use even for basic features. The key pad is very difficult to use. If you keep the phone in pocket, the key on the front of the phone keeps getting pressed and the phone starts to play music. I bought this phone and within a week returned it.

This phone has been a non-stop hassle. The "pc suite" that allows you to transfer music etc. to the phone from a computer and actually getting it to work was a months-long hassle. Some accessories -- eg, a non-bluetooth headset -- are nonexistent. The style of plug is the long, flat type, compatible with nothing. The display is sluggish; you can't set the number of rings you want; the selection of ringtones is lame; the sound option selection is awkward -- you have to take the phone away from your head to change from phone to speaker to bluetooth; etc. Never again.

This phone started to fall apart within a few months after I bought it. Never again.