Customer Reviews

Sony Ericsson W600i Unlocked Walkman Phone - Orange

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sony ericsson W600 review

updated note: phone has been sent back to the manufacturer twice now for bluetooth problems. upon thinking about this phone some more, i'd say the software is buggy for a lot of people. please take this into consideration before buying.

i bought this phone in early december for the oh-so-NOT-low price of $390 from letstalk.com. i was (am) only about seven months into my two-year contract, so yes, i paid full price. :eek:

in my past, i've owned most of the major brands of phones (motorola, nokia, samsung, sony ericsson, sharp) and right before i got this phone, i was a happy motorola V551 owner. initially, i had wanted the sony ericsson W800, but without the 850mhz band and being a cingular customer, i wasn't going to risk it.

in short, i love this phone. to date, it's the best phone i've owned. i don't think it's worth the $390 i paid for it, but that's really my fault. i'm impatient and wanted this phone reeeeeally bad and didn't want to wait until it dropped in price (if it ever will). i am going to cover a few of the major components to this phone and then list some pros and cons. mine is a cingular-branded phone, so keep that in mind when i talk about certain features.

camera: i've had a few camera phones before this one. i'll preface this section by saying what 100s of others have said: it's a camera PHONE. it's not going to have the quality to make even a decent 4X6 print. what it IS good for are those moments where you're thinking, "oh! i wish i had a camera right now!". my last phone was a VGA camera and i thought by getting a phone with a 1.3 MP camera, it'd be a noticable difference. it isn't really. however, the cameras on phones are such a relative subject since once person can think the pic looks good and others think it looks like total doodie. i would urge you to look at samples of pics this phone has taken and judge for yourself. i wasn't too impressed, but that's not why i bought the phone. the camera has a lot of neat little options (special effects, white balance, shoot mode, night mode, self-timer, etc), but that's all kinda lost when the pictures aren't that great. it should be noted that the camera on this phone and the sony ericsson S710a (a phone very similar to the W600) are both 1.3MP, but the S710a has a CCD sensor, which results in better pics. the phone will also take little (albeit grainy) video clips. moving on...

bluetooth: doesn't seem to be as easy to use as with my motorola, but i have some learning to do here. was what was cool was transferring ringtones from my friend's SE T616 to mine via bluetooth. free ringtones for me! i don't have bluetooth on any of my PCs, so i cannot comment on bluetooth connectivity in relation to that. i just like that the option (bluetooth) is there.

walkman: holy crap, it's a MP3 player on my phone! the walkman is pretty easy to use and so is the software to transfer songs to your phone. it took me about 12 minutes to transfer 15 songs, so it's not incredibly fast, but it's a cool app, nonetheless. the phone can hold about 60-70 songs at 128bps (ripping at other bitrates is possible, allowing more/less songs to be stored on the phone), depending on what other stuff you have on your phone (pics, vids). the sound is pretty damn good. you can listen to MP3s from the speakers or via headphones. i was very impressed. the phone does NOT have a 3.5mm plug, but comes with an adapter, so all is well. i've even plugged this phone into my car's cassette adapter and played MP3s through the car's stereo speakers. MP3s can also be used as ringtones. all-in-all, no complaints here! well, except the 256MB limit.

radio: nice little feature! you HAVE to have the headset plugged in to listen to the radio, as it acts as the antenna, but while it's plugged in, you can send the sound to come out of the speakers. radio is easy to use, channels are easy to store and radio sounds good. the radio (as well as the MP3 player), will pause if you get a call and resume when you're done. you can also use the radio and MP3 player while doing other things on the phone. headphones sound awesome.

games: the phone came with six games: asphalt3D, blockbreaker, bruwnswick billiards, jewel quest, name that tune, tetris, and 3D extreme air snowboarding. all games are locked, so you can only play them for about a minute and then you are prompted to purchase them. they are $6-$8, roughly. total rip off. thanks cingular.

ringtones: again, thanks to cingular, there are only six ringtones that come with this phone, and they are pretty crappy. there are free ones all over the place, so don't go spending your inheritance on buying them from cingular. or, do as i do and grab them off another SE phone via bluetooth. there is a little app including on the phone called musicDJ and you can actually make your own ringtones. kinda cool. i've made a few so far and they aren't bad. well, ok, my mom said they sounded horrible, but what does she know?

syncing: this phone syncs with your contacts, tasks, notes and calendar, if you have those kinds of programs on your PC. i got my phone to sync with my outlook, which now means i'll sell my PDA. SE's PC suite works pretty well and transferring files is easy. however, it seems like every now and again, when i am connected via USB, it reboots my phone. don't know what that's about. i don't think any harm is being done.

the phone feels pretty solid in your hand, weight-wise. i've never owned a slider/swivel phone in my life, and while it's not the most convenient to "flip" open, it's not bad. you can actually place and receive calls with the phone swivelled shut, too, which i liked.

it seems like SE didn't leave anything out with this phone (except a memory slot) and i love it. they thought of everything on this phone: radio, little flash light, dedicated key lock button, infrared, calendar, music/video/picture DJ,stopwatch, timer, tasks, notes and the list goes on and on. the phone's styling (ie: orange cover) isn't for everyone, but i love it. my phone did come with a 2nd cover, in navy blue. it's styling and shape is great and i love the orange backlit keypad. it's definitely a head-turner.

and, above all, reception and clarity of calls is great. i've had no complaints when i've used the phone, the headset, the bluetooth headset and speakerphone. it's really nice. this of course, can be dependent on your network. i live in the midwest in a fairly large area (260K people), so we have cell towers all over the place.

pros:

* nice size.
* bluetooth, infrared and speakerphone.
* radio and MP3s
* clarity of calls is excellent. reception is great.
* screen is nice and bright.
* easy to get pics, vids, etc. on and off the phone.
* phone comes with everything you need (except car charger)
* this phone is loaded - nothing is left out!
* sony ericsson's interface is great; apps like the address book are loaded with room for tons of info. menus are easy to use.

cons:

* no memory slot. on-board memory, while not bad, is limited to 256MB.
* price (well, at full retail anyway).
* camera is disappointing for a 1.3MP.
* phone goes into standby (screen off) after 15 seconds. very annoying and to date, i've found no way to change that.
* games are locked for only 1 minute of play. thanks cingular ;( not ONE free game is included.
* keypad buttons are small, and close together. i have small hands, so the key size is not so bad, it's the fact that they are right next to each other.

this is a great phone. its big disappointment is the fixed 256MB memory, but for a lot of people who just want to listen to a few songs and not 500, this phone will suit you just fine. i am hoping to keep this phone for more than six months (which is about how often i get a new cell phone) - it has everything i need and nothing i don't. kudos to sony ericsson for putting out a great phone! woo! ;)

Wow, I was impressed as soon as started trying out the features. The sound on the mp3 player is excellent, full range of bass that is deep and crisp highs. The earphones are very impressive as well. They are the plug type so when you put them in you can't hear anything around you even if you don't have the mp3 player playing. The radio worked better than expected, especially after reading the reviews about it not working very well. I live in Indianapolis and can pick up most of the major stations while at work, at home, or on my bicycle. The whole way home from the Cingular store I was transfixed with all of the little gadgets the phone had, the digital camera, the video capture, the radio, the mp3 player, the media net, the samples from MobiTV, and on and on. I couldn't wait to get home and start transferring music to the phone.

Installed the software which was easy enough, hooked up the USB connection (which also acts as charger) transferred about 5 songs tested them out to see how they worked, no problem.

So decided to transfer some more songs and then .........BAM!!!!!! The "WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH". For those of you who don't know what that is, it happens when the hone locks up and nothing can be done to fix it. There is no hard reset or soft reset for the phone (I already checked with SonyEriccson technical support). At this point your phone is useless (yes, there are some people out there who have gotten lucky and got their phone to unlock, but it is just that luck, not a proven method to fix this problem).

After searching all of the support forms, it seems that this is a known problem caused by some bad firmware that to this point SonyErricson has been unwilling to address. So I then called SonyEriccson technical support. Explained what happened and they only had me check of couple of things and then had not problem offering to exchange the product, only stipulation were that you first have to send your phone to them, you pay the shipping, you pay the insurance, and pray that nothing happens to it, then 6 to 10 days later they will "SHIP" not deliver your replacement phone. For those of you who want to see their letter of what to do look below my review.

Next course of action, I went to my local Cingular dealer and told them what the problem was and that I wanted to exchange it for the same model of phone. They were very friendly and exchanged my phone, even though I had purchased the phone out of state. To this point my phone has been working for about 2 weeks with no issues, however I have not hooked the USB cable back to the phone again for fear of the same thing happening.

PROS::::

MP3 Player: Won't replace your IPOD in all situations, but then again you can use your IPOD to call anyone either. Sound is great and easy to find songs and add playlists.

RADIO: Good reception for a portable radio, the controls are easy to use and the radio has the ability to display song/station/artists names from radio stations that broadcast these items. You need to have the headphones plugged in order to use the radio.

HEAD PHONES: These are not cheap head phones at all and deliver good quality. They work well when using the phone as well. Most of the people I talk to have no idea that I am using the headset as opposed to the phone itself (You can hook standard 3.5mm headphones you wan to the phone as long as you use the adapter that comes with the phone)

BLUETOOTH MODEM: This is feature that a lot of people probably overlook, but with this phone you can hook it up to a laptop and surf the internet using your cell phone as a modem. The speed is not great, actually it is pretty poor for most websites, but, "SLOW INTERNET" is better than "NO INTERNET".

MEDIA NET: This is much better than the RAZR. I am not sure how small the type font is for this phone, but you can see so much more on this phone as opposed to what you can see on the RAZR while surfing the web.

MEDIA NET - keying: I like this feature a lot, the phone is smart enough to known (most of the time) whether you are going to enter an email address, phone number, or url, so it generally provides the most common keys used in the correct order. For instance if you are typing an email, the "@" comes before the "/" sign. If you are typing http the ":" and "//" come up right way.

EMAIL: If you know what you are doing and know who to search the web for the correct settings for your email provider, then POP, IMAP, and HTTP setup is a breeze on this phone.

SPEAKERS-MUSIC: The speakers on this phone are surprisingly loud. (Be warned that this a good way to drain your batter).

SPEAKER PHONE: The speaker phone is loud, but not near as loud as when being used by the MP3 player. Most people I have spoken to report that the sound quality they hear when I am on the speaker phone is very good.

INFRARED: Pretty easy to setup and use.

CONS:::::::

WHITE SCREEN DEATH: Completely unaccepted for this to happen and no hard reset button to fix it. This phone has been out for awhile and there have not been any firmware updates to address this. Shame on SonyEriccson!!!

MEDIA NET BUTTON: Is on the outside of the phone and is too easy to touch when in your pocket, purse, or wherever and it connects to media net racking up charges.

SONY PHONE TO DISC: Software can be used to transfer via the USB connection (see aproblem here, your USB connection could cause your phone to lock up for good and become 100% useless) It will not work over a BlueTooth Connection.

FILE TRANSERS USING BLUETOOTH: You can only transfer 1 file at time over blue tooth, meaning that you cannot select 10 songs from your pc library and then transfer them to your phone, your phone will only take on at a time by dragging and dropping them Needless to say that this is a slow a tedious process given how slowly Bluetooth transfers large files. In order to transfer more than one file at a time you need to select the files you want to transfer and select the copy command then go to the desired location of the phone and select past.

BLUETOOT SYNCHRONIZATION: You better know how a computer works inside and out before you attempt this, you need to know about serial ports, how to enable and disable them and how to pick the free ones. You also need to know how Bluetooth adapters work. Don't think that you can just install the software for your Bluetooth adapter on your computer, enter in your passcode and everything will work, not quite that simple.

CAMERA: The pictures are OK, but not great. It is a 1.3 Mega Pixel, which is a step from the 640X480. A CAMERA IS BETTER THAN NO CAMERA I guess
For sample pictures and videos that I have take with this phone take a look at my website:

***** http://gaskin.dyndns.org/reviews/w600i ******

NOTE--You will need to have QuickTime installed in order look at the videos. If you buy the phone and run the software setup QuickTime is automatically installed.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION::::
(Reviewer background: 32 yr male, graduate degree, 7 years IT)

If you are tech savvy, have good eye sight to read the smaller fonts on the screen, understand Bluetooth and computers, are willing to tinker long enough to learn some of this phone's idiosyncrasies, need an occasional mp3 player, a radio, a phone that supports TV broadcasts, speaker phone, and surfing the internet, then this phone will probably work great for you.

If you are not into MP3s, don't need the radio, don't want to use the phone a wireless modem for your laptop or PDA, don't know your way around a computer and adding devices to a computer, have poor eyesight, or little patience when it comes to technology, then you should probably look somewhere else.

If you are 16 years old, you will probably be the envy of your friends with this phone. (You probably will spend all of your hard earned money on the phone + service plan)

If you are 26 years old, you probably already have phone from work that supports most of these features, but maybe not all of them. (You probably are making enough money that the data plan is not a major concern, your friends at the gym will still probably think it's a cool phone)

If you are 36 years old, you might be getting close to where you don't care too much about MP3 players, Bluetooth, an cameras. (You can probably afford it, but your friends either won't be impressed or don't have any idea what Bluetooth is, the cool factor is probably not there for you.

If you are 46 years old, you are probably won't care too much about this phone.

This is a very good cell phone and Amazon.com gives the best deal. But, you can't transfer your old phone number from different provider to Cingular through Amazon.com. If you transfer your old phone number, you won't get your mail-in rebate. Please read amazon.com mail-in rebate rules carefully!!!
You can read about how to transfer your number through this link : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/508597/102-6686881-6992121

Almost a month since I have been a proud owner of this phone. I think it's a mix of style and good sound quality. I bought this phone for around $350 (coz mine is a unlocked version). Talking about Pros and cons. I love the design. I think it's pretty different and compact. The battery back up is amazing, even with the Walkman Switched On (It allows me to play music for 10 hours of music play with regular phone usage = 2 days battery). You don't have to open the phone again and again to access various functions. All functions can be accessed through the buttons on the main face itself. Voice clarity on a call is superb and so is the display (clear and sharp). The flash/torch light is powerful enough to help you replace your car's tire on a highway, still compact enough to fit in our pocket. Walkman gives amazing sound clarity even at full volume and full BASS (it gonna blow your ears). It has the following EQ Presets:
1. Normal,
2. Bass,
3. Mega Bass,
4. Voice,
5. Treble boost
6. Manual (5 Bands).
It has Stereo Widening (effective if u using high quality Mp3). Backlight is Orange. It has detachable faces so that you can change it as per your mood (Orange, White and Blue) Locking and unlocking the keypad is very easy. It has a dedicated switch like key on its left for the same. Profiles can be changed as per the environment pressing the shutdown button (located at top left) or you can put the phone directly on Silent Mode using the # key (which enables the vibration automatically - also available in the shutdown menu). All the profiles are appropriate to the environment. Default Profiles: Normal, Meeting, In Car, Outdoor, Handsfree, Home and Office (An icon would display on top left of the screen for every profile you activate). A dedicated volume control on the right, using which you change tracks as well. You might take a week's time to get use to the interface. A dedicated button to switch-on the Walkman (on the main interface itself - bottom right) also a dedicated button for internet access - bottom left. The phone has a few more features like:
1. On call sound recording (.amr format)
2. Voice recording (.amr format)
3. Code Memo (For safe storage of personal info)
4. Picture phonebook (for displaying caller's pic)
5. Supports animated wallpapers
6. EDGE (W550i is not EDGE Enabled)

It allows you to download and install JAVA software and games. Here's a link for downloading JAVA based applications
www.getjar.com

The Camera
It has a dedicated button for camera (on the right side), but the swivel must be closed . It has following Image Sizes available:
160 x 120 -> 4X Digital Zoom;
640 x 480 -> 2X Digital Zoom;
1280 x 1024 -> No Zoom.
It also has an option to increase or decrease the gamma levels. You can shoot pictures on the following modes: Normal; Panorama; Frames; Burst. (Please don't expect me to explain all this... Please). You can choose from 4 click sounds when a picture is clicked.
Video has 2 sizes ->
128 x 96 with a variable digital zoom of 4X,
176 x 144 with a variable digital zoom of 4X.
It has night mode with flash light. THE CAMERA S**Ks BIGTIME. THE PICTURES CLICKED USING THE PHONE ARE FULL OF NOISE, SPECAILLY THE ONES CLICKED AT NIGHT, (even with flash and night mode on). I compared the pics I clicked using my phone with the pics clicked using Nokia 6600. I THINK 6600 ROCKS. (If you wanna see the results do lemme know I'll email 'em to you)

You can have animated or static wallpapers. The in-built themes are pretty cool. It has 3 in-built games:
1. Extreme Air Snowboarding 3D;
2. Gauntlet;
3. Worms Fort 3D.
(Oh BTW if you buying it on Cingular, the games you get would be trail version with a time limit)
While gaming, the screen can be switched to landscape/portrait mode. It has 2 dedicated buttons for gaming (top). I got 46 JAVA based games, in case if you want it lemme know, I'll email 'em to you. It has a few software like Video DJ (Video Editor.. add text, shapes etc to a video), Music DJ (Create your own music), Photo DJ (Edit photos, add frames etc). It has 2 in-built applications:
1. World Clock and
2. News Reader.
It has a memory capacity of around 225MB (usable) = around 64 songs @ 96 kbps or 48 songs @ 128 -> assuming the average length of a song to be minimum of 5 minutes (the memory is not extendable hence i think they should have provided with at least 512MB as the default memory). The download/upload speed using Bluetooth = 40/20 Kilobytes Per Second respectively. That's all i have time for right now, if you have any extra queries bout the phone you can email me (check profile for email address). I'll ensure that I reply. Hope the article helps you make a choice if this is your 1st Sony Ericsson phone (like me). Also you can request me for the games and other stuff on this email address. I'll try and post a few detailed pics of the phone over the net soon. You may request for the same on the above mentioned email address. BTW one last thing, the phone comes in with a DATA cable around 1.5 m long (USB) to transfer data from PC to phone and vice versa. Hence you can use the phone as a pen drive as well. For e.g. you can transfer zipped files over the Bluetooth unlike most other brand phone. I find the sound quality to be better than an ipod.
Later
Signing off

I've had a few other SE phones, T68i, T226, Z520a, and now this one the W600i. My service provider is Cingular which carried over from AT&T Wireless. The following is my experience with this phone over the last few months in my area in Honolulu.

LOOKS: I think the phone is very stylish; I always get a curious look whenever I take it out. Its a twister type phone that hides it's keypad behind the top portion. One reason I chose this phone was that it's antennae was unique, the antennae is the looped portion of the phone thus avoiding the stub type that is usually found on most phones. The phone is a bit thick, about 2 - 2 1/2 times thicker than the RAZR. When I got it from Cingular it came with an additional black faceplate besides the orange one that's already on the phone. The display is bright and appropriately sized for this phone, smudges and fingerprints are unavoidable with this phone; it will collect body oil (from your face, fingers) so you will be constantly wiping the display. All the buttons are really made for small fingers, if you have fat fingers you are SOL. The keypad itself I use my fingernails to press the buttons - its kind of flat, I wished it was more pronounced so you can actually feel the buttons.

FUNCTIONS/FEATURES/PERFORMANCE: The W600i is really full featured with lots of connectivity options - Bluetooth, infrared, USB, GPRS or EDGE. It has limited synchronization with MS Outlook, multiple phone numbers per name, calendar, and some others. The software sync bundle works but has space for lots of improvements; sync-ing is slow on both Bluetooth and USB.
MUSIC FUNCTIONS: Lets face it - the primary attractive feature of this phone is it's Walkman capability. Memory is a paltry 256MB shared (no memory slot whatsoever!) Some built in screen savers/games/pictures share the same memory space. Wish I could delete everything I don't care for like the stupid built in pictures (locked by Cingular or SE). Music can be transferred by SE's Disc2Phone software which does limited format conversions or you can drag and drop your files via USB when the phone is in File transfer mode. With the limited memory space, you can't load it up as much as you want so if you have large MP3 files - pick & choose or re-encode to another format that the phone supports. I re-encoded some of my MP3s to the M4A format so I could fit a decent amount, converting 5 MB MP3's to M4A got me a little over 2.1 MB per file though some quality took a hit. Music playback is pretty good, menu navigation is not like the iPods so don't compare. Headphones are hooked up via SE's proprietary connector, but it allows you to hookup your favorite headphones to it so I caution you about the extended wire length. You can use your files as ring/alarm tones too - very cool! Radio mode requires the use of the headphones, disappointing but I really don't use the radio portion anyway. Battery runtime will vary depending on which mode you set the phone to, MP3 player only will last quite a while.

CAMERA: 1.3mp camera takes decent pictures in strong light even in a room with fluorescent lighting, the auto brightness/contrast does a good job. Limited zoom capability. Night shots - forget about it, unless you have the flash module (extra). It does have a light feature but does not act like a flash and its very weak. Another feature is to record video too but why bother it'll just eat up precious memory space.

SPEAKERPHONE: Another feature I like about this phone - very loud, I can get away without using a car kit or hands free headphones. The party on the other end hasn't complained about not hearing me yet. Oh and yes the voice dialing is good, but I wish the beep to let you know when to say the name was louder, even when not in speaker mode you can hardly hear it at all.

RECEPTION: Quad band GSM goodness and the unique antennae give this phone excellent reception...well in my area anyway.

SUMMARY: A phone worth recommending especially when the price is coming down. My requirements when I purchased this phone: converge my MP3 player and phone into one, sync with Outlook, speakerphone with voice dial, Bluetooth, decent camera, and costs. I can charge the phone via wall, car, or USB port - very flexible and fast too! This phone is continuing to serve me well, but the upcoming W810 is looking pretty good. On a few occasion I had experienced some strange lock ups with the phone but it was very few perhaps the firmware needs an update. My only major complaint is the small memory size and no expansion slot. C'mon SE, 256 MB is a laughable amount especially one that can play music! 512 MB would have been a better size for this phone. I was looking at the RAZR too but the W600 beats it by a long margin in features, so what if the RAZR is flat? Well this was my opinion, I hope my review has been helpful. Quad band ROCKS! One other thing...good luck in finding any good accessories like carrying case & face plates...very scarce...

I was in the market for a new phone and I wanted something on the high-end, something with all the bells and whistles : camera, bluetooth, music player, and everything in between. So I went and looked around for the best phone that suites my needs. I looked at everything from the ROKR to RAZR. My heart was set on a RAZR, just because it was very popular, but at the last minute I saw the w600i and got it. It was perfect. After a few day with it this is my verdict.

Pros: Features, Features, Features!!!!!!!!! Loaded with many features. First look at it, it comes in an orange outer shell, and also comes with a blue shell, so you can change style of the phone. Even better you can make your own covers and change it whenever you want. Sony really wanted you to change the cover seemlessly, so they made it very easy to change. Second the screen is big, and very clear. Pictures will stand out with this phone. When folded, it feels and looks like a regular digital camera. It also has MEGA BASS speakers which will make any noise coming from this phone sound like a small stereo speaker. Third the design is a swivel action, which can be "swiveled" in both direction, but cannot swivel a complete 360 degree, which I understand. The phone can be used for calls without opening the keypad. The only time you need the keypad is text messaging or contacts being inputed into the phone. Upon turning on the phone, there are many things to do, for example the phone comes with an antennea and ear buds, so you could listen to the radio. The ear buds even have different size foam tip to fit everybody's ear size. The ear buds, which sounds very good, can be used to listen to the radio or your mp3s, which you could download into the w600i, so it is also a walkman, and don't worry about storage space, it has a built in 256mb memory which is enough to carry your favorite 20 songs, and have room for all the other stuff like pictures and games. I have another portable mp3 player with thousands of songs, but I put my favorite 20 or so on this phone. I don't need 500 songs on this. No memory cards to buy, which is I hate changing. And last there are many preloaded stuff, like ringtones and themes, music DJ, mutimedia text, photo templates, video recorder, voice recorder, stop watch, calendar, and comes with a USB cable so it could be hooked up to your computer to transfer images and songs to the phone.

Cons: There are not that many, and these things are minor, for example, this phone is on the bulky side, a little thick but I could live with it. The area where the charger goes has a cover to protect it from dust, which does get in the way when charging the phone or hooking up the ear bud and antennea. The radio cannot come out of the speakers, only through the ear buds. The camera has no zoom. The number keypads feel fragile. No full games, just a bunch of demos, it should at least have a full version of Tetris. But I'm not a big gamer anyways.

Overall excellent and fun phone, all the things you need in one little package, and I am very pleased with it. If you want something different from the usual flip phones I recommend this one. Plus it is just the coolest looking phone, from what my friends said.

I have had a hard time finding a phone that I really like, but with the w600 I have actually succeeded. As a previous reviewer said, it comes loaded with features, and for the most part they're very functional and easy to use.

One of the major functions for this walkman phone is obviously music. It comes with a cd which lets you load transfer software onto your computer (I've got a pc, so I don't know how/if it works for macs) and then very simply transfer music files. It is slightly annoying that it can't just sync with one of the more common music programs out there, like iTunes or WinMP, but the interface is simple and fairly fast. Once your music is on the phone, you can arrange it into playlists or play it by artist or by album, all of which is simple to do. The major irritant with the music functionality is the limited memory. The phone has 256k of memory included, which serves for music, pictures AND video. so you can't put too many songs onto it if you have any intention of taking pictures or video with the onboard camera, and there is no way to upgrade the memory- i've got 36 songs on there, leaving 100k free. I am consistently confused as to why cell phones that are designed to play music, like this and the ROKR, have such limited memory, it seems like a major design flaw. (there is a memory card in sony ericsson's similar walkman model, the w800, but you can only buy that unlocked at the moment)

The camera is similarly simple and easy to use, and has really nice picture quality for a phone. not only can you change the picture quality and zoom (but only in the lower two picture quality settings), you can also set it to take pictures in several different styles (including black and white, negative, and sepia toned), as well as setting it to take a burst of several pictures rapidly or to join several pictures into a panorama shot, and changing the white balance to accommodate for several different lighting conditions. The camera is obviously only 1.3 mega-pixel, which is well below the top of the line in digital cameras, but is much better than most other camera phones. and I love that it has a little mirror below the lens so you can figure out where your head is in relation to the lens while taking a self-portrait- every camera should have this!

The video is also easy to use, just one simple change in the camera settings and off you go. This can also be done in two quality levels, and the top level is very nice for a phone. I read somewhere that you can only record for a minute at a time, but I've gone over that, so I think the only limit is the (admittedly small) memory.

I'm not much of a gamer, so I haven't really explored that area, but in my brief look I did notice that you have to unlock the games in some way, which appears to be buying the 'complete version'- this seems kind of cheap to me, that they couldn't even put a simple game of tetris on the phone to begin with, but as I say, I haven't really explored so I could be mistaken.

The phone features are also well put together- it's not intuitive to assign individual ringtones and pictures to your contacts, but it's not too difficult to figure out either- it just requires a quick look in the manual. Similarly, programming speed dial and voice dialing is easy to do once you've checked the manual. On the whole, the menu system is not very intuitively organized, so it can be difficult to deal with at first, but once you've figured out how it works it's easy to deal with. There are almost no ringtones that come with, but they are easy to get these days, and it is also very simple to set the songs from the music player as ringtones. The calendar doesn't have a feature to make repeated events easy to schedule, but since it can be synched with outlook that's probably not a big deal unless you don't use outlook (like me!). There is a functionality to transfer all of your contacts either to or from your sim card, which means you don't have to type them twice (yay!), and the phone address book allows up to four numbers per contact entry (although you do have to name them 'mobile', 'home', 'work', and 'other', which doesn't always align with reality).

The sound quality, both during phone calls and when playing music, is really incredible- and the included earphones are great! it is also nice that you can switch the included earphones for any others you want by plugging it in to the hands free speaker, making any headphones into a handsfree set. as another reviewer mentioned, it is annoying that you can't listen on the headphones and charge at the same time, and the little rubber plug cover does get in the way when you're plugging things in, but it is nice to know that dust isn't going to be interfering with your charging later on. I like the swivel open system, although I do wonder what will happen if it gets dropped while open, because there's no simple way to close like for flip phones- while the mechanism is pretty sturdy, it seems like it would be a little easier to break than some other designs. I also like the loop antenna, because it gets better reception than the internal antennas I've had in the past, without the danger of breaking off of the normal antennas, AND with the ability to hang it from something if you want to. It's a little heavier than other phones because of the higher quality camera stuff, but I think it's completely worth it. It's also nice that the cover can be changed so it doesn't HAVE to be orange- it comes with a black face-plate too.

So overall, I love this phone- it works great for me as a phone with great extras. It will never replace your mp3 player without more memory (and WHY they haven't started using larger flash drives in phones is, again, a mystery to me), and it won't replace your digital camera quite yet, but it's really great for those times when you want a little music but you only have your phone, or when you just HAVE to take a picture but don't have your camera.

pros:
*really high quality camera for a phone
*easy music system
*again, really high quality video for a phone
*easy to connect with computer for music or to sync data
*works well as a phone-
-good reception (in a place where most phones don't)
-good volume level (and ability to change it)
-simple to make and receive calls and messages
-easy to customize different contacts

cons:
*memory is not upgradeable so music play, camera and video recording limited
*doesn't appear to come with ANY free games fully loaded
*included software for transfer is a little annoying- it would be much better just to be able to use stuff we already have.

This is a very cool phone. I upgraded from a pathetic old Motorola phone with just the basics so I was thrilled at the idea of getting a new phone with lots of bells and whistles.....which this has For Sure.

My review can only be based on a short period so I qualify all my comments with the fact that I have not yet fully had the opportunity to give this phone a chance......Yet.

I did lots of research on this phone before buying it...as I suggest you do as well. A lot of it was Very positive with just a few minor negatives that I could live with considering all that it did and how much I liked the design. I stopped dead in my tracks however when I read of "The White Screen of Death" or WSD. Now granted, all new products have their glitches and only a very very small portion of the reviews I read even contained the dreaded WSD reference. The few that did were daunting though. Knowing the possibility of encountering the WSD, I still went ahead and ordered the phone thru Cingular. It arrived and was beautiful and I immediately began using it. The usual, transferring all phone numbers, settings, this, that, the other....... I was LOVING my new phone and showing it to all my friends who were envious.

My phone arrived on a Tuesday and I spent a few days setting it up and enjoying the different features, most of which I never got to touch. I installed the software on my computer and connected the phone as instructed (ALWAYS read instructions to the T!!) and things were working fine. That was Saturday night. I plugged the phone it to recharge overnight and on Sunday morning I woke up, turned on the phone, watched it turn on as normal...................then FREEZE. I thought, Ok, this is just a matter of powering down and restarting, etc. I went back online to read my reviews I had bookmarked about the WSD and to my horror, read that this was the beginning stages....like cancer. I then went to my phone to continue to shut it down to reboot and BAM!!, THE WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH. I had the phone less than 96 hours and it was completely useless. I tried Everything. Once you see the WSD.....pls take my word for it and don't waste your precious time trying. It's dead. DEAD.

Now I have been having problems with Cingular for quite a while. My last Motorola phone had to be replaced after a few months because the camera broke. I called and they said they would send me out a new phone. Great. I then realized I lost all the settings, photos, data, etc...except for address book. My solution was to send all my photos to my laptop and then email them back to my new phone once I switched over. It was Incredibly time consuming, not to mention expensive. To Cingular's credit, I did call them and make them aware of all the data costs that I was incurring due to having to manually do all this transferring and when I suggested they credit my account they were happy to do so. Aside from losing hours of my precious time, I thankfully incurred no financial loss.

So, fearing the worst, I called Cingular on Sunday when the WSD appeared. Bad idea. Cingular customer service is open only Monday thru Friday for specific hours and closed on the weekends!! What company in the year 2006 does not have 24 hour customer service??? That is ABSOLUTELY ABSURD. I found a local Cingular store that was open on Sunday's and went there. They, of course, could do nothing for me since I purchased the phone "online" and that they were a retail store so couldn't do anything for me. Now, correct if I am wrong. We are talking about the same company, right? Same entity, same commercials, same shareholders, same B.O.D, etc? Of course they couldn't help me......how silly of me to think that the company I bought the phone from could assist me.....silly silly me.

Fast forward to today. I got CS at Cingular and told them my problem (actually, their problem), my incovenience. They were very pleasant and helpful and suggested I send the phone back and they would replace it free of charge....how nice of them. I asked when I would receive my new phone and they said...."as soon as we receive the old phone, we will process your order for a replacement". Process? Receive my old phone? I lost it.

After a very brief, but VERY persuasive discussion with them where legal liability was concerned, I was assured my new phone would be shipped the next day and would be fed-exed to me overnight. I should have it in 1-2 business days. I did conceed to the stipulation that they would put a charge on my Cingular bill for the retail price of $399.00 until the old phone was returned and then the charge would be removed. I felt this was a perfectly reasonable request. To my surprise, within 2 days, my new phone arrived, I have only had it for 1 day and hoping NEVER to see the WSD again. I am terrified to link it to my computer but that is what you have to do in order to access most of the phones features.

I love the look and feel of this phone. The swivel design is cool. The keypad is recessed and made for the hands of a 10 yr old girl so texting is Quite a challenge. There are external hot bottons, one to get you to the web on the outside where you can easily tap it and be online for hours being charged without even knowing it. There is no way to disable this feature either. Now that I think about it all..........Go with the Razr or the Slvr unless you are a high risk thrill taker.....if you are, then beware the "The White Screen of Death" and its vengance................

I will review again in about a month to update on any good or bad things I may have mentioned in this review.

Simply put, this is one of those phones that will cause a few "ooohs" and "ahhhs" when people see it. Firstly, the overall design is most impressive. The phone, though a bit thick, is probably smaller than you would imagine (this is definitely a good thing, though the screen size is probably smaller than you would have initially thought as well). The phone feels very solid and the swivel function, though somewhat annoying to operate one handedly, allows for the overall look of the device to be very flashy. The screen is bright and very easy to read, and the front of the phone is VERY intuitively designed; if you wanted to, you would only have to open the phone to put in a number or text someone, everything else can be done through the buttons on the face (made MUCH easier by designating up to four shortcuts).

You do not have to open the phone to answer or make calls, and the buttons on the side aid in the walkman function. Dedicated volume buttons on one side (which, when held, also skips to the next track- very nice), and one button on the other side to begin playback at any point; you do not have to go through menus to begin playing music. I have found the radio to be decent, but I receive poor reception, especially when walking (you also MUST have the headphone jacked plugged in to listen to the radio as it acts as an antenna). Music can be played at any point, even while playing a game, and the external speakers are VERY L O U D; very cool. Reception is good, and the speaker phone is great, though oddly enough I have found it to be a bit low; perhaps it's just me. The included headphones are actually very good, and this is great because included with them is a handsfree, so you can be listening to music, get a call, answer by touching the single button on the handsfree, then hang up with the same button, and music will pick up where it left off when the call was received, and this is awesome.

Battery life is supposedly fantastic, though it has not been so great for me; I think this is due to receiving poor reception in my home, so the phone constantly searches for a signal, draining the battery faster. If you have large hands like me, the keypad will not be your best friend as it is rather tiny, though manageable. Do not buy this phone for the camera as it is not a good camera; remember that the camera function is secondary (1.3 mega pixels after all). That being said, for a phone, the camera is very nice; many cool effects to play with, and video is decent as well. The lack of expandable memory really does hurt, but this is acceptable as 256 megs is a decent size, especially if you encode mp3s at a lower bitrate (anything less than 96kbps is very poor though). Volume with headphones is low; if you want to jack it up, manually adjust the equalizer to max settings and you will get a significant volume boost.

Overall, a FANTASTIC phone, highly recommended, 4 ½ stars. (sorry for the length)

If ever I had wanted a phone that is both flashy, stylish, functional, easy to use, and absolutely chock full of features then I hit the jackpot when I found this phone. It is the kind of phone that will inflict responses of awe when others see the phone and what it can do. It is fully customizable from the easy to change Style Up faceplate covers to the plethora of themes and wallpapers that you can dowload on the phone from Sony Ericsson or other websites. I'm sure that if you're reading this review then you probably already know of all the great features such as the FM tuner, mp3 player, 1.3MP camera, etc, etc. However, even though this phone is indeed my dream phone and I love it to death, after less than two weeks I am going to have to go to Cingular to get a new one because mine no longer works(Thank goodness for insurance, which I would HIGHLY recommend you have on this phone or any phone that costs this much money for that matter; it's $3.99 a month added onto your statement, but the peace of mind you get is worth it, especially if you purchased this phone at full retail, like me).

There seems to be a problem with the software/firmware on all of SE's new walkman phones, which include the W550, W600i, W800i, and w900. I'm not a techie so I'm not sure what causes it to happen but after doing some extensive research of this phone on the internet and in forums that discuss the phone, I have learned that the problem I have is not an isolated issue. The software on these new models is seemingly very buggy and causes the phones to cease function when turned on sometimes and flash between a plain white screen(which is being called the "white screen of death") and nothing at all. This also happens during and after file transfers and in my case it happened to me after attempting to change the theme on my phone. The first time it happened the screen just went white and the keypad locked up and I couldn't do anything to even get it to turn off. I amended this the first time by simply taking the battery out and putting it back in, which ressurected the phone without losing any data. Then the same thing happened a few days later only this time I am unable to ressurect it at all, not even when reinserting the SIM card and trying to power up the phone via the charger.
Now I know what you're probably thinking--that I must be one of those ignorant people who doesn't know how to properly disconnect the USB cable safely after file transfer or that I'm a phone abuser who is constantly tinkering with it and loads up the internal memory to full capacity--Not the case. I have only used file transfer mode about 4 times and have added a total of 6 mp3's @ 128kbs, a few java games, and about 8 themes. All for a total usage of about 56kb of the 256kb of available memory on the phone. I always follow the instructions and exit the software first(which it tells you to do on the phone) and even make sure to locate my phone in the 'Safely remove Hardware' utility on my PC to ensure that it is safe to disconnect everything. And no, I do NOT yank out the USB cable either. I am a 21 year-old experienced cell phone/PC hardware user and had to sell my ipod to afford this phone(No, I wouldn't recommend selling your ipod. With only 256kb of memory that is non-expandable, this is no ipod replacement, but this just goes to show just how much I wanted this phone and why I would certainly not abuse such an investment and take good care of it).

From what I have gathered from the research I have done on this problem, this sort of unstability problem tends to be common on the first batches of new SE phones that have complicated software/firmware and is usually worked out over time. Since this phone has been out for less than 2 months as of 12/05, I am willing to accept that, as it does make sense to me. Despite the inconvenience of having to return this phone, go back to my old LG, and wait for a replacement, I believe that for this phone it is worth it and I will do the same again if something goes wrong with the next phone I receive. THAT's how much I would recommend this phone and how much I adore it. And who knows? Perhaps the theme file that I attempted to install on the phone was corrupt and that's why the phone malfunctioned and reacted so badly( beware of a theme called Techno.thm--which was the culprit that killed my phone when I attempted to use it--twice). Either way, I thought that I should at least let you know that there ARE problems in existance with this phone right now and that nothing is perfect. However, if you have insurance on your plan or purchase some when you buy this phone(just in case) then I would not let this dissuade you from getting this phone. This problem is not widespread and might even have been dealt with by the time you receive your phone. But really, despite the hassles I've had thus far, this phone is truly amazing.