Customer Reviews

Sony Ericsson W810i Phone (AT&T, Phone Only, No Service)

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Ok, first I'm going to let you know what comes with this phone since it's near impossible to find out this information on Amazon.
' A Cingular branded phone (more on this later)
' Headphones
' Headphone adaptor
' Charger
' USB Cable
' 128mb Card (no card adaptor, just the card)

The biggest problem with this phone is that is has the Cingular branding in it. Not just the logo on the outside (that doesn't bother me), but inside the phone Cingular has changed things. First of all, the themes cannot be as customized as an unbranded w810i. There are some really cool themes with amazing icons. Too bad Cingular has prevented them from working on this phone. There are also "protected" ringtones in this phone. There is no way to delete them. Why is this a big deal? Because they show up in the MP3 player. So if you place your phone on shuffle, one of these annoying ringtones will sooner or later pop up in your earphones. It took me forever to figure out how to get my own MP3's as ringtones. It turns out you have to trim the MP3 down to get it used as a ringtone. Kind of annoying and I could not find any documentation on this. There is also the proprietary internet button on the front. Accidentally bump it and you are going to get charged for data usage if you don't have an unlimited plan. I somehow disabled mine. Not sure how! As for the actual phone....

Call quality is fine. Not as great as the Nokia w/ Sprint I just got rid of, but it's decent.

Button size is fine. Raised nicely and easy to feel. The dedicated volume, music, and camera buttons on the sides are well placed and easy to use.

Camera - The video is not the greatest but the still camera is really quite amazing for a phone. Very clear pictures and a pretty decent capture and store time for a phone. The settings options take a bit to get used to, but they do offer quite an impressive array of photo options for a phone. This phone will actually take pictures you can feel comfortable printing out and framing.

MP3-With the exception of it including ringtones, the Walkman player is pretty good. Easy to navigate. Nice equalizer settings. And the option to keep it playing while using other functions of the phone is really great. It stops if you receive a call and picks right back up where you left off after the call is done, just like the Itunes phones. I've held off on getting an Ipod. With this phone I won't have to. Once my 4gb stick arrives, my phone will essentially be a Nano.

FM Radio-Nicely done. RDS (if station supports it) Quick tuning. Saves up to 20 presets. Easy to use. This is the biggest reason I never went Ipod. I enjoy the radio sometimes for NPR news, MN Public Radio's newest station "The Current", or to hear the tv stations at the gym. After having it on my Nokia, the radio was a must have for any new phone.

Organizer-I downloaded the free Sony PC Suite and my phone synced perfectly with Outlook. That saved a lot of reloading phone numbers into my phone.
The data connection is slow. I do not believe this is USB 2.0 (WHY NOT?). If you are transferring files to your card, I recommend a card reader for your computer. The transfer rate is incredibly faster than the data cable.

Overall, I'm very happy with the phone. It's a great size and is packed with features. I honestly believe it is the best MP3 phone out there right now. The Itunes phones have a slightly better music navigation, but too many of them have limits on song quantities and/or use mini or micro SD cards. Sony's memory sticks are more durable and offer 4gb at the same price of a 2gb SD.

The only improvements I plan on making to this phone is to purchase a screen protector (it's a HUGE screen) and attempt to flash the phone to remove the Cingular branding. Not only will it unlock the cool themes available, but maybe it will let me get rid of those annoying ringtones.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 28
I took a chance and used Davinci 16.9 to flash my phone. It was the most nerve wracking 6 minutes of my life. The result? Cingular branding is completly removed. The full themes are now available (WAY COOLER than before the flash.) I can adjust the power on display (now says SE rather than Cingular.) I was able to delete all but one of the annoying ringtones and I can now use FULL MP3's as ringtones. The Media Net key on the right is now a shortcut key too.

If you feel comfortable flashing your phone (costs twelve bucks to do it) I highly suggest doing it. The only thing I had to set up after flashing was to go to the SE website and have them send updated internet settings to my phone so that I can browse the net on it.

Flashing may void your warranty and is not for the faint of heart.

I just returned a Samsung SCH-A990 to Verizon, not because it was a bad phone, but because of the numerous ways Verizon crippled its functions (not to mention their lacking customer service in trying to make it work). The Sony w810i from Cingular is everything the Samsung wasn't.

As a phone: Isn't that really why we get these things? I mean cameras, music players, games etc are great, but if it sucks as a phone why buy it? This unit has great reception, clear sound, ample speaker volume, and ease of use. Occasional static where I live (in the woods in a rural area) but I consistently got 3 bars or better, as good as a Nokia with external antenna. So far no dropped calls, but that is as much a function of the network as the phone. I haven't tried the voice command functions, but I would guess they'll work fine. In fairness, as a phone, the Samsung was pretty good too.

The Camera: It's a 2 magapixel camera. The Samsung was 3mp, but the operation of the Sony is much more straightforward. It doesn't suffer from the Samsungs 2 second shutter lag, and really can be used as a camera, where Verizon has the Samsung set up more with having to use their services to transfer or use pictures. The Sony comes with a cable (USB), with wich you can easily transfer pics to and from your PC. The Samsung had no cable included, and even if you bought one, you couldn't use it for picture transfer (beats me why). The flash doubles as a flashlight. Just press abutton and your in camera mode. The phone includes a 128mb memory stick (the non-cingular version comes with a 512mb stick).

The music player: When you come down to it, this is a Walkman, too. The cable, headphones and included apps makes transferring music a snap. With the Samsung, you had to purchase a separate Music Essentials Kit, which got you a headset, cable, and a lousy application disk, which requires MS Music Player 10 (won't work with 11) for an additional 30 bucks that you don't have to spend with the Sony. The Samsung makes you deal with DRM (Digital Rights Management) to keep you away from unlicensed music, and try to get you to pay $1.99 for songs from Verizon. The Samsung also only played WMA format. With the Sony you hook up the cable (I believe you can use Bluetooth or Infrared for transfer as well). Drag and drop the songs, albums or artists you want, select a bit rate (quality), and your off. It even has Sony's 'megabass'.

Other stuff: You get syncing with your MS Outlook contacts, tasks, notes on the Sony. No such thing on the Samsung. Games (demos) are included on the Sony, again, no such thing on the Samsung. A radio (uses the headset as an antenna). Make your own ringtones on the Sony (not on the Samsung). It even has a music ID program. Record a few seconds of a song from a radio, and it will id it for you. Not necessary, but cute and thoughtful. In fact there are so many things on the Sony, it'll take a few days to discover them all.

Standby and talk times are quite generous for the Sony. I don't know why, but I woke up after the Samsung was on standby for two days, and it was already dead. Keys are easy to lock to avoid accidental pressing. 4 of the keys can be customized to your most used functions.

If you want a great phone, cutting edge toy, and Cingular service works where you need it. This is definately the phone to consider. So far I am delighted with my decision to dump the Samsung and Verizon and go back to Cingular. I also understand that if you travel internationally, you're better off with GSM (Cingular) than with CDMA (Verizon).

And with discounts the Sony w810i from Cingular is $150 and includes what you need to use all its functions. The Samsung is $350 (discounted) plus the $30 for the Music Kit, and another $30-50 for a memory card.

One thing the Sony won't do is support the stereo Bluetooth profile (the only ones I know that do are the LG Chocolate, and one of the Motorolas). It's expected in a future version of the Sony phone.

Not to mention the Sony w810 is a slick looking phone. If you're looking, make sure to check this guy out. I've also posted a spearate review of the Samsung SCH-A990.

10/13/06 update: A couple of things I forgot to mention, if only minor. The headset is a two piece affair. You plug in the adapter to the phone which has the microphone, and then you plug the headphones into that. So if you don't like the included one, which is very good, you can use your favorite headphones instead.

Another thing, I have a little FM transmitter for my iPod (the thing that lets you tune your FM radio to a particular station and pick up the output of the iPod). Sony offers one for the w810 as an accessory ($40-50). Cool!

10/18 update: The phone doesn't come with a lot of great themes, but will wonders never cease? How about a free tool to create your own?

12/19/2006 update: After checking Cingular's website, I notice they are no longer offering this phone. That doesn't mean that you can't get it from other vendors, like Amazon, but it is certainly unusual that a phone that was only released a few months ago is no longer available through Cingular. New phones are coming out fast and furious. I am still delighted with this phone, with the only noticable drawback being the headphone adapter is unique, and uses has a wire with the built in microphone, so has no convient way to store it with the phone. Without it, the mp3 player is pretty much useless. The phone does support Bluetooth, but not stereo Bluetooth.

[..]

2006.12.20:

In a word, this phone is AMAZING.

Over the past few years I had gone through quite a few "smartphones" on the Cingular network, and none of them had the call quality and signal consistency that my simple Motorola V551 has. When I was at the Cingular store a couple of weeks ago testing all of the latest smartphones from Nokia, RIM (blackberries), Palm, and Moto, none of them could match the call quality that my V551 gave me, so I almost gave up again on having a multi-function phone. Then I found the Sony Ericsson W810i. I would never have noticed it - it wasn't listed in the Cingular web site for my zip code - but I saw that they had Memory Stick ProDuo's as accessories and asked the store rep what they were for. She showed my the W810i. I slipped my SIM into their demo model and made some calls. I listened to some MP3's and watched some demo video on it. I took some pictures with the 2MP camera and looked at the pics on the store laptop. I bought this incredible phone.

When I got home with it I couldn't believe that I bought a new phone without researching it on the Internet first, and I was a little worried when I found many reviews (from months ago) describing poor call volume and sudden call drops, but I saw later posts that described how the SonyEricsson software for the phone would download the latest firmware and fix those problems, so I checked my W810i's firmware and discovered that it is the latest.

My last two weeks of using the phone daily have been great. The signal consistency and call quality are even better than my V551 both at my office and at home. No breakups or dropped calls. On the road the included stereo handsfree (wired) earbuds/mic worked so well that people I spoke to said they couldn't even tell I was using a handsfree setup.

The sound from the Walkman MP3 player included on the phone is beautiful. The headset system in brilliant and I can't believe it took phone manufacturers so long to do this: The part of the headset that plugs into the phone's SonyEricsson-proprietary connector has the mic on it, and then just a connector for any regular headphones that you would use on an iPod or other MP3 player. That means I can use any headphones I want! I love the included Sony earbuds, but the best part is that, at my office, I just plug my PC speakers into the connector and I can listen to my songs on those speakers! Plus it automatically pauses the music when I get a call.

The phone comes with a 128MB MemoryStick ProDuo card, but I bought a 2GB card for $80.00. I now have 500 MP3 songs on that card, with still room for taking pictures! And I can buy as many cards as I want for more storage. The camera has very nice 2 megapixel quality. It's the first camera phone I have used that is nice enough to actually use. You turn the (candybar-style) W810i to a horizontal orientation and use the phone the same way you use a compact digital camera. I haven't played with video yet, but that's not really too interesting to me anyway. The only complaint I have is that there is no cover for the camera lens, so I am very worried that it will get scratched or otherwise damaged. And how will I clean it when my palm smudges it?

The memory stick system is very cool. I got a $15 USB 2.0 reader so I don't even have to connect the phone to my computer with the included USB cable. My next digital camera will probably be Sony, so it will be great to share memory cards between my W810i phone/MP3 player and a digital camera.

I still have to play with the organizer functions and using my own MP3's as ringtones, but those are just extra features that I really don't need so much. I love this phone. I paid good money for it since I already have a contract, but it was worth every penny. If you can get a free one on Amazon with a new plan then you will be getting an outstanding deal.

This is a great phone. However the way in which Amazon and Cingular offer these phones is a huge ripoff. Read the fine print very carefully, if you break any part of the service agreement, Amazon charges you full price for the phone. This includes trying to port your existing number to the new phone, adding family members to your plan, or swapping the sim from your spouses phone.

Existing Cingular customers on family plans currently off contract going month to month get bit the worst by this offer. I managed to actually get hold of a phone specialist at Amazon customer service, and she as much admitted to me that Amazon makes a ton of money off of this from people who don't read the fine print.

I urge both Amazon and Cingular to stop this deceptive practice. I've been a Cingular customer 5 years now, yet I can't get a deal like this on a phone.

Out of the box, this phone is nearly ready to replace whatever handset you've got now. I traded up from a Samsung no-frills model that was available a couple of years ago. Overall, I'm very impressed and can see myself sticking with SonyEricsson for a while.

The earpiece volume is a bit low, but unbranding the device may fix this problem. Voice quality is great otherwise. The earpiece also has a very small "sweet spot" which might take some getting used to. But the device is light, and I've had no problem holding it for a couple of hours at a time.

SE menuing is intuitive and very clear. Much better than Samsung and Motorola, and probably better than Nokia.

Of the bundled software, Disc2Phone is decent, but very slow and heavy. (This might be a function of the MS card; I'm not sure.) But it's idiot-proof, which is nice to see. The SE file management program is massive, slow, and unfriendly to advanced users. Take a pass and use My Phone Explorer instead.

The 2.0 megapixel camera is easy to use, and, with a larger MS, might replace my stand alone digital camera. The only problem here is the lack of a cover over the camera lens, which I worry about for two reasons: that the lens will get scratched somehow, and that when I'm on the phone my index finger naturally lands right on the lens. Wipe, wipe.

The Walkman functionality is nice, and with a larger MS it might replace my iPod for local commuting. Sound quality is passable with the included canal phones, but I replaced mine after a couple of days with my go to Audio Technica CM7-ti earbuds. If you're used to the menuing on the iPod, the SE is only a little less intuitive, but you'll have no problems switching between the two.

Finally, Cingular is a pathetic excuse for a service provider, and so you'll want to pick up a decent sized MS Pro Duo card from New Egg or somewhere to replace the 128MB card that's included. A 128kbps album of 12-15 songs will fill your card. You might also consider reading reviews of the w810i on web fora to see how other users have reclaimed the features that Cingular has crippled through their branding. Personally, I find the shortcut menu key very useful; the Cingular media programs are useless by comparison.

All in all, a great device that suffers from Cingular's micromanagement. Get rid of the Cingular branding, pick up a 2 or 4 GB SanDisk MS from New Egg, and you're all set for the term of your service contract.

Pros:
- Good quality as a telephone.
- Walkman functionality is great (but the menu is a bit too complicated compared to an iPod).
- 2.0 megapixel camera.
- SE t9 is easy and accurate.
- PDA functions: notes, calendar, alarms, etc. are easy to use.

Cons:
- Cingular branding adds too much pay-per-use junk.
- Cingular branding removes "shortcuts" menu from device.
- Cingular branded device comes with 128MB card - too small to be useful.
- Cingular requires a 2 year commitment
- Cingular

Pro:
1) quad band, world phone
2) Sim card
3) bright and crysal clear LCD
4) storage media (memory stick pro)
5) walkman feature
6) FM radio feature
7) 2M camera taking good pics
8) long-lasting battery with short recharge
9) customizable short cut button
10) speaker on the phone

Con:
1) Multiple for-fee-services that cannot be inactivated, easy to trip off
2) radio won't work if head phone not plugged
3) charge and headphone share same jack
4) no car charger included

I got this phone a couple of days back and has great camera capabilities as well as music player. The picture from camera is 2 megapixel but the clarity is amazing. It is even clearer than my canon camera.

Following are the things I didn't like,

1. the speaker is not loud enough when listening to calls but is loud enough to listen to FM or music.
2. The FM can only be played if the handsfree is plugged in because the antenna for FM is in the cord. I found this a bummer since now I need to carry the cord to listen to NPR.
3. The signal gets lost when it is in my pocket (which wasn't the case with RAZR).
4. no stereo music over bluetooth headphones.

Overall it is a small phone with great features.

This is a great cell phone. MP3 player, FM radio, 2MP camera/video, Bluetooth, etc. I immediately bought a 4GB Pro-Duo Sony memory card and a card reader. I loaded up over 400 songs in about 15 minutes, and I was listening to my favorite tunes! I like the feature of listening to music and if you get a call, it mutes (pauses the MP3) and allows you to answer. Then when you are finished talking, the music continues! The only thing that I did not like about this phone, is that it does not support the A2DP standard (Bluetooth stereo). So, I use wires plugged into the phone. Other than that, I love this phone and have had no problems with it.

Got the phone 4 months ago. I love it, but wanted more memory for music - so I bought a 2 GB Sony High Speed Memory Stick Pro Duo. After loading music on it the phone would play the music for about 2-3 minutes and then it would give me a "Playback Failed" error message. I tried everything (reformat memory, reformat phone, using the MP3 software, NOT using the MP3 software, etc.) yet nothing would work. I did find a similar case online where the user then bought a SanDisk Pro Duo memory stick which then worked for him. Sure enough, I ordered a 4 GB SanDisk Pro Duo card and the phone works great. Just a heads up to everyone looking to upgrade their memory.

1. I was at a couple Cingular stores yesterday, and they told me this product is being discontinued shortly because it's going to be replaced with a model with a 3.2 megapixel camera. "Sometime in June" was the date they gave for the new model. "Check Sony's site." I checked Sony's site and none of their Coming Soon phones had a 3.2 megapixel camera...

2. If you want to play around with the phone before deciding on it (which I recommend), print out this page with Amazon's price on it and bring it to a Cingular store. We merely mentioned that we could get the phone for free on Amazon and the store matched the price, saying, of course, "It's been a really slow month, you guys are lucky." UPDATE: the ones we got at the store came with a 256 MB card, while it seems that this version only comes with 128...

2.5 If you are going to a Cingular store to get hands-on time with the phone, call in advance and make sure they have the phones plugged in and turned on so that you can flip through the menus, etc. The first store we went to had the phones with no batteries, no power, just a sticker on the screen displaying a fake menu screen. How anybody could make a decision on a phone based on a sticker is beyond me. We drove down the road to a store that had the phones powered up, and ended up buying them there.

3.0 NOTE that the phone does not play protected .aac files: anything you purchased from iTunes will not play on this phone, unless you go through the (imo tedious) process of burning a CD and then ripping that CD back to your computer.