The Sony EricssonW810i is an early Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson. Mine was originally obtained from a contract a few years back but it's currently worth around £70 when bought new, but much less on eBay. It's a candy bar phone with a camera and the ability of playing MP3s out loud.
NAVIGATION
Navigation is very zippy and I've not experienced any crashes. Moving from screen to screen and selecting the desired options is very easy using the directional buttons. The Play/Pause button looks like a joystick
but luckily it's just a button, which is just as well as later Sony Ericsson phones had a joystick for navigation which was prone to problems. The W810i menu screen is full of little animations, which is nice to look at. The overall theme can be changed and there are even custom ones that can be downloaded.
The number buttons each have about a 1cm space between them, vertically and horizontally, so I've always found the buttons easy to press. However, I do occasionally accidentally press the orange button at the top left that takes me to the music player because that's stuck to other buttons. Sometimes, the music starts playing while the phone is in my pocket as well if I haven't locked the phone as well so that button is a bit annoying but that's the only problem I've had with the buttons.
The numbers, text and icons on the number buttons light up in a funky orange colour, which looks great but is also very practical when using the phone in the dark.
SOUND QUALITY
Sound quality is excellent and I've not had any difficulty talking to people on the handset. Reception is also great but that also to do with the mobile operator (on T-Mobile). Sound via the speaker is also very good with music played out loud to be very clear. A bit tinny when on maximum volume but it's still very good.
BATTERY LIFE
The battery lasts me around 5 days with moderate use but quite a few calls, which is very good seeing as it even has a colour screen.
FEATURES
It has a lot of the usual extras calendar, games, calculator, etc, but I rarely use them. All the extras load up and run speedily. It also has the ability to play FM radio but like a lot of other phones, it requires the external headphone adapter to be plugged in as that contains the aerial, which is a bit annoying as I don't carry that around with me.
The phone memory is upgradable using Sony Memory Stick Duomemory sticks, which is good as the internal 21MB memory is not really much if you plan to put a lot of music on. I have a 1GB stick in mine, which gives me space for a fair number of tracks (around 250 songs if they're around 4MB each).
Bluetooth is quite standard with phones these days unless you go for the really low end budget ones, so naturally, the W810i has this built in as well and I make regular use of it by pairing it with a Bluetooth headset, which works a treat. I've also used it to transfer MP3s and photos and the transfer speed is perfectly acceptable.
Strangely enough, my favourite feature on this phone is the torch. It's very bright and can be bery useful when you need a torch. This can be turned on and off or set to be on for 1 minute. This can be used with the camera in dark places, although the camera itself isn't particularly great in terms of quality, it's nice to have for taking snaps of friends.
It's also capable of basic Internet access but I've only got a Pay As You Go SIM, so never use it. Texting is very easy and has the standard T9 dictionary but I never get along with this and just switch to normal text input.
SUMMARY
POSTIVES
- Great battery life - Quick and easy navigation - Bright torch - Good sound quality - Robust (I've dropped it plenty of times) - Colour screen with animation
NEGATIVES
- Camera is very basic - MP3 player button is easy to accidentally press
VERDICT
The phone is very out dated now but it still works great. It's simple to use, has a great battery life and is very robust so I can highly recommend this phone. I use two phones and despite changing my other phone, have not contemplated changing the W810i so it's definitely a keeper. Some of the newer models may just be as good but this one is still worth considering if you just need a basic phone and are not looking to spend much.
Thanks for reading!
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Brand New Sony Ericsson Walkman W810i White UNLOCKED (NOT 3G) Mobile Phone Boxed !! more
The Sony Ericsson W810i mobile phone is a compact and stylish device aimed at music enthusiasts. The W810i features a one-touch hotkey to access its music player Disc2Phone PC software to rip CDs quickly and efficiently plus an RDS FM Radio so you can hear the latest music on your favourite radio station! The Sony Ericsson W810i also features a 262K TFT colour display BluetoothTM compatibility and a fantastic quality 2.0 megapixel camera with 4 x zoom auto focus and flash.Default settings are for o2 network. Rip your CDs to your phone and listen to music on the move! Music management software and accessories make music listening a pleasure Take excellent photos with the 2-megapixel camera If you need to catch some action the W810i has video too. Box may look worn but the contents are brand new.
Advantages: Easy to use, Walkman Disadvantages: Battery life
jaguarchallenge 14.05.2008 (14.05.2008)
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Review of Sony Ericsson W810i Walkman
Advantages: Reliable, Robust, Easy to Use, Good Battery Life Disadvantages: Not 3G (Is that a bad thing?)
sunderlandcomputers 21.09.2007 (21.09.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sony Ericsson W810i Walkman
Mar 13th, 2009
very helpful by (97%):
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