Sony Ericsson W810i

By Reuben Lee and Antonio Tan, CNET Asia
Nov 13, 2006

With the huge success of the K750i and W800i, it didn't come as a surprise when Sony Ericsson unveiled the W810i at the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas earlier this year. Available now in black and white color options, the Walkman phone inherits almost all of its predecessors' sporty design and powerful features, while offering several minor but nonetheless useful enhancements, including Memory Stick Pro Duo support, quadband and an improved navigation pad. The W810i is now available for S$268 (US$192.96) with a two-year contract and S$490 (US$352.80) on its own.

Design
From the picture, the W810i seem to sport a similar design and form factor as its two predecessors. There's the familiar button layout on the sides for volume control, camera shutter and music playback, the location of the Memory Stick slot on the left of the keypad, and the compact candy-bar footprint. However, there are some minor design improvements made on the W810i.

For a start, the phone is likely to appeal to more people since it is now available in two colors, black and white. Previously, the W800i came only in a combination of white and orange which some users felt was a little too flashy and stained easily. Interestingly, the W810i is also slightly smaller, or more accurately 1mm shorter than the already compact W800i and K750i.

We are happy to see that Sony Ericsson has finally replaced the navigation joystick with a more responsive directional keypad, but are somewhat confused as to why the lens cover was removed. The camera function can still be activated via the shutter button but it is just not as intuitive as sliding the lens cover. Also, the camera lens is now exposed to dust and scratches.

We like the button layout on the W810i's keypad. It's small but well-spaced and each key is raised just enough to provide a nice tactile feel. A quick comparison with the W800i reveals an additional button to "My shortcuts", which gives the user quick access to common functions such as Bluetooth, Calendar and Light. Staying true to its Walkman branding, the W810i also comes with two buttons for users to instantly switch to the music player.

The 176 x 220-pixel LCD screen, which takes up almost half the length of the phone, offers a vibrant and crisp display with its 262K-color support. It comes with brightness control that lets you adjust from 50 percent to 100 percent brightness settings.

Like its predecessors, the camera shutter button is placed to the right side panel of the W810i, so that when the phone is held horizontally, it instantly feels like a camera. The camera lens, together with a small reflecting mirror and three tiny circular speaker grills, can be found on the back of the phone below the two LED lights.

Overall, we found the W810i sporty yet stylish, with dashes of orange and metallic silver blended into the black or white body. Size-wise, it is really compact and light (100 x 46 x 19.5mm; 99g) compared with many other phone with similar features, meaning it can fit comfortably into pockets or hung round the neck using a lanyard.

The bundled headset comes in two parts, the connector with a 3.5mm audio port that connects to the phone and a pair of earphones. This allows users to hook up their 3.5mm jack earphones for use with the W810i, though we found the ones provided good enough for our music listening pleasure. One limitation with the handset is that because the handsfree headset and AC charger use the same port, you cannot charge the handset while listening to music with the wired earphones.

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