Sony Ericsson W810i

Features
Even though the W810i comes with just minor improvements over its predecessors, it remains a powerful phone packed with loads of multimedia features. Top of the list is its music player which comes complete with an equalizer and Sony's trademark Mega Bass for audio enhancements. Users can create song playlists and view tunes based on title as well as artist name. There's the useful Play/Pause button on the side, which offers a simple one-touch access to music playback.

We like the autofocus feature on the W810i. It makes the phone feel more like a camera since one can half-press the shutter button to focus on the subject and then press it down fully to take the picture.

The 2-megapixel camera shoots pictures in only three sizes: 1,632 x 1,224, 640 x 480, and 160 x 120. We'd like more size options but that's just a minor gripe. For a camera-phone, the W810i offers a good selection of camera controls, from macro and night shooting modes to filter effects and white balance. There are also settings for self-timer and shutter sounds. You can zoom in to subjects using the 4x digital zoom. The dual LED lights double as useful flashlights and can be set to blink in SOS mode.

For those not into still image capture, the W810i comes with an onboard MPEG-4 camera that records video clips at resolutions of up to 176 x 144 pixels. To add a touch of creativity to the captured footage, Sony Ericsson has also included a Video DJ application to perform video-editing functions. In addition to Video DJ, the phone also features Music DJ and Photo DJ utilities for music creation and photo editing.

The onboard FM tuner on the W810i comes with radio data support (RDS). Radio stations which support this feature can feed information such as traffic information and news into the phone. Mobile users will also be happy to know that the Walkman handset supports 3D games and comes with Access NetFront Web Browser for Internet surfing.

Connectivity-wise, the W810i has Bluetooth, USB and infrared options, though we were disappointed there was no A2DP profile support for stereo Bluetooth and 3G. Sony Ericsson has added EDGE functionality to the phone but this is of limited use as it is not supported by all the cellular providers. It is noteworthy, too, that the W810i is now a quadband handset (versus the triband W800i).

With just 20MB of built-in storage, onboard memory is measly. Fortunately, like the W800i, the W810i comes bundled with a 512MB card, which should be good enough for a decent number of songs and pictures. Users also have the option to expand the storage memory up to 4GB with the improved Memory Stick Pro Duo slot.

As with many handsets these days, the W810i supports flight mode which allows you to turn on the phone, without the cellular functions, onboard a plane. It holds a 1,000-entry phonebook (with five numbers for each entry) as well as common organizer functions such as notepad, alarm clock, calculator and stopwatch. There's also a code memo option for storing secure data such as passwords.

User Discussion

philapz: I owned this phone for over a year now and I have never experienced and kind of software or ...

davedj88: i mean, are there any manufacture problems relating to hardware and/or software that would render the phone totally useless/worthless ...

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