Posted by aldrinus
seems that despite it's being on the block for quite a long time already, no user has reviewed this classic Walkman yet... here's one coming from a rabid fan
this is by no means a professional review (a la Eldar or whoever) but a USER review, alright? try to read on and, more or less, identify or disagree with me. every opinion is deeply appreciated by me and most especially by other W810i users who may or may not have the same experience with the unit.
cheers!
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User Review of Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone W810i
Following in the footsteps and success of the initial flagship Walkman model, the W800i, the W810i seems to be not just a slight improvement of the former, especially so if we refer to its connectivity options and the obvious aesthetics of the phone.
W800i vs. W810i
Whereas the W800i has GPRS only, this newer model has EDGE also to boot in order to address at the same time the needs of Sony Ericsson’s North American market. The W810i is quad-band while the W800i supports only three (900/1800/1900). Another glaring difference would be the built-in memory: the W800i has 34MB which was reduced to only 20MB in the W810i. Conspicuously absent also is the useful and very handy camera lens cover! This lens cover which also activates the camera function in the W800i is now replaced by an exposed, albeit aesthetically alright, hole housing that seem to “protect” the W810i camera lens due perhaps to its being a little recessed. Further, the dedicated Walkman key also found its way at the upper left portion of the keypad with a corresponding Activity Key at the right side. The W810i comes in both Satin black and Fusion white colors, unlike the W800i’s lone available Vanilla white variety. And the other obvious difference: the W810i’s D-pad against the W800i’s damage-prone joystick!
Salient Features
Definitely, it was the EDGE connectivity option that’s the main feature of the W810i during its release. It readily addressed the usual comments of some SE fans in the USA and where EDGE is present. And because of EDGE’s presence, the Access NetFront was also integrated in the W810i. We also have EDGE in the Philippines but I noticed that the EDGE icon only becomes active when I’m near central business areas and the icon quickly changes into G (PRS) when I’m out of these areas! (Sigh), guess telecoms in my country really need to upgrade their networks’ capabilities fast in order to be at par with the rest of the whole wired world
Another obvious feature of the W810i would be the introduction of the D-pad, over the joystick of the K750i/W800i. The D-pad definitely makes browsing over the phone’s menu a breeze and fears of early damage of it are farthest from happening. Of course, joystick or D-pad, it still depends on the manner in which the user uses his/her phone!
The W810i’s camera capabilities are another feature that is very much worth mentioning here. Just like its older brother the W800i, it also has Auto Focus. AF needs no more technical description here but the argument would be its presence in a camera phone that is highly touted to be more of a music phone rather than a camera phone! This combination of being a capable mp3/aac player and an excellent shooter was quite rare during W810i’s release that it was like having the better of two old worlds into one single unit! This personal observation made me think that SE combined the best features of both its initial 2MP AF shooter in K750i and W800i’s Walkman pedigree into the SE W810i. As someone who is fond of shooting just about anything, the W810i’s photographic capabilities amaze me to no end!
Audio Player: It’s a Walkman, Baby!
Needless to say, the W810i plays audio files. The audio formats that are supported should be in mp3 and aac. MegaBass is simply adorable especially for those R-n-B files! Manual tweaking of the preset equalizer settings are also available for exacting users. The Walkman Player 1.0 still does its job well in the W810i and audio files are organized through Artists, Albums and Playlists. I only hope some smart guys could tweak this and upgrade this into version 2.0 at least so that Album art can also be included. One misgiving though that I found out about the Walkman player is its inability to scroll the names (song title and song artist) just like in the PC WinAmp player. While almost all SE phones can scroll long worded descriptions or filenames in other areas, this scrolling feature is absent in its Walkman player! Did they miss this or it’s only a software glitch?
Normal CD audio files can be easily converted through the included Disc2Phone software in the provided PC Suite CD. I found D2P to be quite a tedious process so I simply use Audiograbber to convert my audio files into mp3, and iTunes into aac. Then I pop in my card reader the converted files directly go to the memory stick. The included 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo is quite enough for me to fill in at least 50 of my favorite mp3 songs at one point (prepared for a trip out of town) in all their 128kbps glory!
Of course, the phone has external speakers for obvious purposes that can really get loud in the proper environment. The included SE HPM-70 noise-canceling ear phones do their job really well. You can really get lost in your music once you pop these in your ears! Manually adjusting the preset equalizer settings is easy and you can choose the setting that suits you. Just be careful when you are in noisy and unsafe environments since you really can’t hear a thing when you’re into these buds! I for one have experienced being bumped by another person because of this situation. Since then, I only use them during long bus trips or when I’m at home relaxing or doing some “handyman” chores. By the way, the phone has FM Radio with RDS, too!
The Camera: Simply Wonderful
Compared with its elder similar siblings the W800i and the K750i, the W810i fares equally if not better. Its AF feature works wonders especially in shooting macros! Macro shots taken by a friend’s K750i and another’s W800i are equally comparable if not more vibrant and sharper. Since I’m not actually familiar with firmware issues, I just don’t know if the camera drivers have something to do with it. If I were to consider the original (generic SE) drivers that were loaded into these three particular units, then I could personally claim that the W810i easily wins over the older two units (assuming all the three have the same generic camera drivers).
Most of the time, friends and relatives who saw photos taken by the W810i couldn’t easily believe that such were taken by a camera-phone and proudly, I often open the summary of properties of the said file in my PC and show them that indeed the photo in question is taken by a W810i. Yeah, baby!
The size of maximum resolution shots are also limited to at least 600kb for every photo without sacrificing the overall quality of the photos taken. On the other hand, the photo light is limited, so to speak. You can only attain modest quality at night time or low light scenes even with the night mode activated. And when one gets near a subject, overexposure seems to always be the problem. How I wish it has Xenon flash, though, if that’s not too much to ask from SE. That would have made it as a perfect 2MP camera-phone!
The lack of an appropriate camera lens cover is also another drawback to this otherwise almost perfect 2MP Walkman phone. If one is not careful enough, the camera lens becomes severely scratched in a short time. These scratches “miraculously” happen even at the pocket or hands of the most anal owner (just look at related threads in Esato ). I do recommend that a “full” protection be had for the precious camera lens of the W810i in the form of either a durable and non-abrasive pouch or a little imagination on your part (say, modding the back housing to install an “instant” camera lens cover by way of grafting the “almost” exact fit of the K750i’s or W800i’s back housing to the W810i’s chassis?).
Performance
The initial hype that SE ranted about the W810i proved to be true based on my experience with it. Its performance is simply alright in terms of speed of application launches and execution. Of course, memory intensive ones like Opera Mini or when the MSPD is loaded to the brim, real-time performance may really lag.
The display has ample real estate in it and anything is almost readable or at least viewable. The display also acts as the viewfinder in camera mode is this feature is very handy indeed when one is trying to compose a shot. Brightness of the LCD display can also be controlled via the phone’s settings. This feature, along with the integrated ambient light sensing technology, greatly saves a lot in terms of power consumption.
The keypad is indeed an engineering marvel for phones. I’m still amazed at how the SE design team was able to squeeze on such a small space all the necessary functional buttons and keys in a beautiful design! The different keys are properly and evenly placed that typo errors are minimal, if not absent (unless, of course, one really has big hands and thus, fingers!). The over-all design of the three circular combination upper soft keys including the D-pad is simply amazing! The only misgivings I have going against SE would be the absence of backlighting in the D-pad’s audio menu symbols and the orange-y keypad lighting. Of course, I know very well that that is because of the Walkman branding. It should have been white (just like the K750i).
The W810i’s PDA functions are also a cinch to use. Your directory, tasks and notes could be easily synched with Microsoft Outlook or Address Book in a flash. In order to do this, you have to install the proprietary SE PC Suite that came with the phone.
The torch function of the LED photo light is also very useful especially during emergencies, aside from being a handy flashlight itself. It has an automatic SOS function for such situations.
And for such an “outdated” model, the W810i has Remote Control function that I find to be useful during presentation meetings (say, Microsoft PowerPoint). Just install and pop-in your HID-compliant device and off you go with your smooth performance that will more or less elicit awes from your colleagues!
The File Manager is also great as it arranges all the phone’s files in a rather neat and simple organized manner. One could easily find the file one is looking for. It is living true to its purpose of managing the phone’s files!
Specifications at a Glance
• Size 100 x 46 x 19.5mm
• Weight: 99 grams (3.5 oz.)
• 1.9” Screen, 262144 color TFT, 176 x 220 pixels
• 20-25 MB Internal Memory (varies due to pre-installed content)
• EDGE/GSM-GPRS 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• 2.0 Megapixels Camera with Auto-Focus and LED Photo Light
• 4x Digital Zoom (32x Photo Preview Zoom)
• Email, SMS, MMS
• Bluetooth, Infrared, USB
• Java
• Speakerphone
• RSS Radio
• Access Netfront Web browser
• FM Radio with RDS
• Talk Time: Up to 8 hours
• Standby Time: Up to 350 hours
Excellent Over-all Design
One thing that made me an instant fan of SE phones since my T610i days is the way SE designs their phones --- they always seem to be symmetrical! And just like my previous K700i, the W810i also sports a symmetrical faschia especially for the keys. The way the keys were placed in their positions are perfect and ease-of-use seemed to be the primary consideration. It is also noteworthy that the design of the soft keys was revolutionary with the way these were integrated into the Back and Clear keys.
The Walkman and Activity Menu keys were the icing on the cake, so to speak. The thickness is very understandable mainly due to the AF 2MP camera that it sports.
Conclusion
The SE W810i is still a capable phone in terms of its main features. Since its release about a year ago, it still outsells newer SE Walkman models mainly because it delivers what it promises to deliver.
You need a phone with an audio player and a good, if not an excellent, camera? Well, baby, you are definitely looking at THAT phone model! And for a Walkman phone this size and features (not to mention, its lower price nowadays!), this particular Sony Ericsson unit is still a great buy. I won’t mind getting another one if the situation warrants it.
If you’re not satisfied with what its audio and camera performance can “generically” offer, a host of drivers for such are easily available to further suit the owner’s personal preferences. Sites such as esato, topsony, se-nse, etc. host modders and the like for such modification and tweaking software programs. Themes, ringtones as well as wallpapers and Java software applications and games are available almost everywhere over the internet for the SE W810i.
Obviously, this reviewer is one satisfied owner and user of the Sony Ericsson W810i! Yeah baby, Walkman rocks!
11 November 2007
Philippines
[ This Message was edited by: aldrinus on 2007-11-14 10:01 ]
Posted by deluded
@aldrinus, great review there. You must have spent quite some time on it. I love my W810 too, it's a great phone! Oh, by the way, I believe the W800 is only tri-band, not quad-band. Looked it up on GSMArena.
Posted by aldrinus
@deluded:
thanks, mate. glad you like it. btw, thanks for the correction -- much appreciation
(it has been edited right after i read your post).
yup, spent some two hours with the content and another for the editing. wanted to be sure that what i've written are all true (at least for me)
i was actually looking for such reviews here in esato when i was about to buy to buy mine but there was none... didn't expect i would be the first one to do so lol
cheers!
Posted by deluded
It's never to late to write one, though I'm sure if we had one earlier, it would sure have helped a lot of potential W810 buyers. I think the best part about using an SE phone is when you experience it yourself, there are so many little details they've paid attention to when it comes to user-friendliness that I would never have known about if I hadn't used an SE. I can't even start to list those details as they've become second nature to me.
Posted by sunils120
@aldrinus
great review there mate
wondered if anyone could make a photo comparison between the w810 and w610 or n70!
Posted by c_vignesh
Nice review..i considered this phone before buying my
k550i ...the more refined UI of K550i is a definite plus but the flash lite themes of W810 gives it a added bonus
Posted by sunils120
does anybody know the music playback time of w810 in music mode?
is it 30h like in w800 or w700?