Forum > Sony Ericsson / Sony > General > Buying a new SE phone

On 2009-03-21 19:04:39, gtr83 wrote:
If you're really into SE then you should go for C905.

Sony Ericsson’s C905 is certainly a desirable cell phone on paper, but it seems that many people are finding out otherwise after they’ve purchased the device, as evidenced by the return rate of the device. Reports are filtering that return rates of up to 30% have been reported in some areas. Problems that plague the C905 camera phone include software freezes, and speaker faults. Apparently many operators even went as far as to seek considerable compensation from Sony Ericsson due to customer returns. All it all, Sony Ericsson had better pay attention to the quality of the software and hardware of the upcoming W995 and Idou, if not it runs the risk of further damaging its brand name

Sony Ericsson reliability called into question?

Our sister site, Mobile News, reports that Sony Ericsson is still experiencing quality control issues with many of its handsets

Dealers have raised serious questions over the build quality of Sony Ericsson handsets after widespread problems with the C905, its latest high-end device.

Many customers have complained to independent dealers that the earpiece on the C905 stops working soon after purchase, with a flex cable between the top and bottom of the slider cable failing. Some have also criticised the manufacturer for how long it takes to repair handsets.

Complete Communications proprietor Adam Nyman said: "I’m not stocking the C905 any more. Sony Ericsson is denying all knowledge of problems and is taking up to three weeks to send back repaired phones. People want reliability in their mobiles and can’t wait that long.

"Its last decent release was the K810 but since then all the phones have been faulty. Take the W595 for example – the keypad fell apart shortly after purchase. Unless it addresses these problems Sony Ericsson is in big danger of falling behind its rivals."

What Mobile has found that the C905 has other problems, some related to firmware and others to hardware. Regular reboots have been reduced almost to nil with firmware R1BA02 (issued in October 2008), but there are still many situations that result in the phone slowing to a crawl, losing Internet connectivity and even disabling Wi-Fi or Bluetooth without warning. The camera will also pause at times for no obvious reason, meaning it's quite possible to miss a photo opportunity completely.

Hardware problems include buttons failing to respond as well as the above reported earpiece problem.

The biggest problem is the unpredictable battery life, with users reporting the battery dying in a matter of hours, despite not being even being used. This is likely to be another software problem.