Just received new Sony Ericsson W800i

[AlBDamned]

Been deliberating on a new cellphone purchase for weeks: K750i, wait for the new V3 RazR, go for the V600i or maybe wait for this, the W800i, and Sony's first full attempt at a 'Walkman phone'. I went with the W800i

Kills two birds with one stone for me. I was heading for a 1GB or 512 Shuffle, but that would still be another thing to carry.

Waiting for it to full charge at the moment but first impressions are: Nice packaging!

 

[TMA]

Switch it on! You can still play with electronic toys whilst they get their first charge!

Yes it's a neat phone. Very similar to the K750i but with better music software and a different style. You can also plug in your own 3.5 minijack earphones. Does it comes with a 512mb memory stick?

Would love a mini-review if you get the time !

 

[AlBDamned]

Switch it on! You can still play with electronic toys whilst they get their first charge!

Yes it's a neat phone. Very similar to the K750i but with better music software and a different style. You can also plug in your own 3.5 minijack earphones. Does it comes with a 512mb memory stick?

Would love a mini-review if you get the time !

I'll see what I can do with a mini review.

It comes with everything including 512MB stick, some top looking in-ear buds and a PC Suite CD which I won't be using.

It's almost identical to the K750i but the emphasis is more on the music to that phone's 'business' look. Still, the 2MP camera is present along with most (if not all?) of the K750i's functions. Should be sweet to use.

Says in the manual that 2.5 hours is good for the first charge so we're almost good to go (playing it safe as battery is rumoured to be a weakish spot).

 

[Applespider]

Says in the manual that 2.5 hours is good for the first charge so we're almost good to go (playing it safe as battery is rumoured to be a weakish spot).

Is it the same battery as the k750? If so, it might not be so bad. I got 6 days out of my first charge and that was with playing with it a fair bit. Then again I only listened to the occasional song rather than using it for that purpose as I imagine people will with the w800. That's where I think phones have to improve a lot to catch up with the mp3 players. While it's annoying if my iPod runs out of juice halfway through a song, it's worse if my phone does when I want to make a call.

 

[AlBDamned]

Is it the same battery as the k750? If so, it might not be so bad. I got 6 days out of my first charge and that was with playing with it a fair bit. Then again I only listened to the occasional song rather than using it for that purpose as I imagine people will with the w800. That's where I think phones have to improve a lot to catch up with the mp3 players. While it's annoying if my iPod runs out of juice halfway through a song, it's worse if my phone does when I want to make a call.

It's a Standard Battery BST 37, is that the same as the K750i?

Battery life is rumoured at 30 hours (playing) if not using the phone and half that if the phone is active. I guess that's equivelant to talk time quotes on a normal phone though.

I'm hoping all in it will be about 3-4 days minimum. Probably use it for music for 30mins -2hrs per day.

I had an Orange SPV phone once (2G version called the E200 I think), and the battery life was abysmal. One day max - and it ran windows. It was terrible. I sent it back after a week. Sure this will be a 'day and night' experience when compared to that.

 

[TMA]

It's a Standard Battery BST 37, is that the same as the K750i?

Pretty sure it will be.

Mobileburn have just reviewed the W800 and they got 10.5 hours of talk time (http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=6&Id=1571) which is very good. The 30 hours of music play back is if you start the phone up in music mode, which disables phone functions I believe. Good idea I think.

My impression from various reviews is that the K750 and W800 have average to great battery performance.

 

[AlBDamned]

Pretty sure it will be.

Mobileburn have just reviewed the W800 and they got 10.5 hours of talk time (http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=6&Id=1571) which is very good. The 30 hours of music play back is if you start the phone up in music mode, which disables phone functions I believe. Good idea I think.

My impression from various reviews is that the K750 and W800 have average to great battery performance.

That's cool. No need to write my own review after reading that one!

 

[TMA]

That's cool. No need to write my own review after reading that one!

Nonsense you have a right to brag! I have a couple of questions if you don't mind answering them:

Hows the text messaging input? (responsive/sluggish? Is the dictionary well equipped?)
Do you think the buttons are easy to press? Even for someone like me with fat fingers.
How long do you have to wait from pressing the capture button for an image to be taken and saved, ready for the next shot?
What's the built quality like?

 

[mpw]

...Do you think the buttons are easy to press? Even for someone like me with fat fingers...

"...if you're having difficulty dialing due to fat fingers mash the keypad now with your palm to order a dailing wand..."

 

[AlBDamned]

Nonsense you have a right to brag! I have a couple of questions if you don't mind answering them:

Hows the text messaging input? (responsive/sluggish? Is the dictionary well equipped?)
Do you think the buttons are easy to press? Even for someone like me with fat fingers.
How long do you have to wait from pressing the capture button for an image to be taken and saved, ready for the next shot?
What's the built quality like?

OK, in the order you asked:

Text input is fast, it keeps up with no lag and deletes fast also. I deleted two words and typed another immediately and it kept up. Dictionary is average so far. tried out some less obvious stuff that I had noted somewhere including Fratricide and occidental and it didn't have a clue. Mind you, neither did I when I first read them in the Bourne trilogy.

Anway, where were we...

The buttons: Hmmmm, they are a bit stiff actually. They don't go 'in' all that much which maybe adds to their stiffness and they are completely flat, no camber at the top or bottom. This means they have no guiding edges so may take a bit of getting used to.

Camera: Awesome. Amazing pictures and it saves quickly. I don't think you could shoot a reel using it, but it's certainly comparable to most digital cameras around. Half press to focus, full press to take, flashes 'saving' for a second and then you can shoot again. Impressive.

Build Quality: Very good and typical SE: The smart packaging is just a precursor to a very nice looking and feeling phone. Screen is big enough, animations are smooth, and music playing out loud is clear (if quiet). Not had a chance to use it with headphones yet. It comes with several songs already which is a surprise (maroon 5 to name one).

Bad bits so far: The orange interface is rank IMO so I changed it to 'Equaliser' which to me looks just like the carbon freezing room in The Empire Strikes Back . Excellent. Also, it's a white phone. We all know how grubby our white kepyboards get and my iPod earphone cable and buds are now a little grey. The W800i is picking up grub marks just as fast!

Edit: Here's a pic from the camera

Other Notes:

File Transfer seems to be quite slow using the supplied USB cable.

The earphones are a superb fit and come with a range of buds for those with irregular shaped ear canals!

Sound through the supplied phones is very good. Maybe not iPod quality but I'll have to test them side by side. Loud enough for me too. They feature the usual Sony thing with the right ear designed to loop around the back of your neck, but there's also an added 'comfort strap' type thing which encases the cable where it goes round your neck. I think this may help the annoying thing of the right ear coming out easily (it does this really badly on the PSP earphones).

I mentioned the orange interface earlier, but forgot the actual anodised orange of the casing. This looks pretty cool.

Th central joystick doesn't seem to wake the handset from sleep, you have to press another button. Again, this may take some getting used to.

Transfering files to the stick and having them show up properly in the Walkman interface isn't as straighforward as I'm sure it would be with the supplied Disc2one proram, but I think with some trial and error you can get it to match playlists/artists/tracks etc.

 

[ZLurker]

K750i

Hi there and congrats on your new phone!
I bought my K750i this summer (Couldn't wait for the W800) and im really satified. The downside compared to W800 is the software player, it stinks in K750i. Try to organize 2Gb of music... And the fact that you cant use your own headphones...
About the player... you can reflash the K750i so it gets the same software as W800.

ZLurker

 

[AlBDamned]

Hi there and congrats on your new phone!
I bought my K750i this summer (Couldn't wait for the W800) and im really satified. The downside compared to W800 is the software player, it stinks in K750i. Try to organize 2Gb of music... And the fact that you cant use your own headphones...
About the player... you can reflash the K750i so it gets the same software as W800.

ZLurker

I remember a software flash like that before on a phone but can't remember what it was (very helpful). I know it worked well though so this K750 > W800 one is probably a winner for anyone that wants it.

The headphone jack is a great idea, but the phone really would have benefitted from a purpose 3.5mm jack into the phone and not a pipe through the fast connector. The phones are a handsfree combo, but so far the connection has been a bit wobbly using them with the fast connector. It's a compromise. From the pics I saw before, I thought the phone had a separate jack input but sadly not.

 

[noel4r]

This is going to be my next phone or the iTunes (if they ever release it)...