Sony Ericsson W810i

I'm not much of a tech person I'll admit, I selected the phone because you can turn the flash on to use as a flashlight, which to me is the best feature a phone can ever have.  I tried once downloading songs from itunes but it wasn't compatible with the phone, aside from that I have never played with the music feature. The memory card can be easily replaced to fit more music or pictures, if you want to use it as an MP3 player.

I've dropped it many times, and the worst that's ever happened is the memory stick pops out. I charge the battery once a week, usually not more than that. It charges fully in about a half hour, which seems fast! I don't like that the location of the internet button, it is too close to the menu/selection button and I turn it on by accident pretty frequently.  Fortunately AT&T only charges a few cents a time for this, but it still bugs me. I recently got a Motorola Bluetooth H700 headset because of the California driving law, and it works great it this phone. If I could figure out how to connect them, anyone can. I haven't figured out voice activated calling, but I think the phone will do it.

Unlike the other reviewer, I haven't downloaded any apps from Google, nor do I have a data plan through AT&T, so I can't speak to much regarding any external programs you may add.

My thoughts:

Sony/Ericsson includes an adapter plug and pair of headphones in the box with the phone, unlike many other music phone manufacturers, unfortunately the headphones are terrible, and I've lost my headphone adapter. While I had it though I noticed the following: 1. Sound quality of MP3s was just BAD. Sony probably made a mistake branding this phone as a Walkman, unless this is what all Walkman products sound like. Once I plugged in my Shure E2Cs I could almost always hear a low hum, and music was flat and processed. Wasn't worth it to me to keep using this phone as my mp3 player, especially considering number 2: The Sony software was dreadful. Moving music to the phone (or the memory stick I purchased for use with the phone) used a headache inducing software system that was also slow as molasses. Once you have the music on the phone, navigation is tediously slow, especially when you are trying to create playlists. You cannot create playlists on your computer by selecting songs, you have to create playlists on the phone. Not worth it really... I would just listen to a single artist at a time to avoid the hassle.

The camera is actually quite passable, for a phone. It has a "flash" which is an LED light that gets pretty bright and I've used as a flashlight numerous times.

An irritation: every so often I get a message telling me that the text message memory is 95% full, whatever that means, and I've got to delete my old sent and received messages before it goes away. I would love to be able to set it to delete my old messages after a week or something so I didn't get that message, but I was unable to find that kind of customization in the menus.

Cingular/ATT specific hassles:

I cannot use my own MP3s for ringtones. I spent an hour or two one night trying to reduce the size/length/quality of the MP3s I wanted for ringtones to meet the inhibitions loaded on by C/ATT. Couldnt ever figure it out. Worthless.

There are features disabled by C/ATT beyond this, including the FM radio.

The Gray button you see on the right side of the phone opposite the orange button. SE originally designed the phone so that was programmable. The orange button fires up the MP3 player, the gray button is a freebie you can assign to whatever you like. Not so with C/ATT bastardization.

So why have I still given this phone a decent rating? I guess because I like it, even with its inherent problems. It is small, I prefer candybar phones anyways, battery life is great, and I've dropped it a few times and it keeps on ticking. If I had it to do again, I'd probably buy the phone elsewhere or have it unlocked, but I'm lazy.

I've had this phone for two years now and have loved it, once I accepted it's limitations. I'm about to switch  up to an iPhone 3G, but I will miss some features of my old candy-bar buddy.

My main reasons for buying this phone were Sony-Ericcson's record of quality phones and the fact that my wife had taken over my Canon digital camera for her work. With young children I wanted to have a good-quality camera at the ready for all those photo opportunites. I didn't care much about the music player, as I had an iPod that took care of that better than any phone at the time could.

I have never had a problem with sound or reception, and I live in a rather dodgy area for reception at times. Good, loud speaker and my Plantronics bluetooth headset has never had a problem. The included options for headsets and headphones suck - having to plug an adapter into the charger port is a pain in the you-know-what.

The phone is tough. I have dropped in on all variety of surfaces, left it on top of my car and driven off, and have both a three year-old and six month-old who are fascinated by it (it is apparently chewable). I have a small scratch on the screen, and some rough edges on the corners from hits, but that is it. Impressive.

I'm looking forward to having internet capabilities that aren't clipped and limited to a tiny screen.

I'm still going to keep this phone as a back-up and a camera.

Even at two years old, I'd recommend it if you just need a good phone with a camera.

I think this is one of the best inventions ever