Review Sony Ericsson W810i
This is an English version of the review I posted about a week ago on the blog.
The reason I bought the W810i is that I wanted something with the "standard" form factor (100mm, 100 grams), but that still packed a camera, dictaphone and a spacious memory. These functions I would otherwise need to carry separately. Specifically, I have failed to document a couple of courses I've run in England beacuse I left the camera home. This will now not happen again. Some frinds of mine have recommended the K750i, which is a predecessor to the W810i. As a bonus for me the W810i has an Mp3-player. The reason I chose to pass on the beige W800 is that it looks very dirty after some use. Go into any mobile phone store and take a look at the back side of their sample W800, and you will see what I mean.
After a couple of days use, here are my first impressions:
The screen
The screen has good contrast and brightness, at least compared to the old T68i that I owned for a short time.
User Interface (UI)
I am used to Siemens' user interface and Sony Ericssson's UI does not strike me as particularly intuitive. There are soft buttons (i.e. buttons that shift meaning depending on labels on screen). I am not sure that they have mapped them in a consistent manner, e.g. destructive operations always to the left or right, or undo operations always to one side, or any other graspable principle. The T9 text input interface I find downright annoying: As I type away it shows a popup menu for what words match the key sequence I have entered. However, it does not allow me to commit to a sequence of text. Well, it pretends to let me commit. That is, I type away, and it settles for three possible sequences. I select one, and type the next key. If that key is not congruent with the sequence, according to the phone's T9 dictionary, the phone will switch my typing to a completely unrelated word!
Instead it should break out of T9 mode for the duration of that word, since I have already indicated what sequence of characters I want.
Camera
At first I thought it was just an element of the graphical design, but the orange dot next to the lens is actually a convex mirror that helps you take self portraits, by showing you what the camera sees. Low tech but elegant!
The phone as storage unit
A cable is included that allows you to connect the phone as storage via the USB port of a computer. There are some drivers included, but at least the phone's memory stick shows up, and files can be moved to and from it without any driver installation. This is important if you are on the go and use other people's computers.
Web browser
I have only tested it briefly, but it did a good job with HTML pages. However it does not support javascript. This is a big drawback, since some sites I need to use, rely on javascript. There is no fully fledged Opera browser for the phone, but there is an Opera Mini version, which also seems to lack javascript.
Annoying things
There are loud pops and clicks sometimes between songs and during operation of the MP3 player. I do not know if these pops are caused by the phone or if they are from sloppily made MP3 files. I suspect it is a problem of the phone.
Suggestions for improvement
Bluetooth
The reason I bought the W810i is that I wanted something with the "standard" form factor (100mm, 100 grams), but that still packed a camera, dictaphone and a spacious memory. These functions I would otherwise need to carry separately. Specifically, I have failed to document a couple of courses I've run in England beacuse I left the camera home. This will now not happen again. Some frinds of mine have recommended the K750i, which is a predecessor to the W810i. As a bonus for me the W810i has an Mp3-player. The reason I chose to pass on the beige W800 is that it looks very dirty after some use. Go into any mobile phone store and take a look at the back side of their sample W800, and you will see what I mean.
After a couple of days use, here are my first impressions:
The screen
The screen has good contrast and brightness, at least compared to the old T68i that I owned for a short time.
User Interface (UI)
I am used to Siemens' user interface and Sony Ericssson's UI does not strike me as particularly intuitive. There are soft buttons (i.e. buttons that shift meaning depending on labels on screen). I am not sure that they have mapped them in a consistent manner, e.g. destructive operations always to the left or right, or undo operations always to one side, or any other graspable principle. The T9 text input interface I find downright annoying: As I type away it shows a popup menu for what words match the key sequence I have entered. However, it does not allow me to commit to a sequence of text. Well, it pretends to let me commit. That is, I type away, and it settles for three possible sequences. I select one, and type the next key. If that key is not congruent with the sequence, according to the phone's T9 dictionary, the phone will switch my typing to a completely unrelated word!
Instead it should break out of T9 mode for the duration of that word, since I have already indicated what sequence of characters I want.
Camera
At first I thought it was just an element of the graphical design, but the orange dot next to the lens is actually a convex mirror that helps you take self portraits, by showing you what the camera sees. Low tech but elegant!
The phone as storage unit
A cable is included that allows you to connect the phone as storage via the USB port of a computer. There are some drivers included, but at least the phone's memory stick shows up, and files can be moved to and from it without any driver installation. This is important if you are on the go and use other people's computers.
Web browser
I have only tested it briefly, but it did a good job with HTML pages. However it does not support javascript. This is a big drawback, since some sites I need to use, rely on javascript. There is no fully fledged Opera browser for the phone, but there is an Opera Mini version, which also seems to lack javascript.
Annoying things
There are loud pops and clicks sometimes between songs and during operation of the MP3 player. I do not know if these pops are caused by the phone or if they are from sloppily made MP3 files. I suspect it is a problem of the phone.
Suggestions for improvement
- A separate headset jack, so that you can listen to music while charging the phone.
- Get rid of the file transfer mode. When you connect the phone to a computer, the phone switches off its phone functions.
- A separate USB port, so that you do not need a special cable for connecting to a computer.
Bluetooth