Sony Ericsson W810i Review

Overall Rating

Easy to use, good functionality, good features, nice screen, robust and good looking. Reliable and has excellent battery life.

Can't plug wired handsfree and charger in at the same time. Walkman button positioned so easy to accidentally switch music on which can be annoying and sometimes embarrassing.

I have owned my w910i for a year and a half and must say it's the best mobile phone I've so far owned. I have now had three Sony Ericssons, the last being the k700i which I never liked, never found easy to use and got rid of as soon as I could upgrade.

The Sony Ericsson W810i is a good looking, block type walkman phone.
The first thing about it that took some getting used to was that unlike on the earlier S-E phones there is no joystick, rather a button in the centre of a circular joy-pad. However after getting used to this arrangement I found it very easy to use, much better than the joystick as it was impossible to accidentally move the "cursor" whilst pressing the OK button which used to happen on the joystick type.

The keypad is very good, easy to use and texting is very simple as the buttons are small but well defined. However I found the walkman button on the side a bit annoying as it was too easy to press accidentally, setting off the music which is played on the speaker when no headphones are attached- can be embarrassing!

The screen is bright and clear with good resolution. The software on this phone is excellent. I have had absolutely no problems with it what so ever, it never crashes, freezes or otherwise upsets me. It's also easy to navigate and use a VAST improvement on my k700i.

The walkman is very good, the phone comes with a 512mb Memorystick pro duo card which can be swapped for higher capacity. The phone does not have a headphone socket, but the headset does have a socket where a normal 3.5mm headphone jack can be plugged in.

The battery life on this phone is excellent. I have had mine for 18 months, with it rarely being switched off in all this time. In my normal use (only about 30-60 minutes calls a day) it will last for about 3-4 days before needing a charge. Charging is very quick too taking only around an hour to fully charge from about 10%.

When using the walkman functionality, the phone will play constant music for around 4 hours before needing a recharge.

The phone has a useful 2MP camera which is fairly good, but fixed lens with no lens cover. If phone cameras are your thing you might be better with a Sony cybershot phone.

All in all an excellent little phone with very few faults. Recommended!