The Sony Ericsson S700i was my mobile phone before the Nokia 8800. It's been a great phone, and I have had no problems with it so far. The only gripe would be that I cannot use an MP3 as a ringtone, but supposedly on later models you can. I would not have changed phones if the 8800 never came out.

The Sony Ericsson S700i mobile phone's great in my opinion...but to many it's simply big. Anyways it looks fantastic; Sony style menu there's bluetooth,internet,infrared and many other functions. Plus-music DJ.
Maybe a bit expensive,but completely worth it.

I bought my Sony Ericsson S700i mobile phone off eBay, and I was impressed. It's a good phone, and it does everything I need, and more besides, plus it makes a decent phone for calls/texts. However, the camera quality is good for a phone, but it won't replace your digital camera. For shots when you've left your digital camera at home, it does a decent effort. However, a friend has a Sony K750i, and that camera is absolutely awesome! That could be your sole digital camera. That phone is smaller but more fiddly.

A few points that seem to have come up.
It is very easy to use, but does take some getting used to. The user interface is great once you get used to it. Once you get used to the keys, they're fast to text on as well. After about a week, you'll be at least as quick as on a Nokia.

The camera is good outdoors, but indoors is far less impressive, but it's still good for a phone.

You can put MP3's in folders and play that folder, and that stops you playing ringtones by mistake.

The phone will crash if you overload it, or sometimes if on a GPRS site it doesn't like it, but just take the battery out and put it back in, and it works no problem (rebooting only takes about 5-10 seconds anyway!)

It's fussy with memory. It is supposed to support 128MB, but that card will not work in my phone! It works on the K750i, so it isn't faulty.

All in all it's a very good effort, but the K750i is in a different league!

I have had the Sony S700i now for 5 months. I have just read some of the reviews on this page and can't believe what I am reading. People with many, many problems? I have had not problems with this phone. I took the phone to Glastonbury as the battery lasted 6 days. I must charge my phone say once a week, obviously more I am on the phone for long periods of time. I use my phone for work, so make numbers of calls on it. On the camera front, I have taken some fantastic pictures on it (and that's coming from someone who has a 6MP camera, which she uses for professional pictures). I have never needed to send the phone back for repairs, and is still in very good condition. The only thing that I would point out is that not all MP3's work as ring tones, so watch out for that one.
Overall this phone is very good.

I've had the Sony Ericsson S700i for about 8 months now, so guess this counts as a long-term test. Bought it as a replacement for my T610.
I liked the idea of a better camera, and the big screen made for easier online services (such as BBC Mobile)

Reception: Pretty good - I've not had any worse experience that other people in this area.

Size/Weight: It didn't look too big in the shop, but it does take up a fair bit of pocket space, and the weight is quite noticeable compared to my old phone.

Quality: The odd swivel hinge has stood the test of time, and the buttons have survived dust, sand from beach holidays and the occasional rain shower pretty well. What I'm not impressed with is the metallic finish, which has worn really badly, exposing the cheap plastic it is made from. No other phone I've owned has worn like this.

Sound: Clear and loud enough except on a noisy train journey when trying to be discreet. The pickup mic is positioned badly, so resting the phone against your cheek while talking (a bad habit of mine) cuts off the sound for the listener too easily. A design flaw and definite minus point.

Keypad: Keys are a bit small and having them flush with the phone surface so as not to interfere with the swivelling screen makes texting fiddly at times.

Camera: Not all its cracked up to be (although heaps better than the T610). OK for the odd snap, but dont confuse this with a proper digital camera. Getting the pictures off the phone is tedious, too.

Other Features: Cracking 3d tennis game that came with the phone got me all excited. But I haven't found anything else that comes close. Big screen is great for Monopoly (does that make me sad or what?)

Overall? I'm looking forward to getting something else.

I was so looking forward to getting the Sony Ericsson S700i. A phone I could use as a good quality camera, with a memory card so I could print my pictures off. Well I have to say that I wasn't that impressed. When you bring up the photo on the viewer, the picture doesn't look that good to be honest, and the video recordings look extremely pixellated. Plus the hassle of having to swing the keyboard out every time you want to send a text, I had this for two days and sent it back under my 14 day change of mind facility. Went back to O2 and got a Nokia 6230 and am much happier.

Have since discovered that O2 have discontinued this phone due to software problems. That's probably why I couldn't get onto the WAP service when I received the phone.

Too big, and very awkward to use.

I had been looking for a good camera phone for a while but I found that most had too small of a screen on them as I prefer a big screen, so when I saw the S700i I thought this looks just what I was looking for.

Previously I have had mostly Nokias but was not impressed with there camera phones as I found the camera quality to be not very good. But the screen and camera quality on the S700i are excellent quality, the S700i is a camera and a phone where most phones are a phone with a camera on them.

The camera on the S700i has a lot of features that digital cameras have on such as, night mode(lengthens exposure for better sharper pictures)I found as well that putting it on to night mode when taking pictures indoors sometimes gives better results, shoot mode where you can get the camera to take 4 shots at once rather than just one, self timer where you can delay the camera to take the picture in 10 seconds, effects where you can get the camera to take black and white, sepia, negative, polarize pictures, light which will switch the light on the camera so as to illuminate the subject when the light is low, white balance, which you can pick from the type of lighting like automatic, Incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy, altering it to one of the setting rather than automatic will sometimes give you better results. The camera also has a lens a built in lens cover that you slide over with a little switch this will protect the lens from dust and scratches, when you slide the lens cover over it will switch the camera on or off .

Other features the phone has on are organiser which has a calendar, task list, notes (you can keep notes of things) applications which contains a covering program for converting weights, distances, volume, to metric, a world clock, alarm clock, countdown timer, stopwatch, calculator. Entertainment which contains a darts game, tennis game plus you can download more some for free from Sony Ericsson's WAP site, the graphics on the games are the same quality as the Nintendo Gameboy advance games, radio, Internet for going on to WAP ,and the usually other menu items such as settings, phonebook etc. Also the sound quality I experienced when making calls was excellent very loud and crisp and clear, you can however turn the volume of the conversation up or down while you are having a conversation.

Overall I think that Sony Ericsson have thought of everything with this camera phone, they have done a lot of testing and put a lot of work into getting the camera right, the camera and the screen quality are top notch. I found the phone to be easy to use although I always read the instruction books before I begin. If you are wanting a top of the range phone that will give you great results then this is the phone to get, you will not be disappointed.

I bought the Sony Ericsson s700i from Vodafone some time in October '04. I couldn't wait to use it as I had read so much about it and knew it had good features.

My anticipation and excitement was shortly lived as just after a month i had taken the phone back to Vodafone because it would no longer turn on. After a long three weeks of waiting (luckily I still had a sharp gx20) I received a brand new model of the s700i.

At first I thought the world of it; the 1.3 megapixel camera is great during the day to capture high quality moments. The MP3 player proved vital for journeys and general moments of boredom.

However, once again the phone did not last very long before it again became heavily faulty; messages would not receive on time, phone calls would cause it to freeze, songs failed to play often and the list went on. I again sent it back for repair but this time i had no sharp gx20 and so I was given a down market Sagem phone.

More then 6 weeks past and I finally received my phone back; it has been reformatted and the software was reloaded. For about a month it was perfect and I couldn't complain. My friends were envious of my sleek and cool phone, I found out how to use songs as ringtones and everything about it seemed right.

But of course less than another month after I got it back, it gradually became faulty. It's now full of faults just like before and I cannot be bothered to take it for repair because of the every lasting cycle.

It has good features when they work, the camera is great during the day but at night it's terrible and the light does nothing. MP3's work fine and with the headphones they are one of the few aspects of this phone worth the money. Battery life is poor, expect to charge at least once a day to keep this phone going. Add-ons are limited and accessories are expensive, this leaves few modifications for the phone.

This is a phone that I heartily do not recommend, it's great on paper but in reality it fails to meet the standard. If I have received so many faults and problems from new models of this phone as well, it's likely you will suffer the same.

Well, after having a problematic K700i, I was offered a replacement by O2. To my surprise it was the new SonyEricsson S700i.

Introduction: My first impression of the S700i was WOW! The phone is sleek and "sexy" and no where near as big as some pictures make out. Considering this phone is at the larger end of the scale I don't find it to be heavy, in fact I would say it is quite light.

Design : This phone is something that will get you attention. As soon as I whip the phone out of my pocket my friends/colleagues all go, "what the hells that?!?". The phone is "swivel" design, which means in order to text/type on the phone you must open it out. When the phone is fully opened it becomes quite large and it's not very subtle either! However, when the phone is closed it is quite snug and small.

When I first tried to text on the S700 I was quite uncomfortable - the keys are far apart and are actually flat against the body of the handset. Which means there is no tactile response from pushing the buttons (unlike the K700). But as with all phones I adapted and now text is a pleasure.

The hinge of the phone is strong and sturdy. I was quite surprised that after 4 weeks HEAVY usage that the hinge has not slackened yet. Opening and closing the handset can be done quickly and easily ALTHOUGH it's best not to attempt to do it with one hand or else it'll end up on the floor, as mine did :(

The Screen : Ahhhh the screen! This has to be one of the best screens I have EVER seen on a mobile phone before. The colours are vivid and the quality is amazing. Technically the screen can display 265,000 colours as apposed to 65,000 on most colour screen phones - and boy can you tell the difference! Physically the screen is probably one of the biggest on the market. It's length is a massive 2.6" which is quite a length for a mobile. Resolution wise the screen has a 240x320 resolution! I absolutely love this screen because you can't even see slight pixilation like with most camera phones! EXCELLENT!

Camera : I could go on about this camera for DAYS! But for your sakes I wont. The camera on the S700i is UN-BE-LIEEEEVABLE!! The camera is a 1.3 megapixel camera. (most modern digital cameras range from 3-6 megapixels). The camera also makes use of a different type of lense that digital cameras use and you can certainly see the difference! Pictures on this phone simply look perfect! As long as your hand is still and you have suitable lighting then your picture will turn out great! If you transfer them to your pc they could easily pass for a picture taken from a digital camera! Another little feature I like with the S700 is the ability to ZOOM on pictures taken with the camera. While its not a major feature it is quite cool if your wondering "what's that behind my friend?" because you can simply ZOOM in and see. BRILLIANT!

There are a number of settings and features to use with this camera to make the picture perfect! This phone has raised the bar for picture taking on a phone even higher and will be a tough act to follow!

Sounds : The dreaded polyphonics on the s700 are good however they are blown out of the water as this phone supports MP3 sounds. Meaning you can move your favourite song onto your phone to use as your ringtone! TOP BANANA!

The user interface : The lovely menus on this phone are just one of the many reasons I love SonyEricsson phones! You can apply a "theme" that consists of a wallpaper/screen saver/menu colour/graphics to completely change the look of your phone! Other phone companies have colour schemes but no one does themes like SonyEricsson!

The S700i is very easy to use. A novice or a newbie could easily get to grips with this. Pictures can be taken with an opening of the shutter and ONE click of the capture button! Then simply sending a picture can be done by another single press of a button!

Most things on the S700i can be done with relative ease by just tapping a few buttons making using this phone a joy!

Basics : Calling/text/surfing can all be done easily with this phone with no problems at all. Call quality is top notch, texting is fast and easy, and surfing WAP is quick and great to use!

Bluetooth is something SonyEricsson are excellent at! Everything and anything can be sent/received by the phone. It is easy to use and doesn't wear your battery down (surprisingly).

There are a number of little things about the phone that I LOVE! For example, the phone can be used as a portable storage device for files from your PC. I.e. you can transfer a Word file to the handset which can be forwarded by the handset else where. While the phone cannot use this type of file, it can still transport it! Genius! :)

Another good feature is the ability to create "subfiles" in the menus meaning you can divide up your pictures/wallpapers/sounds/videos into different categories like friends/family etc.

Little touches like this make the SonyEricsson S700i an OUTSTANDING phone to have! Its shape, size and design might not be for everyone, the features that it has are sure to impress!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 10/10

All in all the Sony Ericsson S700i is a good phone but there are problems that have been acknowledged by O2....there are software issues but if you can bare with these then you'll be happy.... when it works it works well but when it goes wrong its a pain in the backside!!!

The Sony Ericsson S700i is wonderful and I bought it 10 days ago. I am thoroughly enjoying the screen and the marvellous resolution and am really looking forward to being able to get the most out of the phone. However I have had tremendous difficulties in getting all the aspects to work such as MMS, Wap Email etc. And am still not there. I admire the Carphone warehouse support line but I hate having to wait in the queuing system to be told that my call is important to them when on 6 different calls I have had to wait a minimum of 12 minutes and a maximum of 25 to get through. Then 3 times I have been summarily disconnected (and I wasn't swearing at the time!) On the last call before I said anything else I said please take my home number and ring me back when we get cut off - which duly happened. They rang back!
I am still having difficulties with the synchronisation part and that will be my next learning curve.

I managed to get the handset for free by tying into an expensive tarrif with O2 but I get 8 hours of free calls and then after 6 months I can change my tarrif down to a cheaper package.

The Sony Ericsson S700i is currently without doubt the best mobile phone on the market.

Compared against other new models owned by work colleagues - including Siemens, Samsung, Sharp and even the great Nokia, the s700i leaves them standing in all departments.

Bought mine just after Christmas 2004 - FREE handset on Vodafone - 18-month contract - first 6 months half price.

If your thinking of buying a new phone - especially one that will turn heads then look at the SonyEricsson s700i.

This phone caught my eye straight away, looks brilliant, features are great (as usual for ericsson)and so easy to use. Emailing a sinch as well as exploring the net. Gaming cool, really clear 'cause it's got a wicked SCREEN, so BIG it is! I swapped my Z600 for this and so far not looking back. Z600 used to freeze a lot with a software glitch but not on this model. So Far that is! They could have made this a little less bulky as I'm sure small is the way to go! shame tho 'cause everything else on it works wonders!! Camera is second to none. 1.3 MEGA Pixels. Brilliant! A little expensive at present but if you want to impress this is the phone for you.

I've had my S700! for 1 month and have falllen in love with it. Previously I had Siemens ME45 which pales and rots in comparison with S700i. Not only because S700 is functionally superior, but also because that old one is so-ooo boring.
SCREEN. S700 literally shines with it's screen. It can be used as a keylight, so bright it is. Screen is better or on par with Motorola's V3 in terms of colours, resolution and brightness.
BATTERY. The first full charge lasted for about 60 hours, next ones each tended to last a bit longer. The current result is 115 hours.
FUNCTIONALITY. Nothing extraordinary to get used to, except it's fun to use the phone. I initially did not expect it to entertain, but that is what the phone does. I even begun to teach words in Latvian to T9 english dictionary.
95% of the time I use it in closed mode, because my needed functions are easily accessed with navigation buttons.
CAMERA. Very good quality pictures result in good lighting conditions.
PRICE. I happened to purchase it for 460 Euro's and it is steep for just-a-phone. Though I think that all other features justify the price.

Sony Ericsson S700i Review

This phone looks like something that Inspector Gadget would have built in to his wrist!
OUT OF THE BOX
the S700i comes in an ordinary cardboard box, which contains:-
-> Sony Ericsson S700i handset
-> some random Battery Pack (SE)
-> Charger
-> Sony Ericsson's Headset
-> get this: a 32 Mb Memory Stick DUO
-> Instruction Manual
...that's exactly what you'd expect in a standard box for any phone.
When you actually see the handset in its plastic bag you realise that it's smaller than you'd expect if you'd been reading other reviews on the net. Always nice...

STYLE/BUILD QUALITY
Interesting. Well, it depends what kind of a person you are. If you like 'bling bling' then you'll definitely adore this phone. If you're the kind to look closely into the seals of the phone then you'll notice that it's not too bad, but it could've been better. It certainly passes the test though. Another great feel to this phone that I like is that it clicks into place when you swivel it open, making a satisfying sound. The phone itself is quite bulky considering its depth. However, you begin to forget this once you have the keypad open you won't bother much about the depth as it will decrease. It's pretty stylish too whether you're a business user or on the street.

KEYPAD
Because SE had the whole area of a standard phone to work on for the keypad, they could make the keys a wee bit bigger and more clearer, and they decided to stick with the existing key layout that they use on their other phones. A really convenient feature about this phone is that you actually never need to use the keypad unless you're going to enter some text or dial a number. You can use the phone in micro mode (hehe) to read messages, view contacts, play media, etc...

SCREEN
This screen is most probably the best I've EVER seen on a phone. With the full 256K colours blasted into my eyes I cannot do anything more than smile every time I look at it! Just to put that into perspective, that's more than a quarter of a million colours!!! The screen works reasonably well in sunlight as well, better than Nokia's screens. You won't have any trouble with it, at all, ever.

CAMERA
The best bit. A 1.3 megapixel camera backed up by video at VGA resolution. If you have a Sony digital camera, then you'll be pleasantly surprised that this phone can handle THIS many a features! In micro mode (hehe) just slide open the protective cover on the camera lens and voila the phone automatically launches the camera! Photos are taken with the phone held horizontally and the viewfinder is basically the whole screen (did I mention that the screen kicks ass?). You can edit ALL settings just like with your Sony Cybershot camera. Let me say that that's how many features it has! Get this and you won't really need a camera! Also, as a phone you can crop images, resize them, place clipart on them, etc... This is done in micro mode then the camera is off.

OS (operating system)
OS, or 'menus'. This basically means how the phone operates. You know the OS in the K700i? This is basically the same but it's far more stable, faster (due to the better CPU), and brighter (screen, screen!). The 'Phone Tutorials' have the K700's pictures to show illustrations. I don't know why SE didn't bother with replacing them with S700's keys because they may cause confusion with some people. Menu icons are pin-sharp as well as everything else on the screen, screen.

STORAGE
A LOT of internal storage (32Mb I think) and A LOT of external storage (32Mb Memory Stick DUO provided). This is just killin' it! Screen! The memory capacity is just way too large for a teeny weeny phone like this with all the 'stuff' packed into it! Memory Stick DUO is manufactured my Sony and is basically half the size of an ordinary Memory Stick. ...that's why you can't put an ordinary Memory stick into a MS DUO slot (all you cheapo's thought you could get away with it there!). However a MS DUO can be used in an ordinary Memory Stick slot with the help of MS DUO <-> MS PRO card reader. These are available from www.sony-style.co.uk and cost a tenner. The phone can play MP3's. A good reason to invest in more storage, and by making it every so easy to transfer to a PC (especially VAIO) MP3s can be transferred to your card on no time!

BATTERY LIFE
Good. Very good. I used it for 2 days NON-STOP and the next day there was still a bar left in the battery icon!. I haven't checked how Bluetooth affects battery life on it yet as I haven't got one ...yet! One thing worth mentioning is that the battery indicator is VERY accurate

PRICE
The bad news. It costs about £400-500 I think. I got mine for £20 from www.mobilesandmore4u.co.uk with referral number 12772 for the special promotion. on contract the phone is very expensive. So expensive that nobody let me demo it in the shops unless I was going to buy it; they had me thinking... what's the point of that? This phone's gonna take a while to go out of date, but with the number of slim phones becoming available nowadays, its days could be numbered...

OVERALL
Good. Get it if you want a decent phone that will last you. Oh, and if you're visually impaired, screen!

I've had my Sony Ericsson S700 for almost a week now and I'm very pleased with it. If your looking for a phone with a great camera then this is the one for you!
Previously having the SE T610, I found the menu to be as easy to use and not too tricky to learn the newer functions.
The back of the phone very much looks like a camera as some of my friends thought by looking at it. Also the pictures are almost as good as any digital camera.
The phone includes, games, vodafone live, media player, mp3 tones, bluetooth, infrared, radio and you can record and send video clips and pictures.
For me personally I love this phone but to some people the size and weight may be too much.
Overall a great phone by Sony Ericsson!

I Nearly went for the Sony Ericsson S700 after waiting months for its release. Problem is it's just too big. If only the designers could have squeezed it down a little and they'd have had a winner. The quality and materials of the phone are as good as ever. We should really be seeing 2 megapixel phones by now and I bet it will be spring 05 when we do. Sony Ericsson need to take a leaf from Motorola. Use quality, tactile metals to give a more luxury feel and SLIM it down. We KNOW THEY ARE capable of giving us what we want!

I bought this phone on the first day it was released, and I kept it for a few days and returned it as I was not very impressed with the phone. The design is nice but very awkward to use. Camera is great and is the best on the market. Speech quality was not very good, and there was a lot of interference, also the menu system was very slow, compared to other phones. I mean if you attach a picture on a phone number, when that person calls you it takes around 5-10 seconds before the details and the picture show, otherwise it will just carry on ringing in the meantime, very annoying!!!! I would say that I have seen better phones from Sony Ericsson, I am not sure if mine was bad because it was a Vodafone branded one?