Product Description

W810 Walkman® is a stylish music player with everything you need for a mobile music lifestyle. An easy-to-use Walkman® digital music player with folders for artists and customized playlists. A 128 MB Memory Stick PRO™ Duo memory. And a stereo headset for quality listening. Enjoy hours of your favorite music wherever you go. And when you want quality entertainment around the clock, W810 has an FM radio with RDS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4976 in Cell Phone Accessories
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sony Ericsson
• Model: W810i

Features

• Disc2Phone™ music copying software is supplied in the W810 kit and it’s easy to copy songs from your favorite CDs, and PC music folders
• The built-in W810 2 megapixel digital camera with autofus takes excellent photos and when you need to catch some action, W810 has video too
• Sharing images and other phone content is easy. Use Bluetooth™, or Multimedia messaging when you want to send images and video
• Wherever you are, you have high speed access to the internet with EDGE technology
• Includes: Battery, Charger, Stereo Headset, Cable and 128MB Card

Amazon.com Product Description
The Sony Ericsson W800 was a big hit. Now, here comes the sequel, the W810i. All the same great Walkman features are here, along with robust phone functions, but now you get quad-band GSM, a larger and brighter display, and perhaps most importantly, support for EDGE high speed data. In addition to a powerful and easy-to-use Walkman music player, the W810i boasts a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, a Memory Stick Duo card slot, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone. Simply put, this baby's loaded.

Big screen, big features, big fun. View an interactive demonstration of the w810. You can also check out the W810i video.

Dedicated music control buttons make for easy listening.

Transfer songs to your W810i with the included Disc2Phone software.

Two megapixels of camera goodness.

Design
The W810i follows a long tradition of beautifully designed and crafted phones from Sony Ericsson. The same candy-bar style that graced the W800 is here, as is the horizontally-oriented camera unit on the back of the phone, allowing you to hold the phone just as you would a camera when you're taking pictures. The W810i's screen sports 176 x 220 pixel resolution with support for 262,000 colors. Quick access buttons below the screen make it easy to control the phone's Walkman music features, while a five-way center button controls most of the phone's menus and features.

The W810i contains 20 MB of embedded memory, but as mentioned, a Memory Stick Duo slot is provided, and it also supports Pro Duo cards, giving you storage capacities of 2 GB and beyond. The phone ships with a 128 MB Memory Stick Duo card. Of course, there's also a port for the phone's included stereo headset. USB and infrared data ports are provided, as well, and the phone supports USB mass storage so you can simply plug the phone into your computer and drag and drop files into the phone's memory using the included Disc2Phone PC application. To top it all off, the W810i's camera flash can double as a flashlight.

Calling Features
The W810i's phone book can hold up to 1000 contacts with multiple entries per contact. A call list remembers your most recent missed, received and dialed calls. The phone's voice activated dialing makes calling your contacts as easy as saying their names, while the built-in speakerphone makes it easy to talk without having the phone to your ear. Polyphonic ringtones are included and you can also use MP3 and AAC music files as ringtones. A cool application called Music DJ even lets you mix your own ringtones. Meanwhile, picture caller ID lets you assign a photo to specific callers. Similarly, a ringer ID lets you assign ringtones to callers. More ringtones are available from AT&Amp;T's MEdia NET mobile web service. For those times you want to keep things discreet, there's a vibrate ringer mode. And because the W810i is Bluetooth-enabled, you can use a variety of headsets and handsfree kits for total wireless freedom when you're on the go.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
If you're looking for a mobile productivity partner, the W810i has you covered. Support is built in for sending and receiving pictures, text, graphics, and sound via MMS messages. When used in combination with the phone's built-in still and video camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging possibilities. The phone also ships with a built-in email client with support for POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols, while the included Access NetFront Web Browser allows you to surf full HTML web sites. An included IM client supports AOL, Yahoo!, ICQ and MSN instant messaging services. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

Getting on the Internet is easy with the W810i, as it supports the GPRS protocol, as well as the high speed EDGE data protocol. When used with a AT&Amp;T data plan and the phone's USB or Bluetooth data capabilities the phone can be used as a wireless modem for laptops and PDAs.

A number of handy software tools are bundled with the W810i, including a voice memo recorder, a to-do list, a calculator, a calendar and an alarm clock. The phone also supports the SyncML PC synchronization standard, which lets you synchronize your PC-based calendar, contacts, notes and tasks with your W810i.

Imaging and Entertainment
The W810i is a Walkman phone, and that means it offers a great mobile music experience. Load up your favorite songs in MP3 or AAC format on a memory card and listen to your heart's content. The user-friendly music player application also includes a "Music Mode" that shuts down the phone functions so you can listen on an airplane or anytime you don't want to accept calls. Meanwhile, Digital Mega Bass and stereo widening combine to enhance your listening experience. There's even an FM radio for catching the big game or your favorite stations. The radio also supports reception of digital song information from radio stations. To enjoy all your tunes, a stereo headset ships with the phone.

And don't forget about that powerful 2-megapixel camera, which features something most camera phones lack -- autofocus. Finally, you can get consistently great shots from any distance, shots that rival the quality of a dedicated digital camera. The camera also features an LED flash and a 4x digital zoom, and it can capture video, as well. Dedicated controls on the side of the unit will make you forget you're holding a phone in your hand.

And what about gaming? This phone is definitely geared for the mobile fun fanatic, as it supports widescreen and 3D games. The W810i comes preloaded with several games and more are downloadable from Sony Ericsson.

Vital Statistics
The Sony Ericsson W810i weighs 3.49 ounces and measures 3.94 x 1.81 x .77 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 8 hours of digital talk time, and up to 350 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

Customer Reviews

Great phone w/ (unfortunate) Cingular branding
Ok, first I'm going to let you know what comes with this phone since it's near impossible to find out this information on Amazon.
A Cingular branded phone (more on this later)
Headphones
Headphone adaptor
Charger
USB Cable
128mb Card (no card adaptor, just the card)

The biggest problem with this phone is that is has the Cingular branding in it. Not just the logo on the outside (that doesn't bother me), but inside the phone Cingular has changed things. First of all, the themes cannot be as customized as an unbranded w810i. There are some really cool themes with amazing icons. Too bad Cingular has prevented them from working on this phone. There are also "protected" ringtones in this phone. There is no way to delete them. Why is this a big deal? Because they show up in the MP3 player. So if you place your phone on shuffle, one of these annoying ringtones will sooner or later pop up in your earphones. It took me forever to figure out how to get my own MP3's as ringtones. It turns out you have to trim the MP3 down to get it used as a ringtone. Kind of annoying and I could not find any documentation on this. There is also the proprietary internet button on the front. Accidentally bump it and you are going to get charged for data usage if you don't have an unlimited plan. I somehow disabled mine. Not sure how! As for the actual phone....

Call quality is fine. Not as great as the Nokia w/ Sprint I just got rid of, but it's decent.

Button size is fine. Raised nicely and easy to feel. The dedicated volume, music, and camera buttons on the sides are well placed and easy to use.

Camera - The video is not the greatest but the still camera is really quite amazing for a phone. Very clear pictures and a pretty decent capture and store time for a phone. The settings options take a bit to get used to, but they do offer quite an impressive array of photo options for a phone. This phone will actually take pictures you can feel comfortable printing out and framing.

MP3-With the exception of it including ringtones, the Walkman player is pretty good. Easy to navigate. Nice equalizer settings. And the option to keep it playing while using other functions of the phone is really great. It stops if you receive a call and picks right back up where you left off after the call is done, just like the Itunes phones. I've held off on getting an Ipod. With this phone I won't have to. Once my 4gb stick arrives, my phone will essentially be a Nano.

FM Radio-Nicely done. RDS (if station supports it) Quick tuning. Saves up to 20 presets. Easy to use. This is the biggest reason I never went Ipod. I enjoy the radio sometimes for NPR news, MN Public Radio's newest station "The Current", or to hear the tv stations at the gym. After having it on my Nokia, the radio was a must have for any new phone.

Organizer-I downloaded the free Sony PC Suite and my phone synced perfectly with Outlook. That saved a lot of reloading phone numbers into my phone.
The data connection is slow. I do not believe this is USB 2.0 (WHY NOT?). If you are transferring files to your card, I recommend a card reader for your computer. The transfer rate is incredibly faster than the data cable.

Overall, I'm very happy with the phone. It's a great size and is packed with features. I honestly believe it is the best MP3 phone out there right now. The Itunes phones have a slightly better music navigation, but too many of them have limits on song quantities and/or use mini or micro SD cards. Sony's memory sticks are more durable and offer 4gb at the same price of a 2gb SD.

The only improvements I plan on making to this phone is to purchase a screen protector (it's a HUGE screen) and attempt to flash the phone to remove the Cingular branding. Not only will it unlock the cool themes available, but maybe it will let me get rid of those annoying ringtones.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 28
I took a chance and used Davinci 16.9 to flash my phone. It was the most nerve wracking 6 minutes of my life. The result? Cingular branding is completly removed. The full themes are now available (WAY COOLER than before the flash.) I can adjust the power on display (now says SE rather than Cingular.) I was able to delete all but one of the annoying ringtones and I can now use FULL MP3's as ringtones. The Media Net key on the right is now a shortcut key too.

If you feel comfortable flashing your phone (costs twelve bucks to do it) I highly suggest doing it. The only thing I had to set up after flashing was to go to the SE website and have them send updated internet settings to my phone so that I can browse the net on it.

Flashing may void your warranty and is not for the faint of heart.

This is THE PHONE!
I just returned a Samsung SCH-A990 to Verizon, not because it was a bad phone, but because of the numerous ways Verizon crippled its functions (not to mention their lacking customer service in trying to make it work). The Sony w810i from Cingular is everything the Samsung wasn't.

As a phone: Isn't that really why we get these things? I mean cameras, music players, games etc are great, but if it sucks as a phone why buy it? This unit has great reception, clear sound, ample speaker volume, and ease of use. Occasional static where I live (in the woods in a rural area) but I consistently got 3 bars or better, as good as a Nokia with external antenna. So far no dropped calls, but that is as much a function of the network as the phone. I haven't tried the voice command functions, but I would guess they'll work fine. In fairness, as a phone, the Samsung was pretty good too.

The Camera: It's a 2 magapixel camera. The Samsung was 3mp, but the operation of the Sony is much more straightforward. It doesn't suffer from the Samsungs 2 second shutter lag, and really can be used as a camera, where Verizon has the Samsung set up more with having to use their services to transfer or use pictures. The Sony comes with a cable (USB), with wich you can easily transfer pics to and from your PC. The Samsung had no cable included, and even if you bought one, you couldn't use it for picture transfer (beats me why). The flash doubles as a flashlight. Just press abutton and your in camera mode. The phone includes a 128mb memory stick (the non-cingular version comes with a 512mb stick).

The music player: When you come down to it, this is a Walkman, too. The cable, headphones and included apps makes transferring music a snap. With the Samsung, you had to purchase a separate Music Essentials Kit, which got you a headset, cable, and a lousy application disk, which requires MS Music Player 10 (won't work with 11) for an additional 30 bucks that you don't have to spend with the Sony. The Samsung makes you deal with DRM (Digital Rights Management) to keep you away from unlicensed music, and try to get you to pay $1.99 for songs from Verizon. The Samsung also only played WMA format. With the Sony you hook up the cable (I believe you can use Bluetooth or Infrared for transfer as well). Drag and drop the songs, albums or artists you want, select a bit rate (quality), and your off. It even has Sony's 'megabass'.

Other stuff: You get syncing with your MS Outlook contacts, tasks, notes on the Sony. No such thing on the Samsung. Games (demos) are included on the Sony, again, no such thing on the Samsung. A radio (uses the headset as an antenna). Make your own ringtones on the Sony (not on the Samsung). It even has a music ID program. Record a few seconds of a song from a radio, and it will id it for you. Not necessary, but cute and thoughtful. In fact there are so many things on the Sony, it'll take a few days to discover them all.

Standby and talk times are quite generous for the Sony. I don't know why, but I woke up after the Samsung was on standby for two days, and it was already dead. Keys are easy to lock to avoid accidental pressing. 4 of the keys can be customized to your most used functions.

If you want a great phone, cutting edge toy, and Cingular service works where you need it. This is definately the phone to consider. So far I am delighted with my decision to dump the Samsung and Verizon and go back to Cingular. I also understand that if you travel internationally, you're better off with GSM (Cingular) than with CDMA (Verizon).

And with discounts the Sony w810i from Cingular is $150 and includes what you need to use all its functions. The Samsung is $350 (discounted) plus the $30 for the Music Kit, and another $30-50 for a memory card.

One thing the Sony won't do is support the stereo Bluetooth profile (the only ones I know that do are the LG Chocolate, and one of the Motorolas). It's expected in a future version of the Sony phone.

Not to mention the Sony w810 is a slick looking phone. If you're looking, make sure to check this guy out. I've also posted a spearate review of the Samsung SCH-A990.

10/13/06 update: A couple of things I forgot to mention, if only minor. The headset is a two piece affair. You plug in the adapter to the phone which has the microphone, and then you plug the headphones into that. So if you don't like the included one, which is very good, you can use your favorite headphones instead.

Another thing, I have a little FM transmitter for my iPod (the thing that lets you tune your FM radio to a particular station and pick up the output of the iPod). Sony offers one for the w810 as an accessory ($40-50). Cool!

10/18 update: The phone doesn't come with a lot of great themes, but will wonders never cease? How about a free tool to create your own?

12/19/2006 update: After checking Cingular's website, I notice they are no longer offering this phone. That doesn't mean that you can't get it from other vendors, like Amazon, but it is certainly unusual that a phone that was only released a few months ago is no longer available through Cingular. New phones are coming out fast and furious. I am still delighted with this phone, with the only noticable drawback being the headphone adapter is unique, and uses has a wire with the built in microphone, so has no convient way to store it with the phone. Without it, the mp3 player is pretty much useless. The phone does support Bluetooth, but not stereo Bluetooth.

[..]

2006.12.20 Awesome phone!
2006.12.20:

In a word, this phone is AMAZING.

Over the past few years I had gone through quite a few "smartphones" on the Cingular network, and none of them had the call quality and signal consistency that my simple Motorola V551 has. When I was at the Cingular store a couple of weeks ago testing all of the latest smartphones from Nokia, RIM (blackberries), Palm, and Moto, none of them could match the call quality that my V551 gave me, so I almost gave up again on having a multi-function phone. Then I found the Sony Ericsson W810i. I would never have noticed it - it wasn't listed in the Cingular web site for my zip code - but I saw that they had Memory Stick ProDuo's as accessories and asked the store rep what they were for. She showed my the W810i. I slipped my SIM into their demo model and made some calls. I listened to some MP3's and watched some demo video on it. I took some pictures with the 2MP camera and looked at the pics on the store laptop. I bought this incredible phone.

When I got home with it I couldn't believe that I bought a new phone without researching it on the Internet first, and I was a little worried when I found many reviews (from months ago) describing poor call volume and sudden call drops, but I saw later posts that described how the SonyEricsson software for the phone would download the latest firmware and fix those problems, so I checked my W810i's firmware and discovered that it is the latest.

My last two weeks of using the phone daily have been great. The signal consistency and call quality are even better than my V551 both at my office and at home. No breakups or dropped calls. On the road the included stereo handsfree (wired) earbuds/mic worked so well that people I spoke to said they couldn't even tell I was using a handsfree setup.

The sound from the Walkman MP3 player included on the phone is beautiful. The headset system in brilliant and I can't believe it took phone manufacturers so long to do this: The part of the headset that plugs into the phone's SonyEricsson-proprietary connector has the mic on it, and then just a connector for any regular headphones that you would use on an iPod or other MP3 player. That means I can use any headphones I want! I love the included Sony earbuds, but the best part is that, at my office, I just plug my PC speakers into the connector and I can listen to my songs on those speakers! Plus it automatically pauses the music when I get a call.

The phone comes with a 128MB MemoryStick ProDuo card, but I bought a 2GB card for $80.00. I now have 500 MP3 songs on that card, with still room for taking pictures! And I can buy as many cards as I want for more storage. The camera has very nice 2 megapixel quality. It's the first camera phone I have used that is nice enough to actually use. You turn the (candybar-style) W810i to a horizontal orientation and use the phone the same way you use a compact digital camera. I haven't played with video yet, but that's not really too interesting to me anyway. The only complaint I have is that there is no cover for the camera lens, so I am very worried that it will get scratched or otherwise damaged. And how will I clean it when my palm smudges it?

The memory stick system is very cool. I got a $15 USB 2.0 reader so I don't even have to connect the phone to my computer with the included USB cable. My next digital camera will probably be Sony, so it will be great to share memory cards between my W810i phone/MP3 player and a digital camera.

I still have to play with the organizer functions and using my own MP3's as ringtones, but those are just extra features that I really don't need so much. I love this phone. I paid good money for it since I already have a contract, but it was worth every penny. If you can get a free one on Amazon with a new plan then you will be getting an outstanding deal.