W910i - Slick, Stylish and So Very Sony (Sony Ericsson W910i)

Member Name: danieljamesphoto

Product:	Sony Ericsson W910i
Date:	05/11/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use, compact, fairly reliable

Disadvantages: randomly restarts, sluggish camera

The super slick W910i from Sony Ericsson was my weapon of choice when I began my contract with Orange around a year ago.

My main reason for choosing the W910i at the time was the smart and stylish black finish and the compactness of the phone, with its slide feature.

--- Aesthetics & General Handling ---

As mentioned previously I am a fan of the nice matt black finish with silver central control buttons and orange 'walkman' details.

The slider is slick and easy to use, though it must be said it took a while to get used to the super thin keypad which incidentally is well backlit to make it really easy to read in dark places.

Two top button (on the front) access the most recent photograph taken and your gallery whilst the buttons below the generously sized display control the other normal functions of the phone; answer calls, confirm actions etc.

The left side of the phone provides a battery charging port whilst the right has 2 buttons; one for taking a photograph and the other for controlling the volume during a call (or activating voice dialling).

--- Functions ---

Stand out features of this phone are for me, as follows;

- Motion sensitive viewing - the screen changes its display according to the way you are holding the phone for some applications.

- Sonys well known easy to use navigation system (navigating messages, phone book etc)

- Customisable - good range of 'themes' online to download to customise the phone as well as setting shortcuts for your most used actions such as writing a text message.

- Memory - a good 1GB memory card came with the camera which slots neatly into the side of the phone and has provided a vast amount of storage for hundreds of photos.

--- 'Fun Stuff' ---

- Audio - good sound for such a small phone and a good example of a walkman phone

- Camera - video and stills. ah. this is where is drops out a bit for me. A 2MP camera is great for snapshots which, in fairness is what i use this for, but the focus can be slow to react and still blur shots very easily. The camera also lacks flash and so looses some points from me here.

- Games - wide selection of compatible java games can be found and bought online

--- One Year On ---

So i'm around a year into good heavy usage of the phone and I had a bit of a falling out with the phone around 3 weeks ago. Since returning from holiday i noticed what seemed to be a material akin to thin black chewing gum came loose from under the phone, resulting in it sometimes not sliding closed properly. The has, fortunately for the time being, stopped and the phone is now working ok (very odd though) and it must be said that my cousin experienced the same issue around a year into his contract also.

Suspicious since there's a 12 month warranty on them.

The phone does also occasionally restart itself for no reason at random points (though this is infrequent and not generally during a call so not a major issue)

--- Summary ---

Overall the phone has been brilliant. It is used a lot of times per day, often for business. It has been dropped a few times and has been fine everytime with very little scratches on the surface despite such frequent use. The battery life is also very good on this phone though I haven't done any actual tests on exact times.

Improve the camera, add flash and it'll be perfect for me however as a functional phone is provides an easy to access phone book, easy to navigate display and large space for contacts/messages etc.

Summary: easy to access phone book, easy to navigate display and large space for contacts/messages etc.

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