[Review] Sony Ericsson W800i

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devilhead_satish

In the zone
So, the K750i is bored of the way it looks and decides to get a makeover. It’s probably inspired by the Japs who roam at 2 a.m. with pink hairdo but thankfully it decides to choose a much less lurid color than pink, though. So, it goes for a white-orange combo. Also adds a “Walkman” option when you start the phone up. Everything else is pretty much SE K750i.

Looks and Build Quality
Looks pretty funky and is eyeball grabbing for sure, but there could have been a better color combo that SE must have thought of. (Used to get a C at school in drawing and coloring, so don’t ask me to suggest a color)
The phone’s nice to hold and fits pretty snuggly into your palm. Easy to slip in and out of your jeans pocket. And don’t do it unless it’s a Diesel or a Levis’ (it’s fairly pricey, ya know)
On the side are the buttons to the camera and the Memory Stick Duo slot. And oh, lest I forget the phone comes with a 512MB Stick.

*img202.imageshack.us/img202/1360/sonyericssonw800i9hl.jpg

Keypad

The keys look small but don’t get fooled by their small size. They are comfortable to use right from the word go. Well spaced apart and very good tactile feedback. There is also a four way stick for scrolling and zooming around. So SMS junkies shouldn’t find any reason to complain. Wahey!

*img202.imageshack.us/img202/9437/keypad3fv.jpg

UI and Screen
Coming to the UI, it’s pretty similar to the earlier SE phones, and I certainly think those icons could have done with some anti-aliasing and some more detail. It’s a brilliant 262k (176 x 220 pixels) screen after all. Apart from that the UI is quite simple and a newbie shouldn’t have much difficulty navigating through the plethora of features that this thing offers you.
Performance
Battery Life


*img202.imageshack.us/img202/2873/battery7dl.jpg

The battery is a 900mAh. In normal usage it gives you about 6 hours of usage time and in the Walkman mode, the battery life is a good 12 hours. I’m impressed

Music Features

I like this concept of “Walkman” branding on the phone. Looks cool, no doubt. Someone at Sony has had a nice brainwave. Cash in on the legendary “W” logo and guffaw all the way to the bank.
Let’s talk about the music quality now. It’s not just any other phone, ya know, it’s a Walkman series phone and you can expect it to sound really good. And it does. The highs, the lows all sound very nice. It’s the best sounding music phone for sure. Period.
You can create Folders, play lists and do whatever you do on stand alone MP3 players.

*img202.imageshack.us/img202/5740/earphones7ly.jpg
The earphones too are worth a mention. They are “inner earphones” so to speak and fit well within the ear so that very little sound is lost to the surroundings. Wish I lost some calories like that. (I’m pretty fat for my height, if you don’t know, and you quite obviously don’t)
Camera

*img202.imageshack.us/img202/8093/sonyericssonw800i2tm0zn.jpg
This is the best camera I have ever seen on a phone! It just rocks and I think is second to none.(OK, maybe the N90 but I haven’t got my hands on it yet) It’s got 2 mega pixies(or something to that effect ;-) ) that captures JPEG images up to 1,632 x 1,224 pixels or .3gp video at 176 x 144 pixels. The onboard Media Player utility also supports playback of MPEG-4 video files.

Here I compare a pic taken from the W800i and the LGM4410(didnt have a Nokia around, so)
SE W800i
*img202.imageshack.us/img202/5120/w800ipic8wh.th.jpg
LG M44410
*img202.imageshack.us/img202/5585/lgm4410pic6yh.th.jpg


The difference is so apparent that er… the less said the better I guess.

The owner says he doesn’t need a digital camera, now that he’s got a W800i. Humph.
And that cool AutoFocus feature which focuses the pic for you so that you don’t get a blurry shot(you can actually feel the lens traveling while the lens focuses!!!). Thank you very much.
Memory

*img202.imageshack.us/img202/4459/pack8hq.jpg

The phone comes with an onboard memory of 34MB and an external memory of 512MB which you can bump it right up to GB. Pretty neat, given that the K750i came with lot less. This also bumps the price up to an extent. But then this is a music phone and the more the better.

Connectivity
So this thing has Bluetooth, IR, and GPRS (no EDGe!!!) which completely pisses me of. I fail to understand why SE doesn’t have any EDGE enabled phone in India. I mean after paying this fat wad of currency, you at least expect this connectivity option. Even the lower priced phones have got EDGe. Practically on our networks you get more than twice the speed than that of GPRS.
Why so much criticism for not having certain connectivity feature?? Cos it’s the only thing I can crib about in this phone. And the only serious flaw, if you can call it that.
Stop Press!!!!
SE has released the W810i which does have EDGe
More Info Here

Games and Software
Truckloads. I tell you. Truckloads. There is just so much you can do with this phone apart from making calls and that odd SMS: p.
It’s got a MIDI composer, a Video editor, a world clock. A Tetris style game, a video player Et al
I need some more time with the phone to post about this. Please wait for a few hours before I tell you about this


Optimistic
+Great Camera
+Great Screen
+Good keypad
+Cool Interface
+The “W” Logo
+Great Bundled earphones

Pessimistic

- No EDGE
-Nothing else to crib about (note to self, put it under the microscope and find more flaws, stop writing corny jokes in parentheses)

Contents of standard package

>Handset
>Charger
>Manual
>Earphones
>Sandisk Memory Stick Duo
Price
Rs. 22000(This is the price I got after asking 3 odd dealers)

Conclusion
This is as hip as phones can get. This phone didn’t get to the NDTV top 10 Gizmos of the year without reason. A perfect example of form marrying function.If you've got , then this is THE thing to buy.
Overall Rating
9/10(would have given it a 10 if it had EDGe)

P.S. Please post your comments about the review. Thank you. Flaming is welcome this time. I am now officially 3 reviews old. With experience comes maturity :p :rofl:
and er.. My exams are on and this review has been put up in bits and parts. Please don’t mind the silly jokes.  Hope it was a nice read.
 

icecoolz

Cyborg Agent
sweet post Satish.. considering the fact that I have had a w800i for a couple of months now I would say your review is pretty accurate !! great job!
 

coolendra

Neil is Here...
Nice review dude....

i had given the features of the cellwen it was released

neways cool review.. keep it up ~!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

osinghrathore

Right off the assembly line
Hey satish.. gr8 review man!
Just wanted to ask is there any phone in SE's W series which comes in " dual screen folder design"?
 

vamsee

Broken In
ALL SE FANS WAIT A LITTLE U WILL C NEXT ERA/GEN MOBILE IS COMING UP THATS
W1000I
FORGET 2MP CAM 262K DISPLAY FORGET N SERIES N90 N91 N92 MOBILE FOR SOME TIME

AS OF INFO I HAVE IT HAS
4MP CAM WITH POWERFUL FLASH LIGHT
APP MORE THAN 1GB INTERNAL MEM
CURRENTLY 4GB SUPPORT MAY BE UPTO 8GB AT THE OF AVAILABILITY
DISPLAY 16MILLION COLOURS “GVGA” 240x400 pixel WITH 2.8 INCH
CODE NAME HELEN

COMING SOON IN 2006
 

Biplav

In the zone
vamsee:
cud u plz let us knw of the information source.

and yes satish:-
Very Good review.Not biased!pretty neat and well ordered -in short :a treat to read!
now that u have let us to such high expectations; wen can we expect ur next review?
lol=))
 

Captain Crime

Journeyman
Excellent review.
Prof. done

pointed out the cons and pros well.
I hv a doubt.

umlike other SE fones.does it have Fw and Bw option in media player or just the play/pause option.
 

Captain Crime

Journeyman
for the w1000i thing.........
oh man its fake.

*www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/index.php

but ofcourse W900i is releasing
features:
Walkman,offcourse.
3G music download/video calling
470MB inside,2GB expandable

...more
*www.sonyericsson.com/walkmanphone/mainpage.aspx

i thing base can assure is tht it would cost a bomb.
 

loo_31

Broken In
hey men nice review, u have done it well.

Also i wnt to ask u one thing?

If I want to buy Nokia N70, N90, W800i, W900i, W550i which one u will recommend me to buy?
 

paul_007

Padawan
damn no symbian

i'm sure if sony ericsson starts incorporating symbian OS in their cellphones then they will easily defeat NOkia domination in the market
 

Captain Crime

Journeyman
loo_31 said:
hey men nice review, u have done it well.

Also i wnt to ask u one thing?

If I want to buy Nokia N70, N90, W800i, W900i, W550i which one u will recommend me to buy?

If u hv money then N9 :D is better thn N7 :(
just like W9 :D :D is better than W8 :( :( i and W55 :( i

So all u hv is a compition between N-Series(NOKIA) and W-Series(SE)

One can start a thread 4 that
and it depends on ur need t :D :D
 

icecoolz

Cyborg Agent
Price wise the N series sucks. Why would you wanna pay 32K for a mobile which has similar features to the W series ??? And even with the Carl Zeis Lens the W800i camera is miles ahead of the Nokia N90. I for one am extremely disappointed with the N series. Oh and the build quality sucks as well for the N series.
 
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