Sony Ericsson Walkman W518a Review

Whats hot: Slim and attractive, great music features and video performance. Whats not: Mediocre camera, flat keys are hard on gamers and texters. CheckedJuly 21, 2009 by Tong Zhang, Senior Editor The Sony Ericsson W518a is for Walkman phone fans who crave a flip form. Even though AT&T has largely stayed away from high-end Walkman phones like the W995a, they continue the love for mid-tier Walkman phones. The W518a has Sony Ericsson’s signature XrossMediaBar (pronounced cross media bar) media player UI, Walkman Player 3.0, Bluetooth A2DP, an FM radio and gesture control. The quad band GSM phone has AT&T’s 3G HSDPA bands and works with AT&T’s services including CV on-demand video, Video Share video calling, AT&T Navigator for GPS navigation and music downloads over the air. The flip phone is very slim, and has a 3.2 megapixel camera with video capture capability, Facebook integration and the very capable Netfront web browser. We love the music features and video playback performance, though we don’t dig the camera quality. Design and Ergonomics The Sony Ericsson W518a is a good-looking flip phone; in fact it looks better in person than in photos. It has a shiny dark gray cover and a smooth black back. The front cover gloss is low key and not a fingerprint-loving piano finish. Measuring 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches with the flip closed, the Walkman phone is very thin. The phone has a small display, touch sensitive music control and the built-in camera on the flip and the rear firing speakerphone on the back. The 2.2-inch main QVGA display supports 262K colors, and it’s very useable in sunlight. The Sony Ericsson has a Moto RAZR-like flat keypad that’s very challenging for mobile gamers because the number keys have little travel. Menu keys include two shoulder menu keys, call send and call end buttons, Menu and cancel keys that flank the d-pad. The menu keys are as flat as the number keys and the d-pad has a decent sized center key surrounded by a very narrow ring that works as 4-way d-pad. The SIM and the Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slots live under the battery door. You will need to take the battery out to access the SIM card slot but the M2 slot is accessible without removing the battery. The W518a has a volume rocker and key guard slider on the right side and the Sony Ericsson proprietary charging/syncing connector (Fast port style) on the left side. Phone Features and Messaging The Sony Ericsson W518a is a quad band GSM world phone with 3G HSDPA 3.6 Mbps on the 850/1900/2100 MHz bands. The 3G bands ensure the phone work on AT&T’s 3G network in the U.S. and in Europe. The 3G bands will not work on T-Mobile’s 3G network in the U.S. The phone’s reception is just below average. It occasionally loses 3G even in areas with decent 3G coverage. The phone never dropped a voice call and has very good voice quality on both incoming and outgoing ends. Data speed over 3G HSDPA feels fast, and load time for web pages and CV video clips is very reasonable. If you are in AT&T’s 3G coverage area, you can also use the Sony Ericsson to make video calls via AT&T’s Video Share service. The contacts database on the Sony Ericsson can store up to 1000 contacts with up to 7000 numbers. You can also have 9 speed dialing numbers. The phone also comes with voice command software; however just as with the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905a on AT&T, it requires you to record voice tags. Again, like the C905a, we experienced a bug where the volume for the beep that signals that the phone is ready to listen for a command is so low that we couldn’t hear it unless the earpiece was against our ear in a very quiet room. But once we recorded the voice tags, the phone worked well in voice dialing.

The Sony Ericsson W518a has the usual messaging support including SMS, video, picture and sound messaging, and web-based IM (AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger). The W518a Walkman phone comes with the Netfront web browser that can display full HTML pages with images and layout intact. The browser is really impressive with desktop view options, a cursor, Javascript dHTML support and more.

It was interesting that AT&T picked a Walkman phone as one of their social networking phones, but Facebook fans will get an integrated application on the W518a. Even though you can easily use the nice web browser to visit and update your Facebook page, the integration gives you something extra: when you turn on “update during standby”, your friends’ updates will scroll across the phone’s standby screen. There is also a Facebook client on the phone but oddly it only lets you update your own Facebook page but doesn’t show your friend’s updates.

The Sony Ericsson W518a also has aGPS that works with AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn navigation and voice guidance. The GPS gets accurate fixes in most cases but noticeably lags behind the real time position. Route re-calculations are speedy and the speakerphone is loud enough to overcome road noise for spoken directions. Standard features for AT&T Navigator include POIs (Points of Interest), traffic and re-routing. AT&T Navigator isn’t free ($9.99/month subscription, or $4.99/month with a data plan) but you get 30 days to try it out for free.

Multimedia True to its name, the W518a is a very strong music phone and once you have all the right accessories in hand, the Walkman phone can provide a complete music experience on the go. The Sony Ericsson has both the familiar XrossMediaBar (XMB) user interface (featured on the PS3, PSP, some Sony TVs and notebooks) and the latest Walkman Player 3.0 software. The music player supports the accelerometer, album art and MegaBass. If youre a fan of gesture control, you will be pleased with the W518a: you can shake the phone to fast forward and rewind tracks, change volume and even snooze alarms by waving your hand in front of the camera lens. The gesture control is responsive and you can turn it on or off. The music player can play MP3, WMA and AAC files. We tested music tracks from iTunes and all worked well. We also tested audio books and Podcasts on the Sony Ericsson and they worked well also. You will find quite a few applications accompanying the music player, some provided by Sony Ericsson, others by AT&T. These application/services include TrackID (for identifying tracks on the phone), MusicID (for identifying music from radio), XM radio and SensMe which sorts tracks based on the mood of the music. There is also an FM radio with RDS on board, but AT&T doesn’t include a wired headset, and you’ll need once since it acts as the antenna. If you want to listen to FM radio you’ll need to buy the headset separately, and since it’s the Sony Ericsson Fast port connector style headset it’s not the easiest or cheapest to find. A strange omission for a Walkman phone. Happily, if you have a stereo headset from an older Sony Ericsson phone, that will work. You can play music via the phone’s built-in speakerphone, via wired stereo headset (again, none included in the package) or via Bluetooth A2DP stereo headset. The speakerphone on the W518a is decent. The audio quality can’t compete with the stereo speakers on the W995a, but it’s not too bad as long as you don’t turn the volume too high. The speaker sounds a little blown when the volume is high, though the speakerphone is quite loud and you don’t really need to turn it to max. Music sounded really good via Bluetooth stereo headsets with strong bass and clear audio. Like most Sony Ericsson phones, the W518a has an M2 card slot for music storage as well as storing other media content. You can also sync music via USB or Bluetooth. Sony Ericsson offers PC Suite syncing software for free (download from sonyericsson.com/support), but the W518a package doesn’t include a USB cable. You can purchase the USB data cable from AT&T separately, and it’s the same cable used with most Sony Ericsson phones (Fast port to USB). While the Sony Ericsson W518a isn’t a video-centric phone, it offers a surprisingly good video experience. The phone handles AT&T’s CV on-demand streaming video with ease (CV is included with the $15/month unlimited data plan). Both short clips and full-length TV programs look sharp and play smoothly over 3G. If you are into free video content, the phone can play YouTube video via the YouTube mobile site. YouTube videos play less smoothly than the CV videos, and the audio doesn’t sound as full.

Camera

The Sony Ericsson W518a has a 3.2 megapixel camera with fixed focus lens and no flash. The camera lens lives under a cheap plastic cover that’s easily schmeared with hand grease and it catches sun glare causing lens flare. Still images taken with the W518a aren’t impressive: both indoor and outdoor shots have noticeable noise that you shouldn’t see in a 3.2 megapixel camera phone, light objects often have white-out in various lighting conditions and there is a slight white haze near the edges of photos. But if you have just the right lighting and the lens cover is clean, you might capture some sharp photos with good color balance. The camera software on the Sony Ericsson offers the usual settings including white balance, effects, self-timer, picture quality, night mode and more.

The W518a can also record video with audio at QVGA 320 x 240 resolution at 15fps. You can record MMS short videos or long videos to store on the M2 card or on the phone. Video clips look smooth and audio is in sync with video. Without a flash, videos captured in dim rooms look dark. Luckily there is a night mode video capturing option which does lighten up the scene but reduces contrast.

Battery Life

The Sony Ericsson W518a has a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that’s user replaceable. The battery (model BST-39) is 900 mAh, and the claimed talk time is 4 hours. The claimed standby is over 16 days and in our tests that seemed to be on target. The battery runtime was noticeably shorter when we watched CV, used the GPS and downloaded apps over the air.

Conclusion

We finally get a flip Walkman phone from AT&T and it doesn’t disappoint as a music phone. The Walkman Player 3.0 has the latest music playback goodness: album art, accelerometer support, TrackID, gesture control and the SensMe playlist. It plays audio books and podcasts; and video playback via CV is very smooth. The phone has a loud speaker and music sounds good via Bluetooth stereo A2DP. It’s a shame that AT&T doesn’t include the wired headset that works with the Sony Ericsson proprietary port not only for music playback but also for the FM radio. GPS with AT&T Navigator and Facebook integration are convenient for users who need them. The Netfront web browser brings more smarts to a feature phone at this level. The camera is a disappointment; good for us that AT&T released the Sony Ericsson C905a camera phone with 8.1 megapixel camera at the same time for those who are more photo buffs than music buffs.

Pro: Slim and sleek design, XMB UI is easy to use, good music player and video performance.

Con: Camera isn’t impressive. No wired headset or USB cable in the box.

Price: $49.99 with 2-year contract after mail-in rebate and discount. $199.99 without contract.

Web sites: www.sonyericsson.com, wireless.att.com

Specs:

Display: 2.2” QVGA 262K color TFT screen. Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels.

Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, 930/900 mAh, user replaceable. Claimed talk time: up to 4 hours. Claimed standby time: up to 16.6 days.

Performance: 100MB internal memory. Phone book can store 1000 entries.

Size: 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches. Weight: 3.35 oz.

Phone: Quad band GSM world phone. 850/900/1800/1900MHz. 3G 850/1900/2100 MHz for data.

Camera: 3.2 megapixel with no flash. Can take video with audio.

Audio: Supports MegaTones, HiFi Ringers and MP3 music tones. MP3 player onboard to play music in MP3, AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+ and WMA formats. FM Radio. Fast port audio jack. Can record voice memo. Supports vibration alert.

Networking: Bluetooth v2.0. USB 2.0.

Software: Sony’s Xross Media Bar UI. Access NetFront 3.4 web browser, Walkman Player 3.0, PhotoDJ, MusicDJ, TrackID and Bluetooth Remote Control. PIM tools include Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Password Keeper, Calculator, Timer, Stopwatch and Alarm Clock. Downloadable software includes Sony Ericsson PC Suite 5.0 and Sony Media Go software.

Expansion: 1 Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot. Supports 8GB cards according to Sony Ericsson. No card included.

In the Box: The Sony Ericsson W518a phone with standard battery, AC charger and printed manuals.

                                                              ( Author : Tong Zhang, Source : mobiletechnews )

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Sony Ericsson S710a GSM Phone Review

    

Posted July 8, 2005 by Tong Zhang, Senior Editor Candy bar phones are Sony Ericssons specialty and trademark. The T68i, T610, K700 and the P900 series have proven that Sony Ericssons designs work for various types of phones with vastly different feature sets. The S710 series extends that design to a new form factor with a swivel. It enables the phone to have a roomy 2.3" LCD, 1.3 megapixel digital camera and a large number pad in a reasonably compact design. Throw in the EDGE, Bluetooth and a Memory Stick Duo slot for expansion, and youve got a unique looking phone with powerful imaging, connectivity and data features. There are two variants in the series. Like many features phones, the S700i came out in Europe and Asia first, operating on the 900/1800/1900 MHz bands. The S710a model was released to the US market and is offered by Cingular. It operates on the 850/1800/1900 MHz bands. We received the S710a for this news. Design and Ergonomics Styling and wow-factor are now sustaining trends in mobile phone design. While the Sony Ericsson cant compete with the extreme styling of Nokias recent fashion phones such as the 7610 and 7280, it hold its own with a unique style and attractive design. The S710a is an average size phone, albeit thicker than most. The 2.3" color screen and directional pad with four action buttons are located in the top half of the swivel, and a spacious number pad dominates the lower half. You need only swivel the phone open to use the number pad, and you can answer calls without opening the swivel. Users who wish to have a big screen for viewing photos, watching videos and playing games, yet dont want to give up the convenience of a large number pad will simply love the S710a. Below the LCD, youll find a 4-way directional pad with center joystick/action button. Four buttons surround the d-pad. Two large select buttons perform various functions depending on the application you are in. Two smaller buttons located below the function buttons take you one level up in the menu tree (left button) and deletes numbers, letters or items (right button). The earpiece speaker sits above the display, and the mic sits between the right select key and the delete key below the LCD. Swing the phone open and youll see a full cell phone keypad. The keys are large, and are inset a little so that the number keys are actually lower than the plate surface. It takes some getting used to them if you rely on tactile feedback. There are two additional keys below the number keys and they are for quick access to the Internet and turning the phone on and off. The number keypad, function keys and the d-pad light up for a short period of time when you press a key.

The back of the phone resembles a small digital camera, setting the stage for the excellent 1.3 megapixel CCD camera. The battery door with an added domed silver piece gives your fingers a better grip when you hold the phone horizontally like a digital camera. The battery lives beneath the battery door, and the SIM is under the battery. Above the camera lens, you will find the flash on the left and the lens cover on the right. Open the lens cover also to launch the camera app, and close the lens cover to exit the camera application-- a very convenient feature for capturing a quick moment. Note that the swivel must be closed to use the camera. The self portrait mirror is located below the lens. The S710as speakerphone is on the back of the phone.

On the left side of the Sony Ericsson, you will find the charging LED, phone lock slider which can lock the phone with password protection, and the IR port. On the right side, you will find the volume buttons near the top, a shutter release for the camera and the Memory Stick Duo slot towards the bottom. The charging port and the stereo headset connector are located at the bottom of the S710a. The sides of the phone curve in a little bit, providing a better grip.

Phone Features and Organizer

As mentioned, the Sony Ericsson S710a operates on the 850/1800/1900 MHz bands and is offered by Cingular in the US. The Cingular version of the phone is SIM locked to Cingular, and there is an AT&T version available for business customers (NBO) who havent switched over. The S710a gets very good reception on the 850 and 1900 MHz bands. Its not a top RF phone, but its good enough for even fair signal areas. The ear piece volume is quite loud, beating many recent smartphones which seem to have gone quiet. When in a call, you can use the two select buttons to turn on the speakerphone or end the call. If you press the center action key on the d-pad, you will get a short menu which includes shortcuts to Main Menu, Hold Call, Mute Microphone, Turn Off Tones, Record and Transfer Sound. This interface makes it easy for you to take additional actions during a call without interrupting your conversation. The S710a supports most common mobile phone features including voice dialing, call forwarding, call waiting and conference calls where services are available.

The Sony Ericsson S710a comes with a full set of PIM (Personal Information Manager) applications including Phonebook, Calendar, Tasks, Notes and more. The Phonebook can hold 510 numbers and can store pictures, ringtones, email, Web address and street address to contacts. Note that if you save your contacts on your SIM card, you can only save entries as a name with a single number. Its easy to make a call from your contact database: just type in the first few letters of the contacts name to find the phone number to call. If you receive a call from a new contact, when your call is finished, the S710 will ask you if you wish to save the contact to your Phonebook. You can also assign speed dial number to your contacts with number 1-9, though its a good idea to leave number 1 as your voicemail speed dial. The Calendar, Tasks and Notes applications under the Organizer menu are simpler than the respective apps found on PDAs and smartphones. The Calendar app has monthly and weekly views. When you add new appointments, you will go through a few screens to set date, time and reminder. You can save up to 300 appointments and 80 tasks depending on the size of each item, and set reminder for each of the appointments and tasks.

Web and Messaging

The Sony Ericsson S710a has a basic WAP browser that supports both WAP and https secure browsing. You can select browsing mode, use a proxy server if desired, and enter IP and port number in the Internet Profile settings. The browser has some basic features including bookmarks, history, save pictures and send links. Since the S710a support EDGE for data, web browsing speed is good.

The Sony Ericsson S710 supports SMS, Picture messaging and email. Launch the Messages application from the Main Menu, and youre ready to send messages. Text messages can be sent to one person, several recipients or to a group saved in the Phonebook. To enter text messages, you can use the keypad or copy/paste from other apps or messages. There is also a template folder where you can create templates for frequently used phrases and messages. The multitap text input works well for entering messages, but it requires more taps to select the wanted letter from a list. The predictive text input (T9) works about 70% of the time.

Picture messages can contain text, pictures, video clips and sound recordings. To send an MMS message, both you and the recipient must have a subscription that supports MMS. Inter-carrier MMS is still a bit unreliable. Because MMS can be large in file size, you can use download options to tell your S710 when to download the messages. These options include Auto Download, Ask When Roaming, Not When Roaming, Always Ask and Off.

If you have a data plan, you can use the Sony Ericsson to send and receive email using the Email application. Setting up an email account is fairly easy and there are three ways you can create an email account: download settings from the Internet, send a request in a text message and create an email account manually. The Email settings are extensive and both POP3 and IMAP4 are supported. You can set incoming and outgoing servers, ports, encryption, mailbox, email address, signatures and more. You can use a contacts email address in your Phonebook or type new email address to send an email. If someone whos not in your contacts sent you a message, you can either block it or add it to your contacts list.

Camera and Multimedia

The Sony Ericsson S710a has an excellent 1.3 megapixel CCD camera with 8x digital zoom that takes superb photos by phone standards. The shutter location and the phones camera-like form factor when closed make taking photos very convenient and comfortable. Open the shutter lock to reveal the camera lens and self portrait mirror, and launch the camera application at the same time. The large 2.3" LCD becomes the viewfinder. One of the select buttons brings up various photo settings and options. These options include Shot Mode (normal, burst 4 or with frame), Picture Size (from 160 x 120 to 1280 x 960), Night Mode, Self Timer, Effects (negative, solarize, sepia and black & white), Light (turn on the flashlight), White Balance (auto, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight and cloudy), Spot Photometry, Shutter Sound, saving locations (phone or Memory Stick Duo) and more. Once youve taken a picture, you can choose to trash it, send it via MMS or view all the photos in the album.

As of this writing, The S710 has by far the best camera of any current phone or PDA. The photos taken with the Sony Ericsson have good color saturation and light balance. Indoor shots with decent lighting and outdoor shots with mild sunlight yield the best light balance. Strong sunlight can wash out photos, though the S710 handles this better than most camera phones. Photo buffs love this phone for a reason: it takes simply great shots by todays standards and the photos are good enough for web site use. In fact, you might get an OK 4" x 6" print from your shots. You can view your photos one at a time or in a slide show . The desktop software includes an image application where you can manage your photos.

The camera can also take live video with sound at 176 x 144 and 128 x 96 resolutions. The sound and image in the video stay reasonably in sync. The video has some breakup and the audio sounds a little muffled, but its still good by camera phone standards.

The voice and music volume on the Sony Ericsson S710a are quite high. You can use any MIDI or MP3 files as ringtones. The voice quality is above average, good but wont wow you. When the volume is turned up to near max, incoming voice crackles a little bit. Playing MP3 through the included pop-port stereo headset gets decent quality, but loses the fullness of the music to certain degree and adds a little bit of white noise, especially on more processed music pieces.

The bright, color saturated 2.3" color LCD is capable of displaying 265K colors at 240 x 320 pixel resolution. Its well-suited for viewing the cameras lovely photos.

Below: sample photos shot at 1280 x 960 on auto settings. Click on a photo to see the full size unedited original.

Sunny day, flowers in part shade.

Sammy.

Odwalla bottles at the market

Bluetooth

The Sony Ericsson has built-in Bluetooth that supports synchronization with PC and Mac, DUN (dial up networking), both Handsfree and Headset profiles for Bluetooth headsets and more.

To sync with your PC, you must install Sony Ericssons SyncStation, part of the PC Suite that comes on the companion CD and the newest version can also be downloaded from www.sonyericsson.com/support. You can sync your PIM data, manage and transfer files via the Bluetooth connection. If you have a data plan with your carrier, you can also get online with your laptop or PDA using DUN on the Sony Ericsson.

The Sony Ericsson can work with Bluetooth hands-free solutions such as headsets and car kits. It supports both Handsfree profile and Headset profile. We tested the S710a with the Motorola HS820 and the Plantronics M3500 headsets, and both worked very well. The range is very good: we were able to 25 to 30 feet before we heard static and echo.

Battery

The Sony Ericsson has a 780 mAh Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, which is higher in capacity than the Sony Ericsson K700i. The standby time and talk time are amazing. Sony Ericsson claims 300-hour standby and we got at least 200 hours, and get got a talk time of 5.5 hours. The 1.3 megapixel camera doesnt use much power, to our surprise. The Sony Clie NZ90, which had a 2.0 megapixel CCD camera, drained the battery very quickly when taking photos. We took 20 pictures with the Sony Ericsson S710a and the battery went down about 10%. Bluetooth does drain the battery however-much more so than recent competing Bluetooth enabled mobile phones. If you leave Bluetooth on all day, youll need to charge it nightly (even if youre not using Bluetooth heavily).

Conclusion

An attractive phone with an excellent digital camera by phone standards. An ideal phone for photo buffs who also like a nice set of phone and PIM features.

Pro: Large screen with accurate, vivid colors and a bright display. 1.3 megapixel CCD camera is the envy of other camera phones on the market. A good set of phones features including PIM applications. Built-in Bluetooth is excellent for syncing with desktop and using handsfree solutions as well as other Bluetooth accessories. Comes with a nice set of PC companion software for managing files, syncing with desktop apps and processing images and video clips.

Con: Its an effort to punch numbers and letters due to the number pad design. Heavy SMS users wont appreciate the less than adequately predictive T9 implementation. Poor battery life when Bluetooth is turned on.
Price: $299.99 with 2-year contract with Cingular
Web site: www.sonyericsson.com, www.cingular.com

Specs:

Display: 265K color LCD. Screen size diag: 2.3". Resolution: 240x320 pixels. Battery: Sony Ericsson Standard BST-27 Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. 780 mAh capacity. Battery is user replaceable. Claimed talk and standby times: talk, up to 7 hours. Standby, 300 hours. Performance: 32 megs of internal memory. Size: 4.2 x 1.9 x 1 inches. Weight: 4.83 ounces. Audio: Built in speaker, mic and a Sony Ericssons proprietary stereo headset port thats similar to Nokias Pop-port stereo headset connector. Supports polyphonic ringtones, MIDI and MP3 audio. Supports MPEG4 video with Media Player bundled on the phone. Vibrating alerts supported. Camera: Integrated 1.3 megapixel CCD camera with 8X digital zoom. Also records video clips with audio. Picture resolutions range from 160 x 120 to 1280 x 960 and videos can be taken at 176 x 144 and 128 x 96 resolutions. Phone: GSM triband phone, 850/1800/1900MHz in the US version. GPRS and EDGE for data. Bluetooth. IR. Software: Sony Ericsson OS. Bundled applications include Contacts, Organizer (Calendar, Tasks and Notes), Messaging (supports SMS, MMS and email), WAP/xHTML browser, Media Player and Image gallery. Also included are two JAVA games, Music DJ, Sound recorder, calculator and stopwatch applications. The desktop companion CD includes software for syncing with PC, File Manager, Sound editor, Image Editor and Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition are included. Modem drivers are also included on the CD. Expansion: Memory Stick Duo (Memory Stick Duo to Memory Stick adapter included). A 32MB Memory Stick Duo is included in the package. In the Box: The phone with battery and a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, an A/C charger, a stereo headset, PC suite companion CD and user manuals in English and Spanish.

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                                                                           ( Author : Tong Zhang, Source : mobiletechnews )

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