Is there any major problems with the sony phone w850i?

Question

Is there any major problems with the sony phone w850i?

Answer 1

mobile-review Sony Ericsson W850i Review.

In 2006 Sony Ericsson is planning on extending its proposal even further. Considering that many companies have already launched their sliders, release of similar models by SE was only a matter of time. Thanks to big leap up of its production facilities and bigger investments into R&D sector, the company has managed to bring up more models to the market. All this has made many users compare SE to the market’s best - Nokia, which share the same policy in certain ways and on top of that a number handsets of these two giants are nothing else but direct rivals. While similar in some respects, Sony Ericsson spends much less money on developments, since the company is not ready to scatter its funds, and therefore displays not much of activity in the field of smartphones and introduces fewer all-new models as against other competitors. But things tend to constantly change, and success on original cell phones market paves the way for filling more niches, namely those of the other form-factors.

Model Cindy was to hit the shelves in June but early in 2006 it was postponed due to intentions of announcing and eventually releasing Sony Ericsson K790i/K800i in the first place. The model precisely copies Sony Ericsson K800i, featuring slightly altered feature set, different camera and integrated Walkman 2.0 media player. One and the same core functionality means that the model will reside in the same high price bracket and what is more is going to be boosted by widely known standard kit of all Walkman-branded handsets price-wise.

To differences, interpreted as obvious drawback and refuse to spread new M2 memory type, many refer MS Duo Pro expansion slot. Nonetheless I have to destroy this myth - Sony Ericsson is going to end incorporating Duo pro slots after this model. Mass switching to M2 format occurs in view of gradual raising of the production of these cards and therefore less price, so it has more of a induced step in it. But it isn’t the main point of interest about the upcoming change – many people will find themselves somewhat in trouble since a PSP or a digital camera by Sony they own make use of MS DUO Pro thus all this seems to be a well-calculated and evaluated move aimed at applying different memory types to different platforms. The second and in fact the most reasonable explanation is the struggle for free space in casings of the modern handsets, and the older a card is the more room it takes up. And if in course of 2006 we won’t have the pleasure of playing around with some slim handsets by the company they are bound to appear in future, but will have significant differences from the sense of “slim” word implied by other manufacturers. SE is more likely to stick to its credo of high price/quality ratio and overwhelming feature set and introduce devices of moderate thickness.

Reasoning from the Sony Ericsson W850i announcement time one could have expected it to carry an M2 adapter, but not an MS DUO Pro slot, as all latest prosperous solutions of the company boast exactly this type. And thus we have all rights to surmise that its release date was rescheduled, basically there is another reason arguing for this point of view, namely, product placement. The device appears in DaVinci code for the very first time, where the heroes look up all information in Google using the W850i, borrowed from a guy in the bus. Take into account the fact this film was released on the 18th of May and the company’s tradition to promote only the models already on sale, and the puzzle is complete. The next film to feature one of SE’s handsets is Casino Royal, another story about James Bond, where Mr. Bond himself will show off a brand-new Sony Ericsson K800i. By the moment the motion picture hits theaters, the device will have already appeared in retail stores. So how comes the W850i got delayed? Sony Ericsson was simply aware of increased competition and made a decision to sustain a pause in order to acquire more loyal consumers. But enough of lyrics, time to give Sony Ericsson W850i a test.

The Sony Ericsson W850i design doesn’t appear monolithic – it has eye-grabbing uncommon elements, making it look somehow different them all other devices of the same class. The same holds true for Sony Ericsson W900i, where official black finishing was diversified with orange edging of the navigation pad. Other manufacturers are not aiming at experimenting with outlook of their products and thus present solutions in austere style without flashy colors. Though the first glance won’t reveal any fancy parts of the construction, saving for the button under the screen, painted in orange.

Another Sony Ericsson W850i unusual component if the navi-key integrated into the surface, making you think it retains touch pad technology, however this isn’t the case. The plastic used there is more flexible, so that you can press it and move through the menus in all possible directions. Points to be presses are marked with light indicators (tiny spots with backlighting), which don’t lack illumination owing to more powerful diodes placed nearby. When not playing back music the keys are lit in white, but once the first notes start coming out from the loudspeaker the backlighting turns into pink. The dedicated orange Walkman key incorporates two KeyPulse LEDs. Considering that the main block of light diodes also adopts this capability, you gain something like son of lumiere. Though the best version of KeyPulse one could experience in Motorola’s handsets, to be precise in Motorola v80 – that model could even synchronize pulsations not only with outgoing tunes, but also with those surrounding the phone, further more, variety of backlighting colors and sizeable illuminated area earned this phone the all-round first place in this category. Of course it was followed by several solutions by Nokia, but the truth is not a one of them could even be an even match for the v80. For some people Haptics has managed to become that emotional bond, sought by all manufacturers.

All in all KeyPulse is only the first step towards equipping handsets with full-featured illumination systems reacting to certain activities of user. And this handset deserves a note only because in dark it looks quite appealing.

The Sony Ericsson W850i measures less than Sony Ericsson K800i, at any rate length-wise (98х47х21 mm). At the same time it features almost the same dimensions as Sony Ericsson K750i does, as you see. The weight of the W850i is almost reasonable – 116 grams which is common for its class.

Other details of note are the speaker’s grill, moulded back cover and a stylish Walkman logotype on the rear. There very unnoticeable things make all the difference between a device by a grand manufacturer and by a small company, making the outlook of the particular handset complete. Design and appearance are equally matched here, and consequentially improve the experience.

The Sony Ericsson W850i comes in two trims - Precious Black and Golden White. As you might have guessed our unit possesses the white one. But which one is more fetching – that was what rose heated debates among our staff. No doubt, the darker finishing scores an obvious victory on face-to-face comparison, but let me remind you how many sliders in black are on the market – at least a dozen, although they differ from the reviewed device design-wise, but look pretty much alike from a distance. Now what about white – as a matter of fact there aren’t so many of white-colored phones out there – maybe some models by Samsung, e.g. Samsung X810, or Siemens EL71 featuring silver color. Basically these are manufacturers themselves who made black color the dominating one. So this is the stage where consumers step into the limelight with their desire to be noted with a fresh-looking handset in their hands. By the way, Sony implements the same policy with its PSP console – while the black trim gets higher sale rates, the white finishing is far behind, but not because of being unpopular or unclaimed etc., but due to the European distributors preferring more spread colors. This has eventually led all customers, who would like to get their hands on a white PSP, to the shady market, where they are offered more expensive (by huge 10-15 percent as compared to the black ones) units.

In Sony Ericsson W850i case I suppose there will always be a share of consumers (approximately 20 percent) who would buy a phone in white color. On the Russian market though it might be an exclusive model granted to a single distributor which will have considerable profit from selling it. The argumentation on whether the white trim makes the outlook less luxurious or not, is understandable; yet it should go no further than just expression of thoughts. In practice a white-colored unit looks very solid and does not exposes any cheapness. Starting from Samsung’s experience, we can justly say that popularity of certain color schemes is about money invested into their promotion. Generally speaking, any finishing may become a hit with proper advertising campaign and slogan. Depending on the handset’s trim, the earphones differ color-wise respectively. The headphones are well-known to anyone familiar to the Walkman series – these are HPM-70 (regrettably a standard version).

An interesting peculiarity of the slider is the top half’s rear design – it demonstrates how thoroughly the manufacturer was developing the handset. It’s normal to see there uncovered screws or the ways of the spring mechanism. Sometimes it blends with the outlook, sometimes spoils the whole impression, especially when people around you spot all these screws. For example Siemens meaningly stresses their presence, on the contrary Nokia disguise the screws with stubs, but here you will find neither stubs nor screws, and this is just great.

In its very first slider Sony Ericsson could have made several disappointing mistakes, but it didn’t. The surface of the sliding part lacks any fastenings, the plastic these doubles as the ways, while the spring mechanism is hidden inside the casing - a thing to accomplish for other sliders manufacturers.

The Sony Ericsson W850i is armed with a auto-completion mechanism, which smoothly slides back and forth up to the click. Springing the device open doesn’t bring problems. There is a minor vertical gap between the two halves when the handset is open; however it was made in order to prevent the halves from cuddling up to each other – on the whole this peculiarity causes no nuisances.

Right above the screen one will find the speaker’s grill as well as a front-faced VGA camera intended for video calls only - Sony Ericsson K800i retains just the same construction. There are also A-B keys on each side of the speakerphone, which can remain unnoted at the first glance, since they mounted in the casing. Owing to bulky size there buttons are handier than those found on the K790i/K800i. Using them you can start up photo album and slide show mode from the standby screen, the are also of certain use in games, which feature landscape mode action, e.g. in Worms 3D.

The Sony Ericsson W850i display reflects up to 262 K colors at a resolution of 240×320 pixels (2 inches, TFT). This allows it to holds up to 8 text lines and 3 service lines in majority of modes, e.g. while browsing the Net, working with e-mail services, and while messaging you can squeeze even more lines by decreasing font size.

Similarly to latest models of this company, mirror insertion is used in order to improve readability of display when you are located outdoors. Picture remains visible. On the whole the screen is quite nice, although it does not blow your mind away, it’s a clear average level or slightly higher than that. You can find better displays in several products from Samsung and Motorola.

Let’s head back to keyboard, it is made of plastic, soft-keys are big. Keypad is convenient, upper row does not stick to case, this sets keypad trouble free. Unlike other phones from this company that are presented in candy bar shape, here there’s enough space for good layout. Backlight color is white, it’s equally spread and clearly visible in various conditions.

Turn on/off button is located on top side of phone, with its help you can quickly switch between profiles, lock keyboard, enable aircraft mode. By the way, you can answer calls and perform all basic operations even if phone is closed.

Service LED is located on top side too, as well as MemoryStick DUO Pro extension slot. Hot Swap is supported.

On the bottom you can see standard interface connector Fast Port (USB Mass Storage and USB 2.0 are supported), there’s also microphone, and hole for strap on the left. IrDA is on the right.

On right side you can see Camera button, and two keys that are used for volume control are located slightly higher than that. Such layout became standard for Sony Ericsson. There aren’t any keys on the left side.

Flash is located on back side, it’s a simple led, just like in Sony Ericsson K750i, you can also use it as flashlight. Camera’s module is standard for company’s product line-up that are not referred to as photographic models, there’s no Auto Focus, 2mpx CMOS matrix, and a small mirror for self-shots.

Sony Ericsson W850i Battery type is Li-Polymer BST-33, its capacity is 900mAh, it becomes standard for all recent models. According to manufacturer, handset is capable of working for up to 350 hours in stand by mode and up to 2.5 hours when you’re talking in UMTS mode and up to 7.5 hours in GSM networks.

Sony Ericsson W850i worked for around 2 days with 1 hour spent for phone calls daily and 5 hours for listening to music, 20 minutes were dedicated to web-surfing. But in case if you talk less than that handset will work for 3 days, but that’s not a highly likeable scenario. In European networks you can expect longer life-time, at least two times longer in all modes this is due to better network coverage.

Manufacturer claims that this model is capable of 30 hour of continuous music playback. It was interesting to clear out if that’s actually possible. So in order to do that we inserted 2gb memory card, filled with music of any kind. Volume was set to maximum, shuffle mode enabled, headphones were default ones. Result was quite interesting: handset worked for 28 hours, which is more than Sony Ericsson W300i. This parameter is leading one for all phones available on the market and refers to third generation of Walkman devices from Sony Ericsson. More information regarding work time can be picked by reading following article – http://www.mobile-review.com/review/musi...

Leaning side key in stand by mode allows finding out time and % level. This function is original and is present only in Sony Ericsson phones, its quite adaptive, numbers change depending on what you do with your phone (for example, after 20 minute phone call this setting may become minimal and later on it will be bigger).

Bluetooth version is 2.0, it supports EDR, you can setup extended energy saving mode in the menu. A2DP profile is present too, and it allows using wireless headphones. Bluetooth was reworked, and now more devices produced by third party manufacturers are supported. However, considering fact that realization of this technology by Sony Ericsson was nice before that (above average), there should not be any problems.

Sony Ericsson W850i Melody synthesizer is 40-tone one, but it is used only for playing midi-tones, for other stuff you should use mp3 files or any other type, like eAAC+. Amount of internal memory is 60mb. :-)