Sony Ericsson W900i

Felt terribly stupid to assume that Sony Ericsson's software update will make a two-year-old Sony Ericsson phone work better. Felt worse when Sony Ericsson's hot line staff asked if I have read the disclaimer in the software update service. Waited two months for Sony Ericsson's "Management" to get back to me and felt real silly when nothing was heard from them.I have no personal agenda against Sony Ericsson - just hoping that no one else fall into the same trap as me. Makes one feel really, really stupid and helpless.

I LOVE this phone, ive had the W900i for 13 months now and unlike my previous phones that hit the 10month mark and started to die this phone is brilliant! Still going strong, the camera and Walkman are my favorite features. Even without an additional memory card you can stores loads of pictures and songs, I normally have 400+ photos in my library!! Although I love this phone I haven't seen many people with same model which is plus, because this means mine is special! I love the side flip and the way you can use the phone both opened and closed! When i'm due an upgrade I will be getting the same phone again I love it that much!!

Its a fun phone to have. Can easily download themes and applications/games for free! and is not illegal. Well i hope its not but it's quite large so if your wearing anything tight it will show!

Sending SMS is a breeze with my Sony Ericsson W900i, with alternative words automatically displayed for selection. The Walkman sound quality is great although the included headset could have been better designed. Was very pleased with it overall over my previous experiences with Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, and OKI.

One very bad point, and this should be of concern to people on the move and who expects the cellphone to be working when it should. I encountered an 'Application Failure' and then the phone cannot be powered-up after that. A telephone check with the local Sony support, points to possible software failure. But since I use the W900i to check for software updates practically once a week, my W900i should be running the latest. The Sony support then said the online auto-update copy of software on the Sony site is out-of-date. Now that is hardly the standard one expects from Sony. If I happened to be out-of-town for a few weeks and this were to happen, I would have to scramble for a replacement phone on a foreign land and possibly spend quite a bit of money to get it. And I would have to lug this dead phone around.

So if you have this phone and you are planning on travelling, bring another phone, preferably a non-Sony, just in case.

The Sony Ericsson W900i's camera is excellent, my girlfriend forgot to pack our digi camera when we went on holiday, but luckily I had taken my phone. We took 200+ pictures and most of them were immaculately clear.

The Walkman is also very good, well laid out with a handy button on the side to activate it, and also the ability to run only in Walkman mode. Now I don't need to take my mp3 player on the plane with me, as well as my phone. Good sound quality through the headphones too.

The keyboard is well laid out and the keys don't stick, and so far haven't had that age old problem when you've had a phone for a bit and have to really press a key for it to work.

Battery life is pretty poor when you are running the Walkman and pictures taken in low light, for instance inside a building are not great. If like me, you carry it round in your pocket with other stuff, sometimes it unlocks itself and because there are buttons on the front to shortcut your connections to your provider, Vodafone Live in my case, I often find that I have been connected for hours, which also drains the battery down.

Overall well happy with it, this is the first SE phone I've had, previously having used Nokia and Sharp phones. No contest, beats them hands down on all fronts.

The Sony Ericsson W900i is the third mobile phone I've owned by SE. The previous 2 being the compact T610 and the lovely S700i. I loved the S700i, and despite the weight I was always mightily impressed. When due for an upgrade I did my usual geeky research, and the W900i came up on top. I got the phone for free due to changing my contract, although this wasn't a deciding factor for getting the phone!

The features a very similar to the S700i and I am loving the phone. Having already being used to the weight and size (compared to a RAZR for example) this wasn't a factor that bothered me, although others may be put off by this. Having said that, I know which phone I'd rather have when I drop the thing on to the road (which I have done with this phone/have done with previous phones/and will always do with future phones)!

The internal memory (just shy of 1/2 a Gb) is pretty impressive, and money permitting, you can always get a 2Gb memory stick).

It has all the usual features you would expect of this type of phone (camera, video, calendar, Bluetooth ), so the unique selling points for me were without a doubt the Walkman/MP3 player. SE have really put a lot of thought into this, and without completely copying the iPod's GUI (how many different ways can you design an MP3 player interface for accessing tracks?), they have done well. It has a handy little 'Walkman' button on the side, which is a nice touch, but it's position on the left of the phone sometimes makes you access the volume/phone status menu with your thumb, which can be a little frustrating. The nav keys also function as the Walkman keys, which make sense, so it's easy to pick up.

Camera wise, it's not the best thing they've ever done, and if like me you're upgrading from it's predecessor the S700i, you may be a little disappointed with the picture quality, although they have added more features to the camera since the S700i. Having said that, I don't think I ever printed a photo from my S700i in a years worth of use, and doubt I will with the W900. If you're after a quality digital camera, buy one and don't expect your phone to do the job!

I haven't as yet been able to make a video call, as I still don't know anyone who has a 3G connection! Hopefully by the time I upgrade at the end of 2006, more of my friends and family will.

My MAJOR gripe with this phone however may not effect the majority of people. As a Mac user, the phone is not able to connect to my machine via the supplied USB cable. Very frustrating considering a big selling point was the Walkman side of the phone. For whatever reason (and both Sony Ericsson and Apple don't seem to want anything to do with this) Apple does not support the phone. I have had to install a separate patch to use iSync via bluetooth, and although I can transfer songs and photo's via Bluetooth, it's a bit slow considering what a USB connection would do!

Overall, I'm glad I've got the phone, and I wouldn't trade it in, but if Apple and Sony could just work together to get the thing to appear on my desktop, I would be a very happy bunny!

The Sony Ericsson W900i mobile phone has plenty of features. I probably won't be using all of them, but it's nice to have them. The screen is large, and the images are very clear.

I had upgraded my S700 to this, and I feel this is a huge improvement.

The MP3 player is very impressive, and the sound is also very clear.

The only disappointing thing is the fact that the battery tends to die out rather quickly.

Other than that I do find the customisation of my contacts etc. does become a bit of a pastime when I have time to spare.

Previous phones I have had give you 1 or 2 free games to play, but with this phone you get the games, but they are limited (i.e. you can only play for a certain time or a certain level, then there is an advert encouraging you to buy the game.

Internet browsing is a pleasant experience, and you almost feel like you are using Internet Explorer.

Oh by the way, you can make and receive phone calls too!!

I have had this Sony Ericsson W900i phone for a little over a week and I have to say it is without doubt an amazing piece of technology.

The swivel design is stylish and functional with most features on the phone except texting being accessible with the phone in the closed position. The keypad is locked using a small sliding button on the side of the phone which is much more practical than the usual 'menu' '*' system! And the keypad when revealed has large easy to use buttons which make typing a joy.

The camera on this phone is beyond comparison with other phones I have seen- it is fantastic. Although other phones have 2mega pixel cameras the quality of the images seem so much better with the Sony Ericsson W900i compared to say the Samsung D600.

I found the menu's so easy to navigate and several people have commented on how stunning the graphics and display are.

This phone is also one of the 'Walkman' phones so it's an mp3 player as well and I have found it faultless and the software to transfer the tracks was pretty simple to use so no problems there either!

You can get mobile TV on this phone too as it's 3g but I found this to be a little disappointing with limited programmes and bad picture quality although this is not the fault of the phone!

Having said all this, I am now planning to return this phone as I have one very major complaint. The battery life.

I have found that even with the 3g network turned off and the display brightness turned down and all the other energy saving tricks being employed, with normal usage of the phone I am having to charge it every 24 hours at least and for me it is really not a practical day to day mobile.

The features on it are amazing, like the mp3 player and the radio but there is little point to them when you are on a long journey and fear to use them in case the battery life gets drained in a couple of hours and you can't make an important phone call when you reach your destination!

I would certainly recommend this phone to anyone as it is so well designed and made and is certainly something special, however you do have to be prepared to cart around the charger at all times as you never know when you'll hit that last bar of battery!

The Sony Ericsson W900i mobile phone is loaded with gadgets. However, for day-to-day use it's simply not practical. The poor battery life is the real clincher for me. If you listen to music, or worse use the TV functionality, it will drain the battery in no time. It's bulky and heavy too. I think I would have been better off saving my money by getting a w800i.

As an aside, if anyone is thinking about buying this phone to watch Vodafone's mobile TV service, I would recommend they don't. The programming is very limited, with most channels seeming to run in short loop. The quality is poor, and 3G reception is intermittent to say the least.

The Sony Ericsson W900i is my second SE phone - my previous one being the T610 - and I am very pleased to say that SE have continued their line in excellent phones. In between my two SE phones I had a Samsung D500 and I have gone back to the SE because the D500 was a slight disappointment in comparisson (I did think about getting a D600, but not for too long).

The W900i is just a great all round phone and I cannot find too much wrong with it. Yes, its a bit bigger in size and weight compared to its rivals but then 3G phones do tend to take up more space! This is not a major problem as it is certainly not a 'brick' by any means.

The 2MP camera is outstanding with the quality of images being produced much better then I had expected. This is helped by the excellent screen resolution.

The Walkman features (probably one of the main selling points) are well thought out since when you turn the phone on you can decide if you just want to use it as a Walkman. This is sold as a feature for people who travel on planes and don't want to take a seperate MP3 player as the phone functions are deactivated in Walkman mode. The sound quality is good through the phone speaker and great through the headset (which also has a built in FM radio). You can organise tunes in the same way as you can on your PC into seperate Play lists or by Artist/title. You shouldn't have too much trouble with space as the W900i has 470Mb built in to start with and use the Sony Memory Stick Duo to expand it further.

The PC Sync functionality and software are very straight forward and easy to install/use especially since the phone is supplied with a USB cable (although you could use the IR or Bluetooth connections should your computer support it).

This has also been my first 3G phone and I have been suprised by the good quality of the video calls that can be made. This is a function that I will be using more often.

The phone is packed with a whole host of the usual features you would expect and these are easy to access and personalise to your requirements. The keypad is well laid out (not too close together) and responds well to key presses. The constrution is very good quality - I was concerned about the strength of the rotating mechanism before I bought the phone but it is well made and not at all flimsy. Overall I am very impressed with the phone and glad I made the decision about going back to SE.