Another Sony Ericsson phone that promises much, but fails to deliver in practice. A superslim slide phone with the outstandingly good Walkman 3.0 music player, the W910i also offers an FM radio, a 2 megapixel camera, memory expandable to 4 Gbytes, 3G with HSDPA (super fast 3G) and the cool “shake control”. However, many users have reported that their phone freezes or shuts down – we have deducted two stars for this reason.
Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Mobiles.co.uk (White Gold). New W910i Gaming version exclusively from the Carphone Warehouse (includes motion-based games such as Tomb Raider: Underworld, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, SimCity Metropolis, and EA SPORTS FIFA MANAGER 08.)

Review: October 2007. Updated March 2009.

We’re getting fed up of writing good reviews of Sony Ericsson phones, only to be deluged by a flood of user reviews telling us that their phones simply don’t work. What good is a phone that’s outstanding when it works, but has such poor quality control in its manufacturer that many users receive a dud? The big problem with the W910i is freezing and switching off. Read the user reviews below to appreciate just how common this fault is. If this phone actually worked, it would be fantastic, but if it doesn’t it’s an expensive lump of plastic. Do you want to take the risk?

The Sony Ericsson W910i is a superslim slide phone, measuring just 12.5mm thick (slimmer than the Samsung D900.) It’s a lovely looking phone with a tapered bottom edge and a superslim profile. The W910i wears its Walkman credentials on its sleeve, with music controls featured prominently when the slide is closed. Fortunately SE have given the W910i am easy-to-use circular navigational key, not the dreaded joystick that appears on some of their models. The screen is large, bright and high resolution (240 x 320 pixels) and the menus are clear and simple to navigate. The slide opens smoothly to reveal the full keypad below. Sony Ericsson have got a funny thing going on with keypads at the moment. With each new phone we find a new style of keypad, some with tiny “designer” buttons, others with larger, more conventional ones. The W910i has larger, flatter keys than most, but it still isn’t as easy to use as many rival phones. It’s high time that SE got their act together with the keypad issue. Anyway, the W910i doesn’t have the fastest keypad for texting, but it’s not the worst.

The W910i incorporates Sony Ericsson’s new “Shake Control” that lets you change to a new random track by giving the phone a flick. The motion sensor also lets you flip between portrait and landscape viewing of photos. Fun, but not life changing.

So, this is a music phone first and foremost, and it ticks all the boxes. Audio quality is excellent as usual, with SE’s MegaBass feature to enhance bass frequencies. You can plug in a conventional stereo headset or use a Bluetooth stereo headset if you prefer. The Walkman music player 3.0 is very easy to use, with controls on the front of the phone, and is a fully-featured digital music player. You can create and manage playlists, shuffle songs, equalise, etc, etc. The supplied software lets you transfer music from PC to phone, and rip music from CD’s. Storage is limited to 35 Mbytes, so you’ll want to add a memory card – the W910i supports cards up to 4 Gbytes. In addition there’s an FM radio equipped with RDS.

The camera is rated at a middle-of-the-road 2 megapixels and lacks autofocus, putting it well behind the flagship K850i. But this is a Walkman phone, not a Cyber-Shot, so you pay your money and make your choice. The full phone specs are listed below, but we’ll just point out that this is a 3G phone with HSDPA (high speed 3G) and video calling.

The Walkman range is looking quite crowded at the moment, but what makes this one stand out for us is (1) the lightweight superslim design, (2) the outstandingly good Walkman 3.0 music player, and (3) the HSDPA 3G connection for fast music downloads and video calling. If you want a better camera, choose the Sony Ericsson K850i Cyber-Shot phone; if you’re not interested in 3G you might prefer the Sony Ericsson W610i; and if the superslim design of the W910i doesn’t do it for you, then take a look at the good old W850i. But a final word of warning: many people have experienced faults with their W910i. If you’re lucky, or have good phone insurance, then you’ll be happy with your W910i. But if you’re not one of the lucky ones, this could be an expensive mistake. Sony Ericsson had better wake up soon or they’re going to lose market share in a big way!

source: mobile-phones-uk.org.uk