The W610i is essentially a cut down version of Sony Ericsson's W880i. Unfortunately, it doesn't share the W880i's slim dimensions, but it does borrow its distinctive metallic keypad and top notch music playback features.
It's available for free on most contracts and around £100 on some pay as you go plans.
Strengths
Although the W610i is a good deal thicker than the ridiculously slim W880i, it's still an attractive looking handset. It's available in two colour options. Our review sample had a black front with a rather striking metallic orange paint job on the rear, but it's also available in a white and black combination if you prefer a more traditional colour scheme.
For taking snaps, you'll find a 2-megapixel camera mounted on the back of the phone. It has both autofocus and dual LED flash, so it produces good results even when working in dimly lit conditions. The 2-megapixel resolution means the pictures it takes are not great when printed out, but they're fine for uploading to a Web site. The phone also has nifty picture blogging software built-in, which automatically creates a blog that you can upload pictures and comments to directly from the handset.
The W610i falls under Sony Ericsson's Walkman range of handsets and it features the Walkman 2.0 music player, which is accessed via a dedicated button on the front. The player is excellent and as good, if not better, than many dedicated MP3 players on the market and a 512MB M2 memory stick is included for storing tunes.
You can browse tracks by artist, song or album title, create playlists and tweak EQ settings to your hearts content. There's also a FM tuner with good reception, for when you're bored of your own selection of tunes. The sound quality from both the music player and FM tuner is excellent, as Sony Ericsson has included a pair of top quality sound-isolating headphones that also double as a handset-free kit.
The phone also has good connectivity. It's quad band so you can use it in the US and it also has Bluetooth, with support for A2DP for beaming music to a stereo wireless headset or speaker kit, and infrared for swapping files with a laptop.
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User reviews2
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Ghost_01 12 March 2008
Good: Walkman phone that delivers, great bang for the buck
Bad: Battery life could b better, screen a little small for such a pricey phone
Comment: I purchased this phone after comparing it's specs in detail with similar Sony Ericsson products, like the w580i. Apart from the a slightly bigger screen on the w580, the rest of the w610's specs speak for themself. 60+ mbs internal memory to less than 20 alone sold me on this phone, especially as these two phones cost almost the same price when I bought the w610i.
I also came across too maybe reports about cracking keypads on the w580 and decided I could live without the grief. I'll take fiddly keys over broken keys any day of the week, thank you. If you're a music lover, and want a product with a more rugged build, buy the w610i. I've got no regrets and you won't either.
tommyrally 31 October 2007
Good: i like the smallness, loudness and how it look
Bad: scratches easily and dodgy firmware
Comment: i love this phone all £150 of it i think the buttons are easy to use (every ones else hates them don't no why) i got the orange which is the best color, is probably the loudest phone if ever heard. there are only two downsides it scratches very very easily and the software is a bit dodge like it crashes and muddled menus up in the walkman bit its got better with updates but its still bad because of that but don't let that put u of iv had one for 8mouths and its the best phone i ever had
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