Sony Ericsson W518a Phone, Mineral Black
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
- 3G-enabled Walkman music phone with accelerometer for shake-to-shuffle music and tilting the phone to control gameplay
- Compatible with AT&T Navigator GPS, Video Share, AT&T Mobile Music, and streaming video from Cellular Video service
- 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; digital audio player; M2 memory expansion; access to personal email and instant messaging
- Up to 4 hours of talk time, up to 400 hours (16+ days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, battery, travel charger, quick start guide, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
Optimized for music playing with external music keys, stereo Bluetooth support, over-the-air music downloads from Napster Mobile and eMusic Mobile, and Shake Control, the Sony Ericsson W518a clamshell phone for AT&T is also packed with gaming, multimedia and social networking offerings that make this phone a thin little entertainment powerhouse. And it’s easy to manage the music in your phone–one click starts the Walkman music player, enabling you to play, rewind, fast forward, equalize, shuffle tracks and create playlists ust like in any other digital music player. This phone can quickly download video, music and more over AT&T’s lightning quick HSPDA 3G network. This GPS-enabled phone can access … More >>
Mark says:
December 26th, 2009
5:49 am
I’ve had this phone for less than 2 months and the inside face–a plastic piece that surrounds the key pad–began peeling off this past week. I called AT&T and their warranty department said this was a “cosmetic problem” and not covered by the phone’s warranty. I suggested that this was not an acceptable response and a very gracious manager replaced the phone out of her discretionary budget.
This could be a quirk–but who knows?
Rating: 1 / 5
Marlena says:
December 26th, 2009
7:37 am
This phone would be perfect for me if instead of looking like a Motorola razor would be a slider (that’s why I returned it). Other than that is great:
-easy fun menu,
-great camera (quality and options),
-batteral last about 5 day without charging (I don’t talk much, ocassionaly text, no internet or music),
-sound quality while on speaker great,
-love grey color,
-lightweight but not looking cheap and plastic.
It has some minor flaws, like to check an hour on a outside display you have to wait few seconds for message to unlock side key to listen to the music is done. Other than that great quality.
Rating: 4 / 5
Vermont Ken says:
December 26th, 2009
8:34 am
I got the W518a for free when AT&T bought out Unicel. I asked for a replacment for my Razr phone and this is what they offered. First phone they gave me had a bad lack of volume problem. The replacment was fine. Phone has stereo bluetooth, for music and hands free calls. Music through my bluetooth headphones is good, mega-bass for my bass loving. Camera is 3.2 mpixels, and only so so quality. Takes video also. Tried the voice commands with very mixed results. One thing about this phone is the documentation is absolutely terminal. Nothing is explained, either in the manual or online. How stupid. Phone buttons are flat and small, a bit of practice is needed to use.
One thing I will soon be trying out and excited about is with the PC Suite software you can download, after linking my laptop to the W815a with a separately purchased USB cable (buy it on the internet, MUCH cheaper) I can browse the internet from my computer via the cell phone. Now I can use my laptop anywhere I can get a cell signal. No more searching for free WiFi. AT&T has a $15 p/m unlimited data fee or $2 per mgbyte fee for data. If this works, it will solve my “on the boat” internet access. Most wireless cards for laptops have a $60 p/m fee, Here I get a phone and “wireless card” in one package.
One Con: the menu screen is practically uncustomizable, another “dumb” feature.
On the whole, I’m happy with the W815a, not perfect, but certainly worth what I paid for it.
Rating: 4 / 5
North Dallas Forty says:
December 26th, 2009
11:33 am
This is a great phone. It reminds me somewhat of the Motorola Razr that I bought 3 years ago, but it is operates much better. The Walkman feature is wonderful, although the jury is still out as to whether it will support an 8 gig or 16 gig memory stick M2. Same with the talk time–Sony Ericsson says 10 hours, AT&T says 4 hours. The audio clarity is superb.
Rating: 5 / 5
S. Thangada says:
December 26th, 2009
1:04 pm
I bought this phone to replace my previous walkman phone (a w300i). That old phone was trusty and has served me well for over 2 years but I felt that I needed to modernize a bit. The 518a is the first reasonable walkman flip to come to att in a while. And I have to say that its a pretty good phone.
Design: Excellent, the battery cover is a matte black that appears to be pretty scratch resistant and the front cover is black although changeable to various styles (just switch up the covers). It is quite glossy and picks up some fingerprints, but they really don’t show as the black is a not piano finish (i.e. ipod touch). The top has 3 touch sensitive buttons which aren’t the most responsive buttons out there, but I guess that’s good to avoid accidental hitting.
Construction: Not bad. The battery cover is mind bogglingly thin. Almost paper thin. The phone hasn’t been dropped yet, but I do believe that its quite well built. The hinge doesn’t wobble like my old w300i’s. (finally sony got this hinge issue fixed). The keypad feels sturdy although there is a little creak to the keys. But overall, I don’t think its the actually covering of the phone that is keeping this thing together but rather the slim compressed factor of the phone itself.
Reception and Call Quality:
I’ve had no problems thus far with this. The 3g works well in Hartford County, CT. I haven’t had any dropped calls or issues on my end so far. The speaker isn’t as loud as the w300i’s but its adequate. Overall, calls have been loud and clear (near Nokia deliverance quality).
Interface:
The menu, with flash backgrounds unactivated is responsive enough. I did feel that there seems to be a periodic lag but its quite minimal. The real issue is when flash themes are activated. The phone lags like a mother. Hopefully sony ericsson will release a software update to rectify this.
Walkman player: There is a dedicated walkman key on the 4 way rocker (up). I felt that the interface was well designed with the player updating and integrating with my memory stick media files effectively. Again, the issue that always seems to come up with this phone is the lag. I’m not sure if this is software related or simply a limitation of accessing the memory card files, but the walkman interface seems to lag incessantly. ITs not terrible, but it certainly isn’t responsive as my old w300i. There also seems to be a lag between hitting the external walkman controls (3 touch sensitive buttons) and a response from the walkman player. Again, this phone just released so hopefully sony gets its act together and issues some software udpates. Some other notes on the walkman player, I’ve had no issues with music playback thus far. Audio quality has been excellent through the fastport to 3.5 mm headphone adapter I’m using. Megabass isn’t as good as clearbass, but it does the trick for us bass heads. I would say that the actual menu system of the walkman player is actually superior to sony’s dedicated walkman mp3 players( i.e. we get on the fly playlists, delete controls, you know… simple things that sony has a knack for screwing up usually). Right… one more thing… I have a hunch that some sony engineer decided that if they provided us with quality keys on the keypad, they had to skimp on something else. I think there was a definite cost cutting on the loudspeaker for this one. My w300i’s speaker is much better than this. The 518’s speaker distorts and seriously lacks some clarity when playing music. I’m not sure if my unit is defective. But if I change the volume, the music fade out feature seems to have the effect of distorting the speaker with some kind of crackling noise. I think this is again a software issue…
Other issues:
Now that I’m on issues… I don’t know why the heck Sony insists on using their garbage fastport for charging and headsets. Its 2009 Sony! Get with the program and ditch the proprietary jack and give us a 3.5mm headphone jack and microusb charging port. Honestly, when other manufacturers are ditching their proprietary garbage, sony insists on using fastport. Maybe they have a warehouse full of adapters to get rid of and that’s why they insist on fastport?
Battery life: No issues, looks like its lasting as per Sony’s specs. For those of you on EDGE phones nows, anticipate a reduction in battery life when upgrading to 3g devices.
Camera: No autofocus, no flash. Pictures with light come out well but seem to have a some contrast and sharpening issues. At least its not vga. Just be prepared to hold the phone really really still if you want a clear shot.
Navigation: CNET’s review noted that the key were flat. Yeah… they’re flat as heck. I honestly had a lot of touble using the 4-way navigation pad simply because some idiot at Sony forgot that people without child sized hands would be using this phone. Try the phone out. Some people with fat fingers will seriously have issues using the navi pad, to the point that they may have to return the device. I personally got used to it, but it would have been nice if sony sometimes focused on practicality more than style.
My verdict: Great phone overall, I’ve been a fan of sony ericsson phones and this phone for 50 bucks (I’m a continuing customer) is a good deal. (gps, 3g, walkman player, fm radio… ) I’m giving this phone 4 stars. 1 star deduction for the menu interface lag. I really wonder if manufacturers even bother with product testing sometimes… I’ll update this review as I use the phone more.
Rating: 4 / 5