Sony Ericsson W850i Review - Conclusions

You have come to the end of this phone review. Now it’s time for us to draw some conclusions and rate the Sony Ericsson W850i cellular phone.

First off all, I think that currently this phone isn’t all that outstanding compared to what you can grab off the shelf. But the beauty of this slider W850i phone is that right now you are able to get it almost for free in plans from various operators, when, for example, one year ago you’d shell out hundreds for it.

If you aren’t impressed by today’s mobile phone offerings and find the sliding mechanism quite appealing, and you don’t want to spend a significant amount of money on yet another new phone, then the Sony Ericsson W850i may be the perfect decision for you. Why? First and foremost, its robust, solid, heavy-duty design means the phone will last for years. The sliding mechanism won’t become faulty and ruin it.

Additionally, the phone has most of the features and capabilities that one should really need from a cellular phone. You see, there’s a big difference between a need and a want. Sometimes we may want a particular thing or extra stuff because it’d be great to have, but we don’t really need it. It’s time to become realistic if our pocket cannot afford our wants, but, at the same time could, satisfy our technology needs easily.

Given the way this phone performs, I’m handing out an 8 mark on a scale from 1 to 10. I’ve dropped two points mostly because of the slightly too solid keypad that hides beneath the slider. Healthy key presses are required because strokes won’t cut it. But that's also a plus, since it is one reason this phone will last for years. 

Also, there are some really impressive features that come with this phone. The TrackID recognition is one of them. This service powered by Gracenote Mobile MusicID is able to recognize individual music tracks if you record them either via the FM Radio or the built-in microphone by sending the audio snippet to the Gracenote servers; you will be automatically notified (if found) of the track ID.

There’s another interesting feature, the so-called Sony Ericsson Audio Store. You can search for music tracks, listen to sample snippets, and in the end eventually acquire the tracks. Additionally, browsing the web (i.e.; other music online stores) is possible right from the inside of your Walkman music player. The menus are intuitive and anybody can find his or her way around pretty easily.

And finally I’d also like to mention that in some cases the sales package includes additional music desk stand speakers (called MPS-60). The built-in speakers of the W850i are pretty tiny, but these external speakers are pretty amazing. However, as I’ve found out, this really depends on the operators/carriers. You should ask around and see whether your favorite operator includes these in the sales package.

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