Not as I expected!

OK this is a comprehensively well appointed phone but for me it just does not hack it. It's more or less impossible to use one handed as is my Samsung 600. I think the keyboard is uncomfortably difficult to use and the two colour keypad is confusing. Coupled with the sometimes sluggish response of the software it makes for a disappointing experience. Mine kept wanting to do things unexpectedly, and it drove me mad! More importantly there is no anchor point to fix a landyard to. I once dropped a phone from my trouser pocket and ran over it with my car. That taught me a lesson and to me a landyard is essential. How this company can produce a phone without this feature is beyond me. The slide off back is unbelievably thin and flimsy, as is the stylus which bends in your grip, and is so smooth your fingers slip down it...NOT AT ALL A NICE FEEL.I could not find anything about the upgrade for battery memory fix in my manual neither could I find it in the pdf files, but to be fair by this time I was simply not enamoured with this piece of kit and gave up on it.
So to sum up....good features,nice'BODY'feel,flimsy'LID',horrible stylus, horrible keypad (bring back the screen keypad). Too expensive for the coloured models.
OH! BY THE WAY I SENT MINE BACK....COULDN'T STAND THE FEEL OF THE STYLUS.and NO ANCHOR POINT? You gottabejokin!

Just a phone

Is exactly what I wanted, just a phone, nothing extra.
It's slim, has 5-6 days of standby power and the alarm is loud and annoying enough to wake you up.

Brilliant

One star knocked off for no extra storage, but its only a small niggle. still getting used to the keypad, but its far from impossible as some other people say. i have big fingers and im having no trouble! sleek design, decent camera and it works well! what more do you need?

Just what a phone should be!

This is a really nice little phone, it is sturdy and so easy to use. It doesn't have all the useless 'extras' such as camera and internet access - it is ideal for anyone , like me, who wants a phone in order to make phone calls!!! AND it looks smart too. :-)

So far so good

Neat, compact, well-built mid-range offering from Nokia. Was a bit dissappointed with my previous N90, but so far this mobile has redeemed Nokia in my opinion. Light but with a good solid feel to it, and not cheap looking or plasticky as I feared! Is actually quite slim and elegant. So far so good!!

The Best Nokia from the previous generation, and at a brilliant price

I had previously used the Nokia 6230, but was converted to this step up model, 6230i, after I realised that it was actually cheaper than my original. And now, looking at it, I have no doubt in my mind that it beats Nokia's current and past phones.
So, what's the difference between this and the original firstly? Well, the screen has a better resolution - in other words, its slightly bigger (the only change in terms of the phone shape) and has alot, lot more detail - edges are smooth, text is crisp, and the colours are vivid. This leads onto the many other improvements which tie in, like better use of applications, if your a gaming person for example, you'll be delighted that 3-D games are available with excellent sprites.
The whole phone has generally had a make-over. Gone are the boring white backgrounds, in comes the 'Theme' section, where the default one is already good enough, with a blue swirly pattern. The icons are alot clearer, as is just about everything!
The camera is also a step-up, being a 1.3 megapixel compared to the 6230's VGA camera. This makes a huge difference, and with the better screen combined, you can actually take photo quality pictures for a reason - not just for when your bored! Its' particularly handy if you have a lover at heart, and what that non-grainy photo of them on your phone!
The only disappointment I do see, with regards to no update, is the video. I would have expected their to be a better quality video function, but sadly, the blocky-looking quality is present. On the phone itself it looks good, but upload it onto a computer, and it degrades.
I would also agree with other people by saying that the sound is alot better quality too, which is just as well their is a much cleaner/better looking music player present! It's ideal if your bored or want to socialise, and the quality is good enough, the the equalizer settings make absolutely no difference. mp3 and AAC files can be played, among a few other lower quality ones, which is why you'll need a memory card - a 32mb one is present, but I recommended a much bigger one! (MMC memory cards only again!)
For those who never owned the original 6230, and feel that the above hasn't persuaded them enough, this phone is just perfect. Unfortunately, Nokia have gone downhill over the past year 2 - possibly due to making 'gadgets' rather than phones, but this is likely to be one of the last phones they produced that doesn't feel like a mini computer. Its small, feels solid, has a good weight, and the buttons feel like they were just made for texting. Mind have remained pretty silent - ideal for texting at night!
Other people, both on Amazon reviews and in person, have said that they have had problems with the firmware (a fancy name for the phones software). Just to clear this up, you will only have these 'bugs' if your phone contains an old version of the firmware. You can view your phones version number by simply pressing *#0000#. I've got v3.80 which is believe is the latest, but problems apparently occur with 3.40 or below, so update it whenever you get a chance through the Nokia website.
I don't think their much else to say. This is a simply to use phone, its crisp, colourful, fun, and looks incredibly smart. It's amazing what a difference a little 'i' can make!

Only 100 Calendar entries!

I have to endorse nicknaks99 and Stephen Luff's reviews - gorgeous phone and I loved the internet surfing, but too many of the irritating characteristics described by the reviewers above. The 100 entry limit was the deal breaker for me - it's going back! Now if only the iPhone had a tariff below £35....

Broken Screens

Recently bought 6 and in one week 2 of them have had their screen cracked.

We operate 100+ Nokia handsets, probably ten different models at various ages. This is the first time handsets have come straight back to me with broken screens.

Having read some reviews, broken screens is a problem with the 3110, something you may wish to consider before your purchase.

Just bought this fantastic phone!!

I bought this phone recently and so far I am really impressed with it. You get a lot for your money with this phone!! I doubt I will use the TV function very much, but it has loads of other functions. The only real downsides are the manual is on CD and not very clear and the menus on the phone take a bit of getting used to. Other than that this phone is great value for money. Customer service is also good. E-mails that I sent to Tecknet were replied to the following day.

A great phone!!

Excellent For My Fashion

Trully a brillant phone. It has the looks and the feautures to aide its campaign against ugly phones.

The camera is good but not amazing so watch out for the consumers saying it's excellent. The flash is poor and makes everything blue or green. If you change the ISO setting and white balance to aide in photo taking the quallity is greatlly improved but it's hard though. This phone also hasn't got an auto focus so consumers lie. An auto focus camera will be big and sharpens image quality.

The phone its self is basic. The menue is cheap, the software is cheap and confusing and it doesn't really feel amazing. The slow internet is a real issue.

Music quality is excellent. Playing music from the built in speaker is great and bits of base and mid-base can be heard, a real improvement in the phone idustry.

I say buy this if you need a small phone that does its part in music and looks.

Trully the best fashion phone out today.

BAD PHONE!

I am not going to start listing all the things that are wrong with this phone, just wanted to say that, yes it looks beautiful, but when it comes to functions it's like from ice age...For example there is no snooz in alarm, it doesn't capitalize automatically in texts etc. and the battery doesn't hold even 3 days (without talking)...
NOT A GOOD PHONE AT ALL (but very good looking)!

SUPERB!!

I had the K800i as soon as it was released in the UK and over the last 2+ years, I have had nothing but sterling service from it from the word go, it has never failed, despite being dropped from my butter fingers and has never complained at all, it is very easy to use and as other readers have said the camera is very good, better, in some cases, to my Nikon and Pentax digitals!
My only complaints are that the battery life is a bit poor at times and alsothe internet is slow but that could be my ISP T-Mobile, and the joystick has started to stick but that could be old age!

Other than that, well done Sony Erricson, I would have no complaints having another and for anyone wanting a user friendly, feature packed phone, you cannot do better.

Great walkman phone!

The w200i is a fantastic, easy to use and stylish phone.

The walkman function is easy to use, however the software has faults such as after you put the music on it will not let you access it saying"you have used the wrong software", but this can be fixed by playing and stopping a song on"now playing".
The joystick is easy to use.
The camera is simple, and fairly good.
It doesn't have bluetooth, and I haven't used the infared yet.
The organiser has many useful functions.
It has a good fm radio.
The games keep you entertained and so does the music and photo dj.

All in all, this is a fantastic phone with good features

Good but not perfect

I bought the phone in march 08 and i guess i've got a version with sufficiently upgraded soft and firmware that i've had no problems with crashes, freezes, software failures or any of the similar problems i used to have with my old RAZR v3x.
Battery life has been fine for me (2-3 days mild usage) but i don't have 3G or wifi turned on most of the time.
Essentially i bought the phone because i wanted to get a better camera than the RAZR and didn't want to carry around my MP3 player as well.
So basically all i'm going to write about is the phone, the camera and the MP3 - if you're interested in other stuff move on...
I like it as a phone, having used motorolas, siemens, eriksons and nokias i'd still go with the nokia every time. The texting works better for me than any of the others and the phone features are completely intuitive (to me!)
The camera is fine. It's not going to compete with a 5mp dedicated camera and the lack of any optical zoom is a shame but otherwise it's good. Certainly a mile better than the RAZR, especially in any situation where the light is anything less than perfect. Having a proper lens cap is good too and it also serves as a one-button method of starting the camera.
Haven't used the video yet so can't comment.
The mp3 player is the reason it only gets 4 stars. I bought the phone and a big memory card with the intention of transferring a whole heap of music on and doing away with my old MP3 (one less gadget to carry).
Sadly i'm now in a quandary because the sound quality is so poor. Really, really it is poor, anyone considering using this as an mp3 player really needs to get a listen to one in a quiet environment beforehand. There is a constant background hiss that is far louder than anything in the digital domain has any right to be and (because i tend to listen to fairly quiet, acoustic music) it's completely intrusive. So do i keep carrying around 2 boxes, get decent sound and accept that i've not made a good purchase? Or do i accept a significant degradation in the quality of my music?
Answers on a postcard please...
Very frustrating really because with just a little more effort this could have been the perfect device for me.

Vastly Overpriced

The LG Prada phone had been recommended as a best buy by Which? magazine. With a score of 66%; the highest score being 69% I thought i had made a sound investment. Even at the RRP of over £300 I though that was vastly overpriced, so opted to purchase a new handset via Ebay for a little ovr £120....upon using the phone for several months now, I am of the opinnion that even that price is vastly over inflated.

Pros are that it looks nice and sexy, and is incredibly light...so light in fact, that I even forgot I'd left it in my pocket and not realising it was there, mistakenly washed it...I can confirm that it failed the biggest durability test of all...having said that, I don't believe weight is always a pro...the texting functionality is also easy to use, apart from the occasions where the varying buttons forget that they are more than one letter, and decide to stick at the first option....also, the MP3 player is pretty good, fantastic had you wanted an IPOD. Calling is relatively easy, as you'd expect from a phone and the external buttons are pretty self explanatory.

Now, following the Pros; if you can call them pros, on to the cons...well, Which? gave the Prada phone 4 out of 5 stars for durability, Why and How? After a month, the Prada signature strip faded and all the nice sexy silver lining rubbed off to reveal a sleak black inner core, which then scratched as easy as running a knife through butter...just like the rest of the phone really....I found the Prada easily scratches and the front screen suffers from wear and tear far too easily. The 2mp camera is shockingly bad, so bad it fails to take any clear photos, even in daylight. I also don't like the fact that the headphones provided are USB only...interesting choice and I can see why they went for that option...the USB port obviously doubles up with it also used to link to the PC, but that means the headphones are not to be used in any other device.

To sum up, you could easily spend £30 on a phone that would quite satisfactorly carry out the same functions and not look like a piece of garbage after one months use.

A real mixed bag, and a lack of real progress...

I bought this phone after much deliberation, reading reviews etc. It really seems to be a love it or hate it phone. Cutting past those immediate responses, some things stand out.

I had a K750i, which served me for 2 years before the brilliant-when-they-work joystick became frustratingly hit and miss. I was therefore looking for a phone with a few simple criteria: a bigger screen, no joystick, great keypad. The W960i looks like a prime candidate, but is by all accounts slow, buggy, and rubbish. Enter the K850i!

Apparently based on a new OS platform (A200 instead of A100 if memory serves?), it's hard to see what has changed from one Sony phone to the next. While it's great that the familiar layouts are there, it's a shame that the same old usability issues and irritating nuances have been carried forward to the"new" software. Where's the progress?

To correct some points in other reviews, there is no"touch screen" on this phone, and that's just as well because no-one seems to have got that right either. There are three dots at the bottom of the screen that respond to a feather touch. These are great, truly, when you don't hit them accidentally, which you need to be careful of given their proximity to the other keys.

The keypad is a real let down on this phone.. The buttons are small and hard. A stark contrast to the touch buttons! The 4-way control around the 2 and 5 keys will feel familiar to anyone who plays guitar, for instance.

The numeric buttons are rounded vertically but not horizontally so have harsh edges. They all need too much force to use, so get very uncomfortable with extended use. I've got quite slender fingers and still make mistakes after a week using it heavily. If you've got more chubby fingers, you'll be hosed with this phone. So it's a really blokey phone, that suits girly fingers, but needs tough bloke finger pads to push them - so it won't appeal to girls or to blokes. Nice one Sony! You have to wonder how long they test these designs for before firing up the production line!

The phone gets grubby very quickly. The front and back surfaces are VERY shiny. My hands are naturally quite dry but even then it's impossible to keep this thing clean, and the fiddly buttons make cleaning in between them, er... fiddly! The touch-keys at the bottom of the screen don't actually need you to touch the screen, but don't worry - the bottom of the screen will still get three smudgy fingerprint collections of its own. That is the easiest bit to clean though :)

In terms of the software and usability, apart from moving a few items around, Sony don't seem to do anything from one phone to the next. File manager is now squirrelled away under the organiser instead of being at the top level. This seems daft when the media player remains in the top level menu even though you can get to it with a single press of a touch-button from the standby screen (and you can't change those touch button functions by the way). It doesn't need to be in the menu at all as a result. The radio is a top level item.. why? Put it under media and put something more frequently used at the top. The same old bugs of inconsistent menu activation still exist - you can press the number keys to select items in some menus but not in others (e.g. the shortcuts/events list). Why the inconsistency?

And why oh why can't I configure the phone how _I_ want to? Font size configuration, anyone? You can change the size of the clock between tiny and enormous. Great.. how about changing the size of text used everywhere else, such as to show and edit messages, or show menus. I don't need glasses and can read smaller text Sony - give me the choice given that you already use some small fonts yourselves in the interface by the touch buttons.

You can now categorize messages in your inbox, e.g."Fun","Business","Follow up" etc. The message manager is nice.. apart from one flaw: You can't see what categories a message is in in the default view! Who designed this? You can organise the inbox by category, in which case it shows virtual folders for each category. However, when you view a message again there is no indication of which categories it is in, which is a shame because there's enough wasted screen space at the top to show some icons. It's a clunky process to assign categories anyway so it's of questionable value. After all, if you wanted to read a particular message later on you'd need to remember which category/ies you'd assigned to it.

Internet Access... the built in web browser is, as ever, slow, wastes screen space (why have a bigger screen?). It probably won't be long before you install Opera Mini to save you from waiting for pages to load, and give you a browser that doesn't use lots of screen space with paraphernalia.

Sony seem to have lost their way a bit.. there's no real progress here, and they're not making improvements to the usability of their phones. They seem to have introduced more niggles, and fixed no prior ones. They're too busy faffing around with stupid and fiddly button layouts (look at their other recent phones too!) instead of just putting everything GOOD into one package that just works how you'd like it to and feels like an improvement.

If, like I was, you're looking for a new phone with a decent screen, this is a good option in one way - big screen in a small package, unlike most phones with large screens that are considerably bigger (Nokia N series I'm looking at you!). The other Sony options are either pants (W960i) or have a 240x320 screen but in the same old small 2" or 1.9" size, and you can't browse the web on a 2" screen.

However, this phone feels rushed to market, badly designed from an ergonomic and usability standpoint, and I really don't know whether I like it or not - after a week's heavy usage! If my K750i's joystick hadn't become so frustrating to use, I'd have waited to see what Sony brought out later in the year. The 850's screen with a decent keypad like the 750, and software that ironed out all those old bugs and niggles would have won me over. I wish they'd make a few GREAT phones than a plethora of so-so phones. Sort it out Sony!

Other makes and handsets I looked at seem plagued by lock-ups and bugs, so actually the K850i does seem to be the best, albeit of a bad bunch so it's not competing against anything brilliant! At least it doesn't crash. If you can live with and adapt to its foibles, it may well grow on you.