I brought this phone 5 months back just cos I liked its equalizer features which other phones didnt have at my dealer.
Accessories first....
1)The sound quality is awesome and the loud speaker is also pretty good. But recently my bro got me the mk-620 earphones from a4tech. Lemme tell u its been a overwhelming experience.......
I was under the impression that sony ericsson default earpieces are good but the sound levels at 3 full dots with the new earpieces got the same level of sound as sonys default earpiece with 8 full dots. Also the a4tech had much richer and wider sounds.
So I would recommend go for a better ear piece than the one sony provides for a full music experience.
2)well I have frequent power cuts at my place so the portable speakers that came with the box were a lot helpful. The sound quality is great (although nothing compared to the default earpieces but much better than the loudspeaker attached to the phone ) and the battery is very powerful (4 continuous hrs of the speakers still put the battery on more than 85%)
More about the phone now.............
1) Phone sound quality and reception is standard and is on expected lines
2)keypad - small, a bit annoying - pretty much takes time getting used to and now I dont mind it much - but the first month was horrible.
3) Screen is wide but a huge letdown in broad daylight. Its TFD which provides better battery life and is brighter than normal tfts in artificial lights so is good for the average office goer who sits in his office most of the day - but for students who bunk more than sit classes - it can be horrible in daylight where u can absolutely see nothing on the screen (literally) and have to go under a shade to know who is calling or to use any features(very annoying).
4)Camera is pretty good under good lighting conditions. Also the torch provided by sony is extremely powerful(used it at night - man it lights up a lot of dark areas - extremely cool).
But the picture quality is nothing compared to some nokia or other SE phones so considering this is a sony - camera is disappointing for cam lovers(i am a music lover and hence didnt mind it at all)
5)good organizer with task and notes and reminders (extremely important)
6)Amazing battery life (heavy usage of earphones and speakers with 20 mins a day talktime still gives around 1and 1/2 days battery). Charges from 10% to 100 % within 1 to 2 hrs.
7)Torch - extremely cool - too good.
8)entertainment like sound recorders, music mate(where u can mix 4 different instrument notes to create your own sound) are fun.
9) games - pretty dull............ With the small keypad can be annoying anyway I dont think many of us would buy a music phone for games
10) if u are transferring via bluetooth - u cannot start any new application without waiting for the transfer to finish or cancelling it. If any applicationis already on e.g. Walkman - then u can still hear the song but cannot change it without cancelling the transfer(a huge letdown for most SE phones considering switching applications while transferring data is available even on low end nokia phones). So u can forget playing games while transferring via bluetooth
11) RSS Reader: Gets me BBC news headlines with some description bout the news @30p per update(vodafone mumbai)(also availabe- google news or anyother feeds u can add is available)
12) Radio quality is good and reception is also very good(u can easily hear the radio inside moving local trains - thats a compliment)
13) for surfing internet-stick to ur pc - the phone is too slow
And most importantly
14) Music
Well sony came with the original walkman. The walkman on this phone is too cool.
U can start-stop songs even with the locked keypads(only when using earpieces) with the external buttons. Same for volume changes.
Forward-rewind in songs are possible.
Sound quality is definitely rich with good bass and even the synthesizers can be heard.
Equalizers are pretty ok but preset equalizers are not recommended by me.....
The search is standard with album, artist, and tracks as mode of search.
My friend has a w810i (3 months older than mine) and I checked my earphones on his cell.......well pretty much the sound quality was more or less the same on both the phones but the equalizers in 610i bring about a much customizable experience.
Conclusion: if you are a music lover go for w610i with a high end earphone (believe me - it makes a lot of difference) . My friend and me thought it was better than w810i in music.
Cam is a letdown for the pixel-oriented person - pretty good for the average joe.
Not a gamers phone(keypad will take time getting used to)
Torch is extremely good and too powerful (cant emphasise on this enough ;-) considering the powercuts I face - same reason - I will also go for the portable speakers)
All in all, I like the w610i and its a wonderful phone to own