***UPDATE**** Please make sure you read the update here on this phone. It turned out to be a terrible phone.
Ok, I’ve some time now to play with the phone and get a better idea of how much or how little I like this thing. Overall, I am still most pleased with the phone. I have not yet found any bugs, and the more I learn the functions of the phone the more impressed I am.
To read my first review of this phone, click here
Battery experience:
I went out of town over the Thanksgiving holiday to an area where there is no GSM service to be found. From driving cross country on back roads, and talking to people who are in the cell phone industry, I know that most phones will drain the battery in a hurry if there is no service. They actually work much harder trying to locate a signal and have drained my entire battery before in less than half a day (using my older phones from Ericsson, and Nokia). This phone seems to have a failsafe for this situation. I had no service for 4 days, took several pictures and used the speaker for listening to an hour or so worth of music. My phone was on the whole time (in phone mode, not just mp3) and when I returned home my phone was at %55 battery. In general the battery seems to be very strong. I charge my phone out of habit every 2 days or so, and have never seen it fall below %70. One interesting note: The USB (or USB 2.0) port on a computer does not seem to have enough current to fully charge the phone through the data cable. My home computers will charge it up to about %84 and my work computer will charge to around %87. Using the data cable to charge the phone will make the battery life appear to be poor since the USB can not fully charge the phone.
Camera:
I am also very happy with the camera’s ability. If you turn the resolution up all of the way, the file sizes are where they should be (in the 500K or so range per picture). The pictures seem to be every bit as good quality and resolution as my old 2 Megapixle party picture camera. For blogging, web pictures, and close up party pics this phone is wonderful. If most of what you do with your digital camera is take party pictures (close up mostly people pictures) then this camera is more than capable of doing what you need it to do. I’ll post a link to a full resolution picture from this weekend when I get home tonight, the picture below was resized for my gallery, but will give you an idea. (Updated, for full size version of the pic below, click here)The self timer function and flash really add to the functionality of the camera. This really is a true 2 Megapixle camera packed into the phone. I may post again on here soon about cameras and what to look for when you buy a digital camera. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what to look for in a digital camera as Christmas draws closer. I haven’t really played with the video function yet, but will report back with that info soon.
Phone:
The phone is very user friendly and has great reception. All of the features like the speaker phone, Bluetooth, LED light, voice dialing, mp3 ring tones etc. are just what you would expect from a high end phone. My reception has been great, and I find the phone easy to navigate and use. Nothing about the phone has let me down thus far.
Downsides: The only major downside that I have found so far is the software interface with your computer. The Disc2Phone software is not even in the same league as iTunes, and getting the 5 rounds of drivers installed can be a pain. Once you get your music or files onto the phone you are good to go.
I’m trying to talk my friend Militza into writing a review of her ROKR that she just purchased. She let me see it at dinner the other night and it seems like a pretty good phone. If you don’t need the radio, 2 Megapixle camera, or all of the bells and buzzers that the Sony Ericsson W800i has, I think the ROKR might be better value phone/mp3 player. With Cingular pushing them, I bet you will be able to get the ROKR for under $100 before long.
