Hi everyone. o/
Here’s my review and discussion of the Sony Ericson w610i. A few years back now, I was looking for a way to escape my smartphone via some kind of dumbphone alternative. I ended up picking the w610i for a few initial reasons:
- I like the charming orange colour case and button lights
- I prefer the more robust "Candy Bar" model of phone, since I'm incredibly clumsy
- As some might recognise, it features in the GoldSrc mod "Cry of Fear", so has some nerd value to it.
This model of dumbphone is pretty neat all things considered, but there are of course some downsides - so lets start with those.
Cons
This is a vintage model and so a lot of the technology is no longer widely supported or easy to read about. Therefore, a lot of the functions either don’t work currently, or (more likely) I cannot get them to work. One example of this is the internet connectivity. If anyone has any knowledge of how to get this working, I would appreciate the help though this isn’t super high priority.
The actual .mp3 player that’s built into the phone isn’t all too great. Song queuing doesn’t work the way you might think with something like Spotify in mind. Song that are queued are sent right to the end of your song list, which means you have to listen to all the songs in your song list before your queued one is played. Again, maybe I’m missing something, but after using the phone for 2+ yrs, you’d hope that it would be a bit obvious. IDK,
Again, this is a vintage model, so don’t expect Whatsapp built in or something, like you might find on newer dumbphones. I imagine this isn’t a problem for some people on this forum though.
Pros
You can find apps and games still online which you can download onto your phone. It runs Java applications, and so long as its built for the same display resolution you should have little to no problems running these apps on the phone’s end. Similarly, you can find a slew of “Themes” to download, made by the community to style the phone’s display. Modopo and Esato are two sites that still host apps and themes that work with the w610i, though please download at your own risk. (I did try linking them here but it appears I’m not allowed to)
Its worth mentioning that this phone works just as you’d hope for calling, texting, taking notes etc. All these functionalities, and more, are present. The model is nice and small and tough, I tend to be quite clumsy so can tell you first hand that the thing is quite tough as far as phones go.
Conclusion
Overall, if you want a neat vintage model dumbphone, I think that the w610i isn’t a bad bet. It’s definitely a pretty phone IMO and has all the basics you’d hope for. If you’re looking for something more modern and up to date (as far as dumbphones go), best look elsewhere.
That’s all I have to say for now, though I’m open to questions. Perhaps I’ll post an update as to how the w610i is treating me further down the line. On a side note, my model has what I think could be dead pixels? They’re the purple blob looking things on the photos. Any advice on how to fix it? Its not super obstructive so I don’t mind too much but advice would be appreciated.
Bye for now! o/