W910i Unboxed.

I’m super-excited to report that my new phone is here from Hong Kong!!
A hearty-red Sony Ericsson W910i. No idea when this is coming out in the USA (rumored for the holidays), but it might not in general due to the W580i just being released… which is similar.

First off… I love this phone. It is amazing. The crisp screen, it’s thin form-factor, great design… very few complaints from me:

• No video calling support here in the USA (I tried calling a friend from South Africa that’s living in Connecticut… he has a K800i. The call immediately failed, but voice-calling works okay obviously.)
• No flash for the camera… although I will admit that I used it as a flashlight more often than for pictures.
• No standard headphone jack on the phone (but they do include a cabled-adapter with microphone and send/end button on the remote, plus a set of very-well-fitting earbud headphones), but it does have Stereo-sound over Bluetooth. Nice! Hopefully we’ll see a slick set of wireless headphones in the upcoming months.
• At some points, the menu interface seems to ‘lag’ a little bit… not too bad but still noticeable. I hope they fix this with a software update.
• As far as I know, there’s no way to keep your Ringtones from showing up under your song-lists with music you’ve put on the phone… but I’ll keep playing with it. This is definitely annoying.

The phone even has an accelerometer, so it knows when you tilt it (like the iPhone). You can even “shake” the phone to switch tracks. (although I haven’t tried this and it probably isn’t consistent)

The slide-out keypad allows for a massive 240×320-pixel display that’s crystal-clear, unlike many phones that display somewhat “soft” images. Built-well, stays in your pocket, very thin, and seems durable.

Getting it setup for AT&T wasn’t too difficult. I couldn’t use my iPhone’s SIM card since they’re apparently only designed for that one phone, but ended-up getting a free replacement from the local AT&T store. Almost everything worked straight-off as usual, but I did have to manually configure WAP (mobile internet) and MMS messaging… took a few minutes to type everything in. (keep in mind those instructions are for the W810i, my previous phone, but the menus are similarly structured)

After I was online, I downloaded my two favorite freebee applications: Google Maps mobile (with traffic), and Opera mini. I didn’t need any games since the phone already came with Lumines (a favorite of mine available for the PSP), and some 3D racing game (V-Rally).

The last thing, was getting it syncing via Bluetooth with iSync on my Mac. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t support it yet… but luckily someone wrote a plug-in!

So basically, this phone has great games, great music and video playback, a great camera, and isn’t locked down like the damn iPhone. Nice!

A few other thumbnails:

A few other freebees it offers:

• Track ID: A free version of many carriers’ music recognition service. Hold it up to a song that’s playing and it’ll utilize your phone’s internet connection to figure out what it’s called in about 15 or 20 seconds. Awesome!
• It came with a 2GB Memory Stick M2 memory-chip already installed… this thing is TINY, yet holds so much! Plus it includes a USB-key style reader, *and* a USB-cable… both of which transfer files very quickly over USB2. (photos/videos/music/etc.)
• Also has a built-in FM radio for when you don’t feel like listening to your music… although I don’t think it works with “Track ID”… haha.

Anyway, in summary this phone should work nicely on AT&T(/Cingular), T-Mobile, or any other GSM provider here in the USA. A few extra steps (as I mentioned) are involved to get it setup, but in the end it’s definitely worth-it. If we see this phone in-stores, it’ll be a hot seller for sure!

I’m already creating ringtones on Mobile17.