W810i or D900?

K

Kathleen V

New member
Can't decide between these two phones. The most important thing is reception. I will be using it on Fido's network (in Burlington, ON) mostly. I don't need any of the gadgets, but I do need quad band for world usage.

From what I'm reading Nokia has better reception than Samsung all things being equal, but I just like the look of the D900 better, but am concerned about reception issues with it. I would go with the W810i, but its larger than the D900 and I mostly carry my phones in my shirt/jacket pocket, so small and light weight is important.

Can anyone comment on any of these points and stop me from "over" analyzing this decision, or recommend any other phone with the above things in mind, like the W610i maybe?

Thx....
 
Hey mate. I'd suggest going with the W810i. It might be thicker, but the D900 is quite wide and longish. My friend has one and although it's thin, it's surface area is quite large.

Judging from previous Samsung use, I'm guessing Sony Ericsson's battery life is better than the D900? But don't take my word for that, cuz I haven't actually used a D900 before, but my previous Samsung phones barely made it to the 3 day mark, whereas my W810i can last 4 days with moderate-frequent usage, no problem.

Also on a side note, the W810i's camera has autofocus, while the D900 does not.

Hope this helps
 
Sorry to hijack the thread..I just saw it and had to comment - PLEASE do not buy a d900; I've owned 2 of them, and they are truly horrible (IF using it as a cell phone is important to you). I had an early release model (with old firmware). Alot of bugs, always froze, NEVER held a signal, was too quiet, slider mechanism was wobbly, other partys always complained of speratic loud noises from their reciever, and the list goes on...Sadly to say I bought another "newer" model a few months later, with newer firmware. While most of the problems were indeed fixed it's still too quiet without editing the gain tables to max out the earpiece volume AND on top of that it's probably got the shortest battery life of any cell phone you can buy today. I never made it past one day of usage with either phone. To top this off after using the second one longer, I discovered I could not use 1) the Gmail java app 2) Google maps mobile 3)Opera mini. This prompted me to sell it and swear never to look at a D900 again. Sadly I bought a 3g a706 and it's a bit better, but not much.

I would never recommend a D900 to anyone - I just learned the hard way cause I was stupid and bought 2 of them! Hopefully at least I can help others avoid having to make the same mistake!
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with the D900 bro... You should jump ship to Sony Ericsson and get a K800i

I've had a few phones now. I've had Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. I have to say, the K800i has to be the best phone I've ever had
 
I think I'll jump in and correct a few things. First off, the D900 DOES have autofocus, unlike posted above. It also has a very nice auto macro setting. The D900 has a VERY impressive camera on it.

Battery life is not great. If you are unable to charge your phone every night, I would not recommend it. I charge mine nightly and have no problems with battery life (except for when I use it as an mp3 player for multiple hours on end :P).

Reception is about the same as any other cell phone I've used. I wouldn't give it any props, but I wouldn't hold it in contempt. It's decent.

Volume and sound quality on the other hand... I don't know what you're talking about QZLancer. My D900 came with factory settings very loud. I then went into the hidden settings and made it louder still. Mine gets so loud playing mp3's that people actually comment. They can't believe such a small phone makes so much noise.

Again, I have to disagree with you on the wobbly comment. My D900 has had nothing short of excellent build quality. The slider is very easy to use, has a nice snappy feeling, and is very solid. No wobble.

Further, the D900 is the same as the D900 is the same as the D900. You can update the firmware to whatever you want if you buy a $20 flash cable. I flashed mine to D900XEFK2 and then Candid's mod on top of it, which makes for an extremely nice interface with a lot of options the D900 lacks by default. I heartily recomment modding the D900. It's easy. I'll walk you through it if you want me to.

And again, Gmail works perfectly fine on my phone. I don't do internet browsing, but I have it set up in order to have gmail working, so browsing would work fine as well.

And about the "screen cracking issues," I believe Samsung resolved this issue. It was one of the things I was concerned with when I bought my own D900 recently, and it appeared to me that the first batch of D900's had screen cracking issues, so Samsung immediately upgraded the frames with "titanium rods," which stiffened the screen and made them more sturdy. Mine, at least, has shown no signs of cracking. In fact, the only annoying thing about the screen is that since it doesn't scratch or scuff at all, it holds fingerprints very well. Quite annoying...

And the D900 is very thin and light with a pretty big screen. It slides(don't tell me that isn't just cool), and has a hidden (protected) camera built into the small package.

And I don't have any personal experience with the W810i, but I just wanted to end some of these rumors about the D900.
 
Thanks for clearing it up. I myself just got a Samsung and I must say that although the reception is just ok, the UI is always snappy and may be controlled by the keypad. Its refreshing and on that bases very nice to use daily.
 
I do speak with quite a bit of contempt about it That may be for personal reasons - if I were speaking completely objectively, I may make the same points just not so harshly..

I read they re-enforced the phone with titanium - would this make the whiole thing more stable? The first one I owned did feel noticeably more wobbly but could just be an anomaly.

Also, I did use Gmail through the mail client, but the Java app, downloadable @ www.gmail.com/app did not work on either. There MAY have been specific Java session internet settings I was not aware of, but the error message on both phones did state it was a certificate issue.

Older FW had more bugs. I COULD have flashed it, and fixed them, but instead accomplished the same thing by buying a newer model. I've tried on with that ultra-modded German firmware and it's awesome; it even displays processor temperature next to the battery wich is now displayed as a percentage.

Lastly IMO the volume was too low. I never edited the gain tables, instead in the short time I used it resorted to using speakerphone (which comes out the the same ear-piece) when I was for instance driving, which made it slightly TOO-loud (even on lowest volume) I THINK due to too much treble, the sound was so sharp almost ear-piercing. This may not be the case for everyone, it just didn't have that "sweet spot volume" like a motorolla does to me, where the volume just seems to be perfect.

It was just incredibly frustrating that I could not get any of my basic Java apps to work (Gmail / Maps / Opera - and again I could have just had the settings wrong I suppose) but also I forgot to mention that since I'm using the Rogers network here in Canada, it was not compatable with "Name Display"..which isn't call display; it displays the listed name of the caller (even if not programmed in to your contacts) as a called ID, and saves it for future use on compatable phones. It's incredibly handy if you have businesses calling you, their name will be in your call history if you need it.

Hope that clarifies things a little.
 
Well just to confuse you some more, I ended up buying a Rizr Z3. Heard/read problems with the D900 not having great reception, and that was important to me, and the W810i was just slightly too large, so I opted for the Z3.

I haven't gotten it yet, so we'll see when it arrives if I made the right choice!
 
The camera on the Z3 is just not as good as the W810i. The W810i is a far superior phone to the RIZR, minus the slider function. Other than that, W810i is just a better phone. Faster menus, great battery life, great reception....I think you might regret that RIZR.
 
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