Sony Ericsson S700

User opinions and reviews

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chris
Tk8
20 Mar 2005

i'm buying one from o2 online, but they have none in stock..anyone have an idea how long it will take? or should i go with a d500 instead?

thanks chris

P
Proud owner of s700
PGA
20 Mar 2005

Ramesh, what shud I do to check what kind of firmware that I have? Any buttons I can press?? Thx.

D
Daniel
iLN
20 Mar 2005

can someone answer chandlers question ?

b
bowling
MfA
19 Mar 2005

Can i know whether the s700i gone where?? is it the same as s700? or s710?

C
Chandler
iLN
19 Mar 2005

just took my d500 back for this but they had none :( so ill wait but i played with one in the shop and GREAT :D only prob was when i watched a recorded video it was tiny and i mean tiny , is this normal or was the phone i played with (shop demo model) set up wrong ??? if its this small when i watch video and watch 3gp files that i put on there i will not get it but i love the camera billy your blind best camera ever was inside carphonewarehouse and its was stunning beats my gx30 :) and no lag when takin picture :), please could someone tell me honestly about thew video size plz cheers

R
Ramesh
TST
19 Mar 2005

Just went to a SE certified service centre. The phonebook thingy is a sw fault. It appears that the phonebook may be corrupted. They will need to re-customise (re-flash firmware) the phone. It makes certain caller's name not appear even though its registered in the phonebook. My k700 is just fine now. They did a marvelous job. Some S700's have this problem & can be rectified easily by visiting the service centre. That's what makes SE the preferred choice just like Toyota cars, after sales service is the best.

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kill_the_stupids
S7U
19 Mar 2005

billy is the most interesting guy to listen to when looking for a decent review of a product. he's is either that, or some kind of Nokia's (or Sharp's or whatever) repsesentative trying to talk people away from S700i (unluckily he won't cos there are enough users of S700 that can tell people about the phone.
I wont reply to EVERY crap sentence he wrote because some of them everybody can understand that are damn! but to the things that someone might have thought were true.

1. About the weird recall thing that doesn't show the last number you dialed, instead he says it shows another number from the names book. R U a complete retard or what??? the phone doesn't always show first in list the last call you recieved because it shows hierarchically the outgoing calls and THEN the incoming or missed even if they happened at oposite time, just for your convenience which I have found useful many times. it NEVERS just comes up with a number you didnt call, recieved or missed in the (say 5) last calls. How on earth did you find this???

2. The phone has absolutely no lag problems, there is a tiny time (0.25 seconds) since you press the buttons which is a very reasonable time for such phones, and its of course a matter of getting used to it, (stop going nuts and pressing 11212123 buttons per seconds u fool!!!)

3. I have used many mp3s directly to the phone as ringtones without any stupid sony ericsson converting software, either through infrared or bluetooth. (maybe its your fault you bought a provider locked one, but surely not Sony Ericsson's!). Also with r3k software version (maybe and the old ones) I have taken video of 12:33 minutes (cos I didnt have more free space) so no problem with that.

4. JUST TO SET THIS STRAIGHT---->>>>
WITH BOTH SOFTWARE VERSIONS I HAD (R3F AND THEN R3K UPGRADED FROM SE SERVICE) I COULD ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES WITHOUT A SOUND IF THE PHONE HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY SWITCHED TO SILENT (PRESS C). this happens with all genuine s700i's but maybe not with the vodafone locked ones!! I dont care about locked ones and neither should sony ericsson worry about it because its the stupid provider that f*cks the phone like this, NOT S.E.!!!

5. about the camera quality you must probably be blind or smthing like that so better visit your doctor. EVERY person in this planet that has checked the phone has agreed that has the best PHONE-CAMERA in the market so far. it's absolutely true that it doesn't compare with even a 2.1 MP normal digital camera but who said so???? Who expects it to be like even a 2mp camera? no my friends, phones have not reached this level yet 9maybe in a year or so) and anybody saying that his s700 is like a true camera is a liar. HOWEVER! it is true that you get medium quality pictures which afterwards you can even print and enjoy them at least but not top quality ones, that is obvious.

Now I dont remember what other kind of nonsense he talked about, but I am free to reply to any questions just because Ihave the phone for two months and apart from 2 freezes (every single f*cking phone made the last 2-3 years freezes) I have experienced NONE of the so-called faults of billy's phone. (hello billy! how u doing?).

The only reason SOME of these may be true ( i mean the stupid "faults") is because either:

a) you got a faulty phone which needs replacement (then you cant blame the phone but your luck) OR

b) you have a vodafone (or other provider) locked phone which maybe be completely f*cked up from the provider, and that is not sony's problem either.

PS. the phone has a lot of hidden features that make it incredibly handy for everyday use and are not mentioned anywhere but u find them as you use it. smart lighting, easy arrangement of messages and calls and many many others. for example maybe you are in a menu that has many selections according to the button u press. if you;re in dark conditions and the light turns off u will probably want to turn it on immediately by pressing a button, BUT this button may do something u dont want it to do just because at this time its under a specific menu. So what s700 does is NO matter whic h buttons u press (maybe you re in a call and press the one which would disconnect you!) the first time you press a button when the light is off, it just turns the light on so you can see where yo are. THEN! the actions of the buttons come active again, THIS believe me has saved me many times.

PS 2. there is a clever and incredibly fast way to transfer images, mp3s & videos to the phone rather than wait 10 minutes for a 6 mb song through bluetooth or IR, if you have a multimedia card reader (many of them are part of modern printers, so check yours immediately!!) if it has a MM card reader, then you take the memory stick out of the phone (even while turned on theres no problem despite what the manual says) and put in the MS DUO adpater included in the package, then you transfer to the removable disk (suck a USB flash disk) everything you want from mp3s to pictures and videos with a USB 2.0 speed (in case of a usb 2.0 printer). it took me 45 seconds to transfer 2 tracks of 8 mb total with this way!!! and you can listen them or have the mas ringtoens immediately... amazing or what?

cheers...

a
azza
iIR
18 Mar 2005

superb but too expensive everywhere only prob maybe a bit big

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Bambo Charalambous
iLV
18 Mar 2005

had my s700i for 3 months and i can not find i thing to complain about,this is the best phone so far,the only thing that i could say about it is if it had flash memory but where do you stop.defenatly a PERFECT PHONE.

S
Sony Extremer
UDN
18 Mar 2005

I have S700i for 3 months now & it still rocks. I love this phone very much. The design is so futuristic as cybershot design. Ever wondering how, what, & when is the next generation of this S series? (S750i?) I can't wait. For now my target is K750i for my 2nd phone (change my old K700i). Still... can't wait for the next S series eventhough I have K750i. The camera probably 3mp but I still hope to be 5mp like Samsung. Big resolution. Swing...swing it... Animation & other functions probably the same as K750i (as S700i with K700i).

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Chandler
iLN
18 Mar 2005

d500 or s700i ??? i have a few days to change my d500 is need be, come on please

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Aly
mYb
18 Mar 2005

I'd like to buy a sony-ericsson S700.I'd like a true opinion:does it worth it?in my country i can buy it at 450$.is it that heavy and big?10x

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Chris Pham
jAG
18 Mar 2005

"8. When someone is calling you, the phone will often not even bother looking at the numbers you have stored on the phone or the sim card and it will just come up with the persons phone number. This is one of the most annoying things. If you arent rainman and dont know everyone stored on your phone by their phone number then you are in trouble. If your s700i isnt doing this yet, trust me it will do."

Billy is right, that also happens to mine. However if the number only shows up, make sure you have "1 + the area code" in front of the numbers. Also, the call log will also display a random person's name, causing confusion. The camera quality is only good in the correct lighting, but too much light causes the phone to lag. however those are the only 2 problems I have experienced. In the 3 months I have had it, nothing else has gone wrong.

a
amgel
PGA
18 Mar 2005

Billy, u are nuts! I have s700 for 1 month and I dont have any problems at all. Camera is good, pics are clear crisp. I guess Billy just try to badmouthing s700, cause he doent want other people to own this great phone so he can be the only one to show it off.

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Billy Bifocals
mnX
18 Mar 2005

Hello its billy, not one thing I typed earlier is a word of a lie because I have better things to do that rant about my crap phone, I just needed to get it off my chest, because far too many people hype this crap phone up. Especially the so called 1.3mp camera, I dont even want to think about that.

And yes I respect your opinion of calling my tthread crap but look into it before you come out with something like that. Do a google search for "s700i faults" etc and its not just myself that has very bad experiences with this phone.

And its not true about my experience of phones being limited because I have had many nokia phones etc aswell as a GD87, 6600, GX10i, GX20, GX30 and now a S700i. I am a very much into photography and have a cannon powershot A95 and used a powershot G5 with great success in photography so i know how to take a decent photo and i know what 1 mega pixel is supposed to look like.

Im sorry but this camera isnt a patch on the camera of the GX20. That takes amazing photos and that isnt even a megapixel camera.

I just hope people dont go rushing into buying this phone because even now its not cheap. But like I said, its not just myself thats got a duff s700i its many people, just check google for yourselves, just because you have an s700i that seems to work fine theres no need to be ignorant to another person that has had bad experiences with it.

Ive said my piece, just remember that yeah i may have duff phone but so do a great deal of other people. Oh yeah the phone was also on watchdog as a result of all the complaints, although i am not on 02 but vodafone, 02 have stopped selling the phone all together because of the shear amount of complaints they got. My mate in 02 says to this day they still havent fixed the phones problems.

Thanks for reading

Billy.

m
mez
n1i
18 Mar 2005

BILLY:
That was a complete waste of your time writing that and mine reading it. Coz most of it was complete crap, like I dont have to do all that pants which you said bout using mp3s as ringtones( you just select the mp3 and go to the option 'use') and the camera is the best 1.3 mp phone camera Ive seen, kicks the d500 to the ground, coz my m8s got one and we were comparing photos and the s700i were always clearer,crisper and more to true life!
So either you got a faulty phone or you dont know quality when you see it!
So for me its s700i all day long!!!! :oP

C
Chandler
iLN
18 Mar 2005

well well well.billy i read yours and am glad i got the d500 but then i read under you post at ppl saying how great it is i now have about 7 days to choose to keep d500 or change it for s700i :S maybe it was just your phone that was wrong billy, anyone else have these probs ?

B
Billy Bifocals
mnX
17 Mar 2005

Well where can I began. I got this phone back on the 4th of January and I have had nothing but problems and dissapointment with it.

1. For a start the camera is garbage, it has never seen a 1.3 mega pixel camera, the photos really are shocking and this was the main selling point for myself.

2. It can only handle 128mb duo memory cards, SE has obviously done this on purpose because the cards cost at least 50 quid a piece.

3. It takes me 3 whole minutes to load the phones crap media player. The player only supports avi and mp3, very small gif files at a push if you want to see your phone freeze.

4. Oh yeah, the phone will randomly vibrate while on a call then the screen will flash on and off and restart.

5. Phone will often freeze when you are transferring files via bluetooth, this happens when using both a windows xp machine or another bluetooth equipped phone. When the phone freezes you have to rip the battery out of the back.

6. The back of the phone is an absolute ass ache to take off, it took 3 guys in a phone shop to finally remove it while they were trying to sell me it.

7. You cant use your own mp3s as ringtones unless you convert them with sonys Digital Rights Management Software. And when you do this you arent able to send those mp3s onto other people. This is a problem with vodafone branded phones i believe. Its absolutely rediculous.

8. When someone is calling you, the phone will often not even bother looking at the numbers you have stored on the phone or the sim card and it will just come up with the persons phone number. This is one of the most annoying things. If you arent rainman and dont know everyone stored on your phone by their phone number then you are in trouble. If your s700i isnt doing this yet, trust me it will do.

9. After you have finished calling a few people if you check the call log it will often display people on there that you havent even called. Try it out, call someone and then go into the call log and dial the last person in there, its often going to be a random person in your phone book that picks up the phone.

10. The inability of silencing the shutter sound when taking photographs. This isnt a problem because you will hate using the camera when you see the garbage quality on them.

11. When you turn on your phone from standby and it asks "How are you" and you select "ok", there is so much lag after you press the button that you will often end up calling the last person you dialled.

12. Again its the big problem with the lag of actaully pressing "ok" etc and 5 seconds later getting a response from the phone, its truly appaling.

13. Lets say you manage to transfer a picture or any file to the phone via bluetooth without it crashing or freezing, it displays the message "file recieved" or something like that and you can select "ok", by the time the phone picks up on you pressing the button it thinks you have selected the option on the next screen that asks "do you want to use the file now?" So before you know it the file is loading up despite you not wanting to load it up.

14, When you want to take a photo with the crap camera, you first have to close the whole thing up. Then it tells you to open the shutter. Lets say you want to take a photo of someone stood up, ok with an extremely steady right hand you are now expected to press the the shutter button on the far right hand side of the phonr with your left hands index finger. Yeah it truly is a shambles to take a vertical photo.

15. If you do manage to do the above and actually take a photo of someone stood up rather than laid down you will notice when you come to viewing the photo that the phone thought it would be a really good idea to rotate the photo around so you only see half an image. Thats great isnt it. What you now have to do is go into each and every one and choose "edit" then "rotate" in order to sort it out so it looks like what you photographed.

16. Dont even think of trying to send photos of large resolution to this phone e.g. 1152x 864 because the phone wont be able to display them, if you try to display it the phone will either freeze or it will show you a small picture of something snapped in half as if the photo was corrupt in the first place.

What you can do if you have a good art package is load the image up and then resize it so that is 25 percent of its original size, both horizontally and vertically using "bicubic" pattern or something like that.

17. And yeah the battery life is crap, im lucky to get 3 days out of it without using it. God knows where they have got 300 hours of standby battey life from.

Well thats a huge load of my mind, just take my advice and dont regret getting this phone, go for something else instead like the D500. I do hope my comments and truth about this phone have been useful to you.

Cya later, Billy.

J
Johnny
mnr
17 Mar 2005

This is the best phone I've had! Looks good. Sounds good. No detachable speaker (which gets lost) like the Samsung D500. Screen is a good size. Some havbe complained that when the phone is opened out, it's huge. Once you have your contacts saved into the phone you only really need to open it to sent a text message and even then it's not that big. I recommend this phone to anyone

C
Cool
PMd
17 Mar 2005

This fone, iz da best fone dat iz eva made in diz wOrld!~ ^^ I'm soOoooo happy dat my bro bought diz fone for me~~~

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