sony ericsson W600 reviewupdated note: phone has been sent back to the manufacturer twice now for bluetooth problems. upon thinking about this phone some more, i'd say the software is buggy for a lot of people. please take this into consideration before buying.i bought this phone in early december for the oh-so-NOT-low price of $390 from letstalk.com. i was (am) only about seven months into my two-year contract, so yes, i paid full price. :eek:in my past, i've owned most of the major brands of phones (motorola, nokia, samsung, sony ericsson, sharp) and right before i got this phone, i was a happy motorola V551 owner. initially, i had wanted the sony ericsson W800, but without the 850mhz band and being a cingular customer, i wasn't going to risk it.in short, i love this phone. to date, it's the best phone i've owned. i don't think it's worth the $390 i paid for it, but that's really my fault. i'm impatient and wanted this phone reeeeeally bad and didn't want to wait until it dropped in price (if it ever will). i am going to cover a few of the major components to this phone and then list some pros and cons. mine is a cingular-branded phone, so keep that in mind when i talk about certain features.camera: i've had a few camera phones before this one. i'll preface this section by saying what 100s of others have said: it's a camera PHONE. it's not going to have the quality to make even a decent 4X6 print. what it IS good for are those moments where you're thinking, "oh! i wish i had a camera right now!". my last phone was a VGA camera and i thought by getting a phone with a 1.3 MP camera, it'd be a noticable difference. it isn't really. however, the cameras on phones are such a relative subject since once person can think the pic looks good and others think it looks like total doodie. i would urge you to look at samples of pics this phone has taken and judge for yourself. i wasn't too impressed, but that's not why i bought the phone. the camera has a lot of neat little options (special effects, white balance, shoot mode, night mode, self-timer, etc), but that's all kinda lost when the pictures aren't that great. it should be noted that the camera on this phone and the sony ericsson S710a (a phone very similar to the W600) are both 1.3MP, but the S710a has a CCD sensor, which results in better pics. the phone will also take little (albeit grainy) video clips. moving on...bluetooth: doesn't seem to be as easy to use as with my motorola, but i have some learning to do here. was what was cool was transferring ringtones from my friend's SE T616 to mine via bluetooth. free ringtones for me! i don't have bluetooth on any of my PCs, so i cannot comment on bluetooth connectivity in relation to that. i just like that the option (bluetooth) is there.walkman: holy crap, it's a MP3 player on my phone! the walkman is pretty easy to use and so is the software to transfer songs to your phone. it took me about 12 minutes to transfer 15 songs, so it's not incredibly fast, but it's a cool app, nonetheless. the phone can hold about 60-70 songs at 128bps (ripping at other bitrates is possible, allowing more/less songs to be stored on the phone), depending on what other stuff you have on your phone (pics, vids). the sound is pretty damn good. you can listen to MP3s from the speakers or via headphones. i was very impressed. the phone does NOT have a 3.5mm plug, but comes with an adapter, so all is well. i've even plugged this phone into my car's cassette adapter and played MP3s through the car's stereo speakers. MP3s can also be used as ringtones. all-in-all, no complaints here! well, except the 256MB limit.radio: nice little feature! you HAVE to have the headset plugged in to listen to the radio, as it acts as the antenna, but while it's plugged in, you can send the sound to come out of the speakers. radio is easy to use, channels are easy to store and radio sounds good. the radio (as well as the MP3 player), will pause if you get a call and resume when you're done. you can also use the radio and MP3 player while doing other things on the phone. headphones sound awesome.games: the phone came with six games: asphalt3D, blockbreaker, bruwnswick billiards, jewel quest, name that tune, tetris, and 3D extreme air snowboarding. all games are locked, so you can only play them for about a minute and then you are prompted to purchase them. they are $6-$8, roughly. total rip off. thanks cingular.ringtones: again, thanks to cingular, there are only six ringtones that come with this phone, and they are pretty crappy. there are free ones all over the place, so don't go spending your inheritance on buying them from cingular. or, do as i do and grab them off another SE phone via bluetooth. there is a little app including on the phone called musicDJ and you can actually make your own ringtones. kinda cool. i've made a few so far and they aren't bad. well, ok, my mom said they sounded horrible, but what does she know?syncing: this phone syncs with your contacts, tasks, notes and calendar, if you have those kinds of programs on your PC. i got my phone to sync with my outlook, which now means i'll sell my PDA. SE's PC suite works pretty well and transferring files is easy. however, it seems like every now and again, when i am connected via USB, it reboots my phone. don't know what that's about. i don't think any harm is being done.the phone feels pretty solid in your hand, weight-wise. i've never owned a slider/swivel phone in my life, and while it's not the most convenient to "flip" open, it's not bad. you can actually place and receive calls with the phone swivelled shut, too, which i liked.it seems like SE didn't leave anything out with this phone (except a memory slot) and i love it. they thought of everything on this phone: radio, little flash light, dedicated key lock button, infrared, calendar, music/video/picture DJ,stopwatch, timer, tasks, notes and the list goes on and on. the phone's styling (ie: orange cover) isn't for everyone, but i love it. my phone did come with a 2nd cover, in navy blue. it's styling and shape is great and i love the orange backlit keypad. it's definitely a head-turner.and, above all, reception and clarity of calls is great. i've had no complaints when i've used the phone, the headset, the bluetooth headset and speakerphone. it's really nice. this of course, can be dependent on your network. i live in the midwest in a fairly large area (260K people), so we have cell towers all over the place.pros:* nice size.* bluetooth, infrared and speakerphone.* radio and MP3s* clarity of calls is excellent. reception is great.* screen is nice and bright.* easy to get pics, vids, etc. on and off the phone.* phone comes with everything you need (except car charger)* this phone is loaded - nothing is left out!* sony ericsson's interface is great; apps like the address book are loaded with room for tons of info. menus are easy to use.cons:* no memory slot. on-board memory, while not bad, is limited to 256MB.* price (well, at full retail anyway).* camera is disappointing for a 1.3MP.* phone goes into standby (screen off) after 15 seconds. very annoying and to date, i've found no way to change that.* games are locked for only 1 minute of play. thanks cingular ;( not ONE free game is included.* keypad buttons are small, and close together. i have small hands, so the key size is not so bad, it's the fact that they are right next to each other.this is a great phone. its big disappointment is the fixed 256MB memory, but for a lot of people who just want to listen to a few songs and not 500, this phone will suit you just fine. i am hoping to keep this phone for more than six months (which is about how often i get a new cell phone) - it has everything i need and nothing i don't. kudos to sony ericsson for putting out a great phone! woo! ;)