My S500i.

[Thai]

Just ordered it. Should be here in a few days.

Who wants a review? Heck, if anyone has the template for MB's review pages, I can format it that way. And the screenshot program.

I wanna take a crack at the reviewing thing. But only if someone actually wants to read it.

[hotzigetty]

sure dude.. go right ahead!!

[ishaanranderia]

yeah dude go ahead the S500 is one sweet looking phone

[brad]

Who wants a review? Heck, if anyone has the template for MB's review pages, I can format it that way. And the screenshot program.DavinciTeam has a hack you can flash SE firmware with to add a screenshot program, but I don't think it supports the S500 yet. We don't generally use a screenshot program to get our grabs, just a tripod, a darkroom, and a good lens.

I can't really give you our review outline unless you actually want to write it for the main site, most people use a more free-flowing thing for the forum reviews.

[Thai]

Tripod sounds fine. My camera is a decent enough SLR.

I'm planning on going in with pretty good detail, so I'll just style it after the main page's format. Can't wait until I've played with it enough to do a write up.

[kamen]

I just ordered the S500i myself, I'll try to post some pics when it arrives.
Should be here within the next few days.

I hope this is good, I'm turning off my K790 for this thing :)

[shaheen]

from teh reviews ive read, this phone is strictly targetted at teenagers, its got a 2mp cam which is pretty much standard these days, those pulsating Lights on the side that change colour, really cool themes, and sliders are the in thing, for those expecting a device that will last, dont get it, cause it is cheaply built, the plastic feels cheap. otherwise its sexy and it is cheap! it just debuted here in singapore for 438SGD and for a new SE device that is really cheap considering w850i came out at almost 800 starting price.

[kamen]

I don't know if I can say it's targetted at teenagers really, maybe in Asia, but here in NA the average teenager wouldn't spend $400+ on a cell phone; especially uncontracted. (Mind you this doesn't count the enthusiasts hence the average).

I've heard it feels cheap on Howard Forums but usually all the bad stuff I read especially pertaining physical components are somewhat petty complaints and don't fully pan out.

Well, if it's really that bad I'll have to take a small hit and resell it hehe

[Tehy]

Post some live pics :)

[DCraft]

Would someone who owns an S500i let me know if there's a limit on the number of contacts on which a voice tag can be placed (for voice dialing)? I almost ordered one off eBay (US $290 shipped) yesterday and realized this might be a problem for me.

I checked out the manual online and it doesn't indicate a limit, but I've seen two posts elsewhere indicating limits on other SE phones (and I verified the manual for one of those also made no mention of a limit). My current Ericsson R300LX allows voice tags only for 15 contacts x separate tags for home/work/mobile/other = 60 voice dialable numbers. I love the split of a tag for the contact name and orthogonal tags (recorded just once) for home/work/mobile/other, but find I'm constantly hitting "voice memory full", though I have only people I commonly call tagged.

So, if you've got one of these babies and have hit a limit, or have recorded lots (100?) of tags and not hit a limit, please, please let me know! Thanks much.

--Dan

[Sanzo_D]

i got my phone a couple of weeks ago. i got the black one and one thing i like about it is the everchanging theme. During the night time its set on a nice evening with butterflys which then 2 hours later starts to rain and then shows some evil looking eyes in the background and then fireflys. the lights on the side also become green or blue depend on the hours of the day. in the morning it gives an autumn theme to it and the side lights are orange. when the battery is low the lights start flashing red and when someone calls, the colors keep on changing but you mostly see red flashes in a slow motion.

when you click on the menu button, it changes every 12 hours and on the weekends its different to. it changes to blue, pink, green, and orange. on the weekend its orange.

there is another them which is similar to the w880i's citybeats theme but in this case it only changes every 12 hours. in the daytime the background is white and the icons are black. at night the background is black and the icons are green with a sort of sparkling look to them. this is however only for the menu buttons.

To me the best things in a phone are:
web browser
speaker quality

the phone has the same browser you see on the k810 or k800 and just about all SE phones. The speaker however is much better then the w880i. the best sound in a phone i have seen is the n95 so i try to compare SE's speaker quality to that phone. on the S500i you will not be as disappointed if you have a w880 or K810. the speaker i would say is a 7/10. Its clear and doesnt give you any buzzy sounds.

there is a little difference between the gold and black phone that i noticed on the exterior. I havent messed with the gold one yet but it other than the colors being different, i noticed that the black phone's battery cover is made of rubber. sort of like the back of a w880i. But the gold however is plastic. I dont know why SE decided to make it this way but thats what i have noticed.

in the beginning the battery seemed fine but right now its starting to die out with me. Anything is better then the N95's battery ( i have had bad experience with that phone so please dont take it personally when i dis that phone).

another cool thing about the s500i are the games. If anyone here has a psp and were the first to buy it, you will probably remember the game 'Lumines' which was like a next generation version of tetris. The s500i has that game. Another game which is pretty cool is called 'brain juice' and this game tests your intelligence over a number of days. You have to play a game 3-4 times and that will be it for the day. It shows you a graph and tells you how have you been doing over the past days. It mainly shows you a pie chart that is divided in three groups. Visual, math, and memory. In this game you need to be smart as well as quick. Its a really fun game and i enjoy playing it everyday and comparing my results with the wife lol.

vibrating alert is a flaw on this phone as the slider gets in the way and starts vibrating while making an annoying sound. I hope this doesnt end up being the same with the next slider phones to come from SE.

the camera quality is great on phone but once on the computer its just like all other 2.0 mp cameras. dont expect zooming in to be better cause the pic will end up blurry on this phone.

Overall i think this phone is well made and the everchanging theme is a hit on this phone. The buttons are perfect, not too big and not too small either but just right there and the texture is just fine. It wont hurt your fingers like the w880i does or the K810i. its got good reception, but the battery life is poor( three phones tested). if you use the internet browser and the music features throught the day, expect the battery to die out real soon. Another thing to note about this phone is when your phone shuts off due to low battery, the phone will vibrate from time to time and the sides will flash red notifying you that you need to recharge it. i would recommend this phone to anyone who wants to check out something new, giving you a completely new atmosphere and perspective of the phone. i try to be as fair as possible but i can truly say this phone is a must have for people. as i mentioned earlier, the only flaws i have seen with this phone is the battery issue. The camera is good but not great and thats all that i can say. I am not sure how much this phone is going for but the price i bought it for is $277 U.S dollars which is superb for such a well featured phone. But then again thats just my opinion :)

if anyone has any questions regarding this phone, feel free to ask.

Sanzo_D

[Arne Anka]

It appears the buttons seem to be easy to break as it has been reported on esato. What is your experience from that (do they seem fragile) ?

http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=150804

[psylo262]

my s500i has a TIM logo in it...is it true that the one with the TIM logo can't change the menu icons even if u change the themes? someone pls tell me

[Thai]

my s500i has a TIM logo in it...is it true that the one with the TIM logo can't change the menu icons even if u change the themes? someone pls tell me

If you want to change the soft keys/menu icons to change, you gotta reflash the firmware to the generic one.

I'm pretty sure the guys over at Wotan can do it. But if you reflash is, you'll lose "Techno" as one of the choices in the themes(?) section. Don't know if that matter to you.

I've had mine for about a week now. Hopefully I'll have a writeup done soon.

[Sanzo_D]

It appears the buttons seem to be easy to break as it has been reported on esato. What is your experience from that (do they seem fragile) ?
the buttons looked plasticy to me at first but they are made from a good durable rubber material. IMO, they are much better than the other SE phones out there. The w880 was a pain t type sms messages on.

i wish i can show you better pics but this site makes it impossible to do anything on. i took time taking nice pics of w660i and S500i but then it says i can not post the url or no image uploading. This site is my homepage for both my phones, i didnt expect the forum rules to be this absurd. I have to even edit a post of someone who posted a URL because i am not allowed to. lol

[psylo262]

where is Wotan?

[DCraft]

Would someone who owns an S500i let me know if there's a limit on the number of contacts on which a voice tag can be placed (for voice dialing)?

Found the answer (Sony Ericsson support rep got back to me): total of 60 seconds for all voice tags/commands.

I surely wish there was some way to increase this. Guess I'll have to speak really fast!

--Dan

[Thai]

wotanserver.com

[ninjabear]

The S500i for my friend from hong kong.

She is using it now and I have had a look at it for a few days.


This mobile is very pretty.The design is like WOW! and the operating system is quite neat.The light effects on the side is very neat too.It glows blue,purple,red .You can choose what the color from the mobile

Voice Quality is above average.I still think N73 voice quality is alot more crisp and clear.

The game were really fun.It came with abut 10 trial games.I only had time to play with the game called nightmare before christimas.

The color,contrast,brightness of the mobile were excellent.The games produced excellent picture quality too.

Unfortunately the mobile is missing a flash but there is night mode.It does the trick but not as well as haven't a flash.Using the camera during the daytime is much better

Picture Quality turned out very well..

Now the one thing that My friend and I were annoyed about was the thickness and skinnyness of the mobile

It's good and small to use.The design overall is quite good.

When you ring someone or answer a call.It feels uncomfortable when you put the mobile beside your ear.It seems the edge of the mobile is a bit not sharp but quite blunt.Uncomfortable.A bit hard..

She's now waiting for a silicon case to be release so it feels a bit softer on the ears.

My friend felt the vibration of the mobile wasn't strong enough.She couldn't really feel the vibration when she received a call.I tested it as well.The vibration could've been a bit stronger.

I think the vibration came from the bottum of the mobile underneath the keypad and since its a slide mobile.You can say a mobile cut in half and the vibration is down the bottum..The bottum half of the mobile doesn't seem to produce enough strength to vibrate the top half of the mobile.

Either than that The mobile is quite good.I give it 7.5/10