I love Sony Ericsson phones. They have one of the slickest interfaces on any phone I’ve ever seen. All of the options are exactly where I’d put them. They do a nice job of animating the menus without over-doing it. However, over the last two years, I’ve really struggled to find a Sony Ericsson phone that I want to keep as my primary cell phone.

I recently purchased the W810i as an upgrade for a loaner phone account we have at work (used for when people who don’t have their own cell phone travel or need one for a period of time). Before letting someone else use it, I thought I’d test it out for a week.

My week lasted 3 days.

The good:

• Great interface. Nice UI. Nice animations. Clear screen.
• Solid design.
• 2.0 megapixel camera - very decent for a camera phone (and with a flash).
• Buttons are very easy to use, even though they are small.
• Great navigation.
• Supports music (mp3 and m4a - probably others).
• Comes with a 128MB memory stick — more memory than I expected!

The bad:

• Just so-so sound quality.
• Micophone picks up some background noise.
• Camera lens has no cover.
• THICK (form factor).
• The phone likes to add in a “snow” type of sound-effect randomly.
• Volume controls are tough to use in a call.

It was on about day three that I found myself wondering what I was gaining over my Motorola Razr V3i w/ iTunes? — I didn’t come up with a good answer, other than I like the interface much better on the Sony Ericsson.

So back in the box it went and it’ll probably sit there until the next time someone travels and needs to borrow a cell phone. — Very sad.