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Optimized for music playing with external music keys, stereo Bluetooth support, over-the-air music downloads from Napster Mobile and eMusic Mobile, and Shake Control, the Sony Ericsson W518a clamshell phone for AT&T is also packed with gaming, multimedia and social networking offerings that make this phone a thin little entertainment powerhouse. And it's easy to manage the music in your phone--one click starts the Walkman music player, enabling you to play, rewind, fast forward, equalize, shuffle tracks and create playlists ust like in any other digital music player. This phone can quickly download video, music and more over AT&T's lightning quick HSPDA 3G network. This GPS-enabled phone can access the AT&T Navigator service for turn-by-turn directions as well as its Video Share service, which enables you to send video of yourself to another compatible phone while making a voice call. Other features include a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, memory expansion via Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards, built-in Facebook application, access to mobile email and instant messaging, and up to 4 hours of talk time. 
The Sony Ericsson W518a is optimized for music playing with external music keys, stereo Bluetooth support, over-the-air music downloads from Napster Mobile and eMusic Mobile, and Shake Control. | AT&T Services
Keep up to date with your friends with a Facebook application that has a rotating status carousel right on the standby screen. | This AT&T phone can handle high-speed data connectivity via AT&T's 3G mobile broadband data network, which is available in most major metropolitan areas. The AT&T 3G network uses the dual-band 850/1900 MHz 3G network (UMTS/HSDPA), which provides download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps, and upload speeds ranging from 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. This makes it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services, and it gives you the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services. In areas where the 3G network is not available, you'll continue to receive service on the AT&T EDGE network, which offers availability in more than 13,000 US cities and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Providing average data speeds between 75-135Kbps, it's fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services, including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go. You'll also enjoy quad-band GSM connectivity, which allows you to make calls in more than 190 countries and access data applications in the more than 135 countries where AT&T offers international data roaming. With 3G connectivity, you'll be able to access AT&T's Video Share service, which enables you to send a live, one-way video stream to another compatible phone during a standard voice call. The service also allows you to switch the direction of the video stream during the same phone call. (Customers must be in an area served by the company's 3G network and have a Video Share-enabled phone.) While using Video Share with family and friends is a fun way to communicate, it's also very useful for business. For example, a majority of users in the architecture, engineering and construction industries rated the ability to share live video through Video Share highly, according to research commissioned by AT&T. Video Share lets you see progress on a job site or review the day's work without having to drive from an office or other site to do so. You can take advantage of the AT&T Navigator GPS software and service, a full-featured premium navigation application that includes audible turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic updates and re-routing options, and 3D moving maps (additional charges applicable). AT&T Navigator offers several other features to make your commute more enjoyable and reliable, including mobile access to Yellowpages.com. Additionally, AT&T Navigator is the only mobile phone-based GPS service that provides integrated speech recognition for address entry and points of interest search. With 3G connectivity, you'll be able to access AT&T's Cellular Video (CV) service and the Internet while on the go. Cellular Video features content from CNN, The Weather Channel, iFilm, Comedy Central and exclusive premium content from HBO and much more. And you get access to AT&T Mobile Music, which enables you to buy tracks while on the, access the Napster and eMusic subscription music services, stream music video, discover what's playing with Music ID song-recognition software, and find out what's hot with The Buzz music news portal. The phone has a built-in web browser for MEdia Net downloads and mobile web browsing. AT&T's MEdia Net service enables you to receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more. 
Other features include a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, and memory expansion via Memory Stick Micro (M2) media. | Phone Features
The Sony Ericsson W518a is a unique, all-in-one device that enables you to stay connected and express yourself on the go. The thin clamshell W518a sports an internal 2.2-inch LCD screen with a 240 x 320-pixel resolution, and it's complemented by a 1.1-inch OLED screen (128 x 36 pixels) on the exterior of the clamshell that displays current time, incoming calls, currently playing music, signal strength, and battery life. The phone has a 100 MB internal memory, which can be expanded via optional Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards up to 8 GB in size. The internal phonebook can store an almost unlimited amount of contacts, and it features multiple numbers per contact, support for caller groups, and picture/ringer ID capabilities. Packed with social networking features, just open the phone to view Facebook friends' status updates and profile photos. And one click from the W518a's standby screen allows social butterflies to update their Facebook status. It's also easy to upload photos to your profile directly from the W518a's 3.2-megapixel camera. This Walkman phone offers a full-function digital audio player that's compatible with MP3 and AAC files, and it includes Sony Ericsson's innovative "shake to shuffle" feature. With Shake Control activated, just flick your wrist and a vibration lets you know that the track has been changed--a new song from your current playlist is randomly selected and automatically played. Playback settings also include an equalizer, playlists, stereo widening, and shuffle and loop modes. This Walkman phone features MegaBass enhancement for added depth of sound, a flight mode that lets you keep listening to tunes with the phone's network connectivity turned off, and the PlayNow feature that enables you to download new music tones directly to the phone. The phone features a unique Gesture control that allows you to mute calls with a wave of your hands or snooze its alarm without having to interrupt what you’re doing. When a call comes in, a simple movement of your hand back and forth over the phone mutes the ringtone. Similarly, sweep your hand over the phone when using it as your alarm clock to put it into snooze mode. Additionally, the integrated accelerometer allows you to shake or tilt the W518a to simulate motion while playing video games. The intuitive Media User Interface rotates depending on how you're holding the phone, so you can see everything you need at a glance. Auto rotate works for photos, videos and games. Handsfree communication is easy thanks to the integrated speakerphone. This phone also provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity (version 2.0), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and file transfer. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking--surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server (additional charges or subscription applicable). The built-in 3.2 megapixel camera captures stills and video--and playback of video or still pictures is only limited to the memory card size (or capped at 20 seconds for sending via MMS). You can choose from four resolution sizes and two quality settings for still photos, and it also features white balance and brightness adjustments, digital zoom (up to 3.2x), night mode, panorama, and multi-shot mode. With the phone's built-in GPS, images can be "geo-tagged" with the exact location where they were shot. Video clips can be shot at up to QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels) at 30 frames per second (fps). The phone also ships with a built-in email client with support for POP3 and IMAP4 protocols, while the included Access NetFront Web Browser allows you to surf full HTML web sites. It also supports RSS feeds, allowing you to use your phone to view up-to-the-minute news and other content from selected Web sites and blogs. Just subscribe to the feed and let it come to you. Support is built in for sending and receiving text, video, graphics and sound via messages. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit--a plus for mobile email and text messaging users. Other features include: - Flight mode allows you to safely use the non-wireless functions of this phone (such as music, games, or organizer functions) on an airplane during flight
- Mobile Email and Instant Messenger for quick and easy access on the go (instant messaging via AOL, Windows Live, Yahoo!)
- USB mass storage capabilities
- Built-in FM radio
- Access to YouTube streaming videos
- Organizer tools: calendar, calculator, alarm clock, tasks, timer, notes, stopwatch
- Personalize with downloadable games, graphic, ringtones and applications
Vital Statistics
The Sony Ericsson W518a weighs 3.35 ounces and measures 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches. Its 920 mAh lithium-polymer battery is rated at up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 400 hours (16+ days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as AT&T's 850/1900 MHz 3G frequencies (UMTS/HSDPA).
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 Keep freezing after only 6 months |
| Review Date: July 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: S. Tse, San Jose, CA United States |
| I bought this phone in January. I really liked it till last week. It just kept frozen. Every time someone called me, just kept ringing, and can't answer and can't stop the ringing. I checked for software update and even re-installed the software (lost all my paid games) and still won't help. I did a google search and found that many many people have the same problem. I really regret that I didn't do a search before I bought it. I have to go back to my 5 years old Nokia phone which is still working fine. It's a decent phone if it doesn't freeze. Buy it if you are willing to take a risk. |
VERY Dissapointing
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| Review Date: July 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: tooba khilji, |
| SONY used to mean quality at some point but apparently this is not the case anymore. This phone died after being near some condensation...not even next to it. I would recommend stronger phones like my tiny little Pantech that can survive an accidentally dunk in water... and my friend's i-Phone that spent the whole night outside in the rain. So clearly a small amount of moisture should not be a challenge for a well made phone. I used to be a SONY fan, but will not be any longer. |
Ulcer-inducing
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| Review Date: July 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: TheName'sPatrick, |
This is my first review ever. I felt so utterly compelled by the grief this phone has caused me.
I purchased it because I was seduced by all the nice features this phone has, as I'm sure you're considering at this very moment. Even now I must admit that the camera is superb. But that's probably the only thing good about this phone. I believe the positive reviews were written once their cell phones were out of the box and with only a few minutes of tinkering. I've had this phone for maybe 4 months now, and I will never purchase a Sony cellphone again.
It freezes. All the time - as in, several times a day. You will miss all calls to you during that freeze time, which will probably have been a while unless you check your phone constantly. It doesn't unfreeze, so you're forced to take the battery out and put it back in. To add insult to injury, it's impossible to silence the phone's rather loud welcome tune, which can be a problem in classrooms and such. I've also experienced problems with the phone recognizing it's being charged, but that pales in comparison to the freezing issue.
In the name of Consumerism, save yourself the immense frustration and don't buy this phone. |
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| Review Date: July 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Sheila, |
| I rue the day I let the customer rep talk me into this phone. Keypad is small and hard to accurately manuver w/ out hitting the internet key (for which I am charged a fee), the speakerphone is barely audible and comes from the bottom part of the phone (where your mouth is), picture quality is poor, MP3 player sound is poor quality, and menue items are sometimes difficult to find. Do yourself a huge favor and BUY A DIFFERENT PHONE!! |
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| Review Date: July 5, 2010 |
| Reviewer: lzthunder, |
| The first phone ATT sent me had to be returned because I could not answer a call. It would send a message saying."busy signal being sent". Now the second Sony Ericsson 518A's display often will not come on when the phone is opened. Sometimes the display will come on but the key board will be dead. I called ATT customer support and like the last time they say they will check back with to see if having taken the battery out and reinserted it worked! How frustrating, do they really thing I am going to put up with taking the battery out and reinserting it every time I need to use the phone. I give this phone a big fat ZERO. |
Don't Buy. Freezes up Several Times a day
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| Review Date: May 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: G. Pochet, State College PA |
| I bought this phone in Jan of 2010. Worked fine for 3 months. Now it just freezes up all of the time. I have to remove the battery to reset it. it seems to do it when I get a call or a text message. If you want a phone that can't recevie a call or a text message w/o freezing, then this is the phone for you. |
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| Review Date: March 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer: James, |
| This is the worst phone I have ever owned from day 1. I have worn the back off of the phone because it constantly hangs and the only way to continue is to remove the battery. I don't know how many calls I've missed because the phone is hung and I don't know until I'm ready to use. I've updated the software from the company website and still same problem. Requires special adapter to listen to FM radio which also requires headphones with a 2.5 mm jack. Would not buy another Sony phone. |
Awesome
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| Review Date: February 28, 2010 |
| Reviewer: bz, USA |
I am a Sony Ericsson person. I use nothing but Sony Ericsson. Their phones just work for me. One reason is that it takes no time to copy my phone book from my old phone to the W518a exactly the way I want it.
The W518a is solid with a very good weight. Not too big, not too small and it is wide enough to be held nicely. Call quality is as good as any other Ericsson phone. The display is much brighter and sharper compared to my W350 and W810.
The keys are big enough and the layout is great. The shortcut keys are finally well placed in the W518 this time. The AT&T key is not on the way anymore. I hate that AT&T key.
They have a much much improved menu layout compared to my W350 and W810. I like the Event page. It lists all the missed call, voice mail, etc on one page. They finally put back the voice command for their free phone. I can dial with my Bluetooth headset again. The phone book has more categories now. Like instead of just Work, they have Work and Work-Mobile now. This is great.
I use my phone to listen to music alot. The music player is much better than the one before. It works like the one in the Playstation. Just scroll up and down. No more guessing. I love SenseMe. I circle an area in the Mood window and it put all those songs in a playlist. This is so great to use. The screen is big and bright enough to watch movie in the W518a now. I can either use the USB cable or use Bluetooth to transfer the music and the movie to the phone. Movie takes a long time to copy though.
Sony uses Media Go to transfer the music and movie to the phone. Media Go is terrible to use to organize my library. It works with only USB cable. I use it only to transfer music and movie. It can convert pretty much anything to either MP4, MP3 or AAC. I am so glad that the W518a finally dumps the 3GP format. The W518a also has an accelerometer. I can tilt the phone to change the volume and skip back and fore to the next song without pressing the button. The phone also comes with a bowling game for the accelerometer too. Almost throw my phone to the ground with that game. So, be careful.
I have been using the W518a for 6 months now. It works great as both a phone and a MP3 and movie player. It pairs with all my Bluetooth stuffs (my headset, stereo headphone, my laptop, and my desktop). No problem at all. 5 stars!
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Steer Clear
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| Review Date: February 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: M. Mcgill, NJ USA |
There are only a very few things that I like about the phone, however there are just too many negatives that the few positives are negligible. I will tell you about the most annoying, but there are more.
You will absolutely miss calls with this phone. Why? There will be many times this phone will:
Just not ring. The person will hear it ring on their end and eventually be sent to voice mail.
Freeze, and the only way to get it back is to remove the battery.
Ring but will not respond to the answer button.
Upon touching it, direct the person's call to voice mail. Because if you use gesture control once, it never turns off, even if the display says so. Gesture Control is a feature that allows you to silence the phone when you wave your hand over it. Gesture control doesn't just silence rings, it hangs up on the person and sends them to voice mail. The bad thing about this feature is once you hear the ring and touch the phone, it will terminate the call. That's because it has an optical sensor, and the slightest change of light will activate it.
Let's say you don't want to hear from a particular caller. You should just be able to turn off the ring for that caller. Well, not with this phone. Instead, you have to make a longer list of all the people you'll accept ( which in most cases is your entire phone book ) in order to exclude maybe one or two. But that's not even the worst part. The phone has a software bug where creating the list is impossible. My son has the same phone and it happens with his also.
Now after 30 days, the phone is completely inoperative. It doesn't last an hour before freezing. Sometimes it will freeze when it rings, so answering is impossible. It will freeze during a conversation. It will freeze just sitting still on my desk whether I'm using my blue-tooth or not.
Last, but not least is AT&T's return policy. They want to replace the phone with a refurbished unit. I asked the rep, "what do you mean refurbished? It's not 30 days old, can I get a new phone?" She said that it's AT&T's policy to replace a customers malfunctioned phone with one that has been returned within 30 days. "In other words" I said, "You're taking my problem and sending me someone else's."
I told the rep that the internet is full of bad to horrible reviews of this particular model. I reminded her that I'm experiencing the exact same problems that I've read about, and if you send me a "refurbished unit" I'm most likely going to experience the same thing all over again. Is it possible that I can have another model phone?
Well, the answer was short and simple, "no."
I should mention that AT&T sent me this phone under thier so-called "Insurance Policy" after my original V3 was stolen. The AT&T insurance policy is a ripp-off, and should be avoided at all cost, and it will cost you big, but that's another review.
Like I said, there are just too many things wrong with this phone, and unless you like frustration, stay away!
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Nice Upgrade
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| Review Date: February 10, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Hokie D, Charlotte, NC United States |
| Wanted to replace my trusty w300i and this was worth it. I get to keep the same battery chargers, headphones, and memory stick which made migrating my old contacts and media simple. The features that Sony kept that are important to me: FM radio for listening to radio at football games & MP3/video playback. One of my gripes that Sony solved on this phone is better navigation through movies. On the w300i it would not resume where you last left off and the incredibly slow fast forward left you wishing for better movie media controls. The w518a resumes movies and fast forward works great - not to mention the better image quality of this new phone. You can even read subtitles on movies if you load a decent quality movie onto the phone. The only negative on the phone is that the buttons don't have a very good feel to them. |
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