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HelpThere are only 2 days left of 2009 and indeed only 2 days left in this decade. With that in mind many blogs have been indulging in retrospectives looking back over the decade and judging what they think are the best and worst gadgets and tech of the past ten years. Whilst Sony Ericsson itself hasn’t actually been around for a full 10 years, this is the end of the first decade they’ve been in business so time for a look back at what they’ve done right … and what they’ve done wrong.
The Good
You can’t get much better than starting at the beginning … the T68i. I still have mine and it still works as well as when it was new. It was ahead of its time and even now it’s a passable mobile phone. Sure it doesn’t have GPS, an inbuilt camera, etc, but the fact that it still works almost 10 years later counts for a lot.
The P800 was Sony Ericsson’s first smartphone, indeed one of the first proper smartphones and looking back a precursor to today’s smartphones with their large touchscreens and installable apps. Compared with current handsets it’s slow, cumbersome, bulky, and generally archaic, but it was the most powerful handset of its day and ushered in the much loved P series.
The K750 and W800 were two of the best handsets Sony Ericsson has ever produced. That’s not just my opinion, look at the sales figures. Look at how many people still look back on them fondly. The W800 heralded the dawn of Walkman phones and for the first time gave consumers the capability to play music on their phone with a quality approaching dedicated mp3 players.
The K800 was arguably Sony Ericsson’s last great handset. It took the K750 and built upon it to give a better camera, a proper flash, 3G data speeds and a pretty attractive form factor. The fact that so many are still in use is a testament to its quality and its popularity.
The Bad
When first announced the W960 was greeted with much enthusiasm; here was a handset with 8 Gb of inbuilt memory, WiFi, and a touchscreen, features, at the time, that were top class and certainly whetted many an appetite. Where did it go wrong? Well it was pretty much down to that old bug bear of Sony Ericsson’s … delays. Wars have been fought and won in less time than it took for the W960 to finally appear on the shelves and by that time consumers had moved on.
The W910 was one of those handsets that should have been great and to be fair it sold well, but that doesn’t disguise the horrendous firmware problems that dogged the handset. Numerous customers reported problems with their handsets and in the end it became a testament to slipping quality, something that was to dog Sony Ericsson in later handsets.
Another handset that suffered from poor quality was the W580 with cracked keypads galore. Like it’s big sister, the W910, it sold well, but left many customers unhappy as their keys split in two. Great sales, but another knocking for Sony Ericsson’s reputation amongst consumers.
In an all too similar situation to the W960 we saw Satio, then dubbed Idou, unveiled to much fanfare and excitement. A 12 MP camera! A first for the mobile industry outside of South Korea and it was Sony Ericsson leading the way. 10 months later the handset finally got itself into the shops and sales began in earnest. The long wait hadn’t helped, but once it was out business was brisk and consumers seemed prepared to overlook that. Disaster was to strike barely a few weeks later though as Satio was pulled from sale in the UK owing to firmware problems. Although it was back on sale soon afterwards the damage was done and again Sony Ericsson’s once high reputation for quality had taken a blow.
The Ugly
Some handsets Sony Ericsson have released over the years deserve to be forgotten, but we’ll dredge them up here anyway!
The K850 might be a surprise on this list for some, but hear me out. The keypad alone is enough to condemn this handset as awful; tiny square peg like keys widely spaced beneath a touch sensitive panel on the screen that was prone to failure does not a good handset make! The fact that the K850 was thicker than a dictionary didn’t help either.
I know Michell will disagree with me here, but Pureness is arguably the biggest waste of time, money and resources Sony Ericsson have ever publicly committed to. A luxury phone with a price tag to match whilst the rest of their line-up suffered from qualitative issues doesn’t strike me as a great idea. It’s quirky sure, but eminently forgettable.
Agree? Disagree? Have I left something out? Let us know in the comments!
You forgot the T610:) great phone.
I agree the k850 wasn’t the best..especially in the beginning with the HORRENDOUS firmware (BROD anyone?) Also, the build quality wasn’t that good..paint came off, the phone squeeked and had design mistakes all over.
However still it wasn’t THAT bad once the firmware was in a reasonable state.
Yes, the ‘touchstrip’ was clearly a mistake but even so it still worked perfectly after 2 years. Also the keys weren’t too bad and still worked fine after 2 years. The camera wasn’t bad either and the battery life was great. Might not have been a worthy successor to the K-series, after 2 years of usage I hadn’t crashed for months and everything still worked fine.
You forgot the T610:) great phone.
I agree the k850 wasn’t the best..especially in the beginning with the HORRENDOUS firmware (BROD anyone?) Also, the build quality wasn’t that good..paint came off, the phone squeeked and had design mistakes all over.
However still it wasn’t THAT bad once the firmware was in a reasonable state.
Yes, the ‘touchstrip’ was clearly a mistake but even so it still worked perfectly after 2 years. Also the keys weren’t too bad and still worked fine after 2 years. The camera wasn’t bad either and the battery life was great. Might not have been a worthy successor to the K-series, after 2 years of usage I hadn’t crashed for months and everything still worked fine.
LET’S NOT FORGET THE AINO!
It had a LOT of software issues too, and despite the fact that it was meant to be a killer phone, Sony Ericsson simply SCREWED IT UP. The resolution is weird when playing Java games, you can’t use the phone closed, the touchscreen works only in the media menu (and I don’t know why it had to be capacitative), and mine kept crashing so much that I ended up returning it… Such a shame, it looked to be a very good phone
LET’S NOT FORGET THE AINO!
It had a LOT of software issues too, and despite the fact that it was meant to be a killer phone, Sony Ericsson simply SCREWED IT UP. The resolution is weird when playing Java games, you can’t use the phone closed, the touchscreen works only in the media menu (and I don’t know why it had to be capacitative), and mine kept crashing so much that I ended up returning it… Such a shame, it looked to be a very good phone
There has been ups and there has been downs, SE has certainly had a rough ride the first 10 years of the 21th century.
SATIO was a really good idea on paper and showed a lot of potential and in the end delivered at least what I thought a pretty good phone with some excellent photo-features, maybe not the beamoth we all had hoped for.
AINO was good in concept but I dont know what people believed that it would be, it was not meant to be a fully featured touch phone and SE never proposed it would be.
Also, I may be one of the few in the world that acctualy bought a Xperia Pureness, but its design really striked me when I held it in my hand for the first time. Sure its overpriced and such, but the design and the statement from SE with “Talk Text Time” is awesome. 9 out of 10 people that I have shown the phone for wants one.. So I really have to disagree that it is a total failure, its an excellent compliment to my iPhone 3GS. (usualy switch to the Pureness when going out in the evenings etc). And lets not forget, the Pureness Concierge Service rocks, used it probably more than 30 times already, everything from finding hard to get christmas gifts to travel arrangements etc.
Happy new year and lets hope that SE shapes up for a great new 10 years..
There has been ups and there has been downs, SE has certainly had a rough ride the first 10 years of the 21th century.
SATIO was a really good idea on paper and showed a lot of potential and in the end delivered at least what I thought a pretty good phone with some excellent photo-features, maybe not the beamoth we all had hoped for.
AINO was good in concept but I dont know what people believed that it would be, it was not meant to be a fully featured touch phone and SE never proposed it would be.
Also, I may be one of the few in the world that acctualy bought a Xperia Pureness, but its design really striked me when I held it in my hand for the first time. Sure its overpriced and such, but the design and the statement from SE with “Talk Text Time” is awesome. 9 out of 10 people that I have shown the phone for wants one.. So I really have to disagree that it is a total failure, its an excellent compliment to my iPhone 3GS. (usualy switch to the Pureness when going out in the evenings etc). And lets not forget, the Pureness Concierge Service rocks, used it probably more than 30 times already, everything from finding hard to get christmas gifts to travel arrangements etc.
Happy new year and lets hope that SE shapes up for a great new 10 years..
I may add to the ugly both G900 and G700 without EDGE in 2009!!!!!!!
Not to mention the prices and delays way to long (I wanted a satio but bought an Iphone because of the to long delay!!!!!)
SE is gonna fall that’s sure cause the Xperia X10 will get android 2.X in 2011 while the X2 is gonna be a huge failure like the kurara
I do not trust SE anymore
I may add to the ugly both G900 and G700 without EDGE in 2009!!!!!!!
Not to mention the prices and delays way to long (I wanted a satio but bought an Iphone because of the to long delay!!!!!)
SE is gonna fall that’s sure cause the Xperia X10 will get android 2.X in 2011 while the X2 is gonna be a huge failure like the kurara
I do not trust SE anymore