SE w810i phone to replace ipod as my DAP?

[Enigmatic]

Yesterday I upgraded my phone to a sony ericsson w810i walkman phone, it came with a 1gb memory stick pro duo, however the service provider I upgraded through is offering a rebate of a free 4gb card with the purchase of a w810i and a 3 year contract or 3 year renewal. So last night I filled out that and should hopefully get the card in a couple weeks.

Anyways, I have a 30gb ipod photo(filled half way), and its use has been dwindling lately as I have less and less situations where I would be listening to headphones for long periods of time. I don't find it very practical to carry it around for casual listening, so that leaves it for longer trips and occasional instances where I might need music for long periods of time. However I plan to get a macbook pro this christmas so if I were to go on longer trips I could take that with me to swap songs on and off of the w810i.
I am not an audiophile, I can listen to anything 128kbps and up and it's fine to me, although I have never really had a nice set of headphones to be able to really tell the difference, I don't want to buy some nice headphones in case I get sucked into the hobby of buying expensive headphones, amps, etc.

Pros to switching and using w810i as primary player:
-only carrying one device
-no loss in battery life(15 hours with music apparently)
-would not have to convert any of my digital music library-mostly mp3 some aac(non drmed) which is supported by the phone
-Can still use itunes by dragging songs off of it onto the phone.
-Stock buds are better than ipod's
-has ability to play videos(although I question if I will ever view vids on that screen at 10fps)
-the functionality of the player, I had always thought the ipod's clickwheel couldn't be beat, and for navigating through the UI the w810i still doesn't beat it. But I like having a volume rocker and play/pause button on the side, I like this system better because it's easier to operate "blindly".

Cons:
-capacity-I've read that 4gb sticks are the max the phone will take.
-walkman UI is a little slower
-iTunes syncing(unless someone can point me to a way)
-no album art(however that was never a huge selling point for myself)
-need to carry around the dock connector->3.5mm cable.
-I have an altec lansing in motion 3 speaker dock, which could be used with the phone but it is designed for the ipod and connection with the dock port(it has a remote with skip and play/pause functions that only work with ipod)

What I am thinking as a possible solution:
Sell the ipod when I get the 4gb card(could always use some more cash to go towards that macbook) but keep the speaker dock I own. Down the line when/if the full touch screen ipods come out I will maybe pick one up and use it for video and as my main dap and can use it with the speaker dock. I still like the idea of having a player with my entire collection on it, but it needs to offer something more for me to carry it around along with my walkman cellphone, and I'm thinking the video function could be the feature that would work for this, after all I am a film student so it would be nice to carry around films and maybe some of my work to show people.

Any input would be appreciated, especially from people who have experience with the w810i.

PS-not really audio player related
My phone is locked by my service provider, what features would I gain by getting it unlocked, I know right now I can't use my own mp3's as ringtones, but what else am I missing? It would have to be some good features as I am weary of doing it because I bought a 3 year warranty from the store.

 

[Walie]

the features you would gain are that you can use the phone with any other providor if you desire as well, you can use flash-based themes which kinda look cool

to use your mp3's as ringtones there is a program out there that adds DRM to your file of choice and this gets around that restriction (i forget the name, sorry)

on an audio related note, i found the sound quality of the w810 to be rather poor with a tremendous amount of background hissing although as you already noted this probably doesn't bother you

note: i think if you unbrand/flash your phone, it will void your warranty

 

[Daroid]

I'm using that exact setup with a 4 gb card. And not to get you sucked in to the hobby, but in this case you ABSOLUTELY NEED an amp.

Forums like Howardforums and Esato mention digital distortion/digital artifacts, especially noticeable at lower volumes. All they do is complain, but don't have any idea what the issue might be. I did some experimentation back and forth, and the problem partly seems to be the current output capability from the dock/interface for the headphones is extremely low.

This way you will get less battery drain, but affects sound quality on lower impedance phones. An op-amp headphone amp has an extremely high input impedance compared to headphones, so it will be ideal here. Use it. It turned my w810 into something compeletely different. I freakin can't believe they sacrificed audio quality, just to have a longer play/standby time.

You'd also want some better headphones at some point, can't believe that ibuds can sound worse, but alas i have never owned an ipod

10fps video? Runs a 25 fps full-length movie with no slowdowns, but it depends on the battery status and video bitrate i suppose

.

 

[Enigmatic]

I had read that it played video at 10fps, but if it plays 25fps maybe I will have to try it out. The ibuds I have are fairly old(ibuds definately deteriate in audio quality over time, I went through many pairs). As for an amp, I just don't have the ears that need it, I'm listening to it right now and it seems fine to me, also since this will be for more casual use carrying around an amp with my phone isn't too practical.

 

[Daroid]

I'm sure you have the ears, especially with headphones, but yes it's unpractical with an amp and the additional cords are frustrating.

Now that you say 10fps - i'm not really sure wether it displays 25 fps or if it just displays e.g. every second frame, hmmm, but the transition between the frames is smooth, but it's really hard to judge sometimes.

 

[Eedwhatever]

since you are posting this on head-fi...
i would refund / sell your f-ing phone and stick with your ipod
SE named its product line "walkman" to fool quality seeking audio dudes in buying em....
when you say casual listening... i hope you are really casual in your listening...
the SE phone will piss you off.
i'm only giving you this advice since you are a head-fier
the walkman phones will distort at high volumes and it has crappy range.
i dumped my phone to get an ipod... ... seeing someone doing the opposite baffles me...
good luck dear head-fier

 

[Enigmatic]

yeah I'm pretty casual with listening, back when I first joined this forum I was in high school, where my old ipod got a lot of use. I didn't buy it intending for it to be my main music player, pretty much all the phones I was looking at had a built in mp3 player, so I wouldn't return it.

 

[Walie]

and here i was under the impression that the brand "walkman" and audio quality don't go together in recent times

 

[jonnywolfet]

the quality of audio on my w810i is not up to par with any other dedicated audio player i own, i use it very occasionally and only as a 'spare rig' solution.
i would not reccommend replacing your ipod with the w810, especially if you are going to use good quality headphones with iit

 

[Daroid]

Try an amp and come back again

It's Ohm's law. People often bitch, but never try to determine the cause of the problem before complaining.

Quality seeking audio dudes don't buy portables. Like someone else stated in the Nano 2nd gen thread, it's a compromise, no matter how large a step up the portable audio chain you make. The w810 is, as any other (newer) phone, a PHONE with an mp3/radio and camera function. A dedicated MP3-player will always sound and navigate faster/better, so will a camera, so seriously buying any phone for it's mp3 functions alone is stupid. (And so is owning an apple product because it is white and fashion

)