14 DAY TRIAL // This is surely one of the worst periods that Sony Ericsson has gone through lately. The reports on faulty software are now followed by many others concerning its HSDPA technology.
3G technology at its best should be one of the strongest features that music phones have to offer to their users. A HSDPA connection that is capable of providing data transfer speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps should be great for downloading songs in a matter of only a few seconds.
Sony Ericsson K850 and W910 are two such devices that have just hit the market. Both of them are supposed to manage to deliver HSDPA data transfer speeds, but recent results showed otherwise. In fact, tests revealed them to be capable of reaching only regular 3G speeds, never any faster connections. This makes them look phony and puts on them a higher price tag than they are worthy of.
The tests have been conducted by Mobil Swedish magazine, although they turned out to be different when conducted by other companies. Moreover, it has been made in various locations in Stockholm, where handsets from other leading producers such as LG and Nokia managed to provide HSDPA connectivity.
This is not the only problem with the W910 music phone recently reported. The first shipment of the device to Orange stores has been recalled, as a great number of customers returned their phones. The most frequent issue was that the device turned off after only 10 minutes of use.
In fact, Sony Ericsson has seen a rough period with its phone sales. After thousands of W580i handsets were returned because of faulty keypad this summer, this time it's the software that seems to be causing problems. The phone producer made no official statement on this matter up to this point.