Awesome looking phone!

No, that’s not usually how I start reviews, but this is a damn fine looking device. The biggest draw back is battery life. Consider yourself lucky if you get 3 days out of the S710. Stand by time was reported at 9 days by CNET which is total BS. With a screen of this size, and if you use the ‘flash’ while taking a pic, you will probably get a day or two, tops. I can usually go 2 – 3 days without a charge, but recently made the mistake of doing a 1 night Vegas trip without my charger. In short, my phone died, and I had no phone for my 4 hour commute home.

The coolest thing, aside from the swivel design, is the camera. We are talking 1.3 megapixels. The camera is terrible in dark places – you need sun light to get a good snap, so don’t bring this to the ‘club’ as one 40 Deuce (Burlesque show in LV and LA) bouncer had inquired. The ‘flash’, which is really a light, is damn bright, but still can’t provide enough illumination for a quality pic. The screen is also bright enough, big enough, and colorful (262K colors) enough to display the quality photos in either widescreen, or not.

The games aren’t bad either and are actually playable. 3 dimensional, but they are sure to eat battery life. Other cool things to mention are that you can bluetooth cut up songs, or whole songs, to your cell phone and use them as ring tones. The speaker is crazy loud, and if you want, the device can double as an MP3 player (not recommended). I should also mention that the S710 sports a Memory Stick Duo slot, so you can upgrade to a 1gb card if desired. The internal memory is 32mb, so the phone comes packaged with a total of 64mb. The package also includes a USB memory stick attachment to transfer files. Bluetooth can transfer some things, but not massive files, that is according to my Apple G4.

I got this phone from Cingular for $199, with a $100 rebate and $100 credit. I was able to obtain such a good deal because I migrated from AT&T Wireless (yes they own, but still considered separate company), and so they gave me an immediate discount and I negotiated a $100 credit to keep me as a customer. If you are an AT&T Wireless customer I suggest you do the same. Got me the phone free, didn’t it?