Sony Ericsson's 8.1MP C905a and W518a Walkman on sale at AT&T

by Darren Murph posted Jul 19th 2009 at 1:18PM

Don't act surprised -- AT&T already told you that these two would go on sale this fine Sunday in July, and lo and behold, the carrier looks to have kept its promise. Starting today (officially, anyway), customers looking for a camera that doubles as a cellphone or a Walkman that occasionally makes calls can bring home the C905a or W518a, respectively. As expected, the C905a (which is available in silver only) will run you $179.99 after rebate and two-year agreement, while the W518a (which arrives in any color you like, so long as it's black) goes for $49.99 under the same conditions. Any takers? Or are all you SE fanboys waiting to court Rachael?

[Thanks, Jazzdoc]

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, ATT, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

Tags: ATT, C905, C905a, cyber-shot, SE, shake control, ShakeControl, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, W518, W518a, W518a walkman, W518aWalkman, walkman, xenon

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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derX @ Jul 19th 2009 1:29PM

According to The Boy Genius Report, AT&T killed WiFi on the C905a. Normally, I'm a big supporter of AT&T but this is just ridiculous. AT&T acknowledges that its 3G network does have issues with supporting the data usage of its customers--especially from the flux of iPhone users--but it disables WiFi, the only other reasonable alternative. In essence, they're crippling the device to make money on a data plan; the same data with variable speeds. When VZW does this, it's not okay, but when AT&T does it, there is no major outrage (not blaming Engadget, of course, just a general observation).

AT&T, Verizon is uncrippling GPS on the Omnia, could you follow suit?

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William @ Jul 19th 2009 2:18PM

this isn't a smart phone and currently at&t doesn't have any "dumbphones" that have wifi and it would've likely pushed the price over $200 if they left it in. the data plan is only $10-15 for this phone depending on your text plan, so stop acting like they're forcing you to pay an insane price for internet...internet on a screen size that is simply too small to even bother for anything other than very casual use. and please don't compare verizon uncrippling gps to at&t needing to add wifi to phones...almost everyone of their smart phones have gps...what more can you ask for.

Neutral

William @ Jul 19th 2009 2:20PM

i meant to say at&t has wifi in almost all of their smartphones...although they do have gps in pretty much all of their phones as well

Highly Ranked

derX @ Jul 19th 2009 4:21PM

You do realize that AT&T has locked GPS to their software on most of their devices. Including smartphones. I had a BJ II and that was certainly the case.

And don't raise the faulty argument of the screen is too small to even bother to include WiFi because the screen is sufficiently large to browse on 3G as well as take 8MP pictures. At the end of the day, they removed a feature and WiFi is NOT an expensive inclusion. In fact, it would've probably been cheap to downgrade that camera to 5MP camera than to remove WiFi.

And the point isn't that "they're forcing you to pay an insane price for internet" it's that they're forcing you to pay for it. By your argument, if the screen is only large enough for casual browsing, why the hell do I have to pay $10-$15 a month to do so?

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William @ Jul 19th 2009 7:21PM

you do realize at&t is in the business of making money right? if they gave everything away for free they wouldn't be able to spend $15bil trying to improve their not so great 3G this year. and give me a break, the $10-15 is 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the phones that have a good enough screen for browsing. and no, you're wrong...at&t doesn't lock it's gps. and so now you're suggesting at&t knock down the camera to 5mp and keep wifi...why? so you can complain about how the camera was crippled?

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gerardcon @ Jul 20th 2009 7:01AM

STOP SPEWING YOUR CRAP derX. The blackjack II has been a top seller and I haven't heard anybody say their GPS is locked down.

My opinion is a little biased as I work for AT&T but walk into any AT&T store and find me a phone that has a locked down GPS. True, we do load overpriced GPS software onto the phone but anybody with a little brains is more than welcome to use Google maps with any smartphone or even dumphone that we carry.

And the C905a DOES HAVE WIFI AND EXCHANGE SUPPORT. It's just been disabled by the software. If you want to debrand and flash the phone in order to enable these features there's many tutorials on HowardForums to guide your way. I've been told that this was disabled as there was a battery drain issue with the WiFi. Exchange was disabled because it wasn't always as reliable as something like a blackberry and they didn't want corporate customers relying on it for email. If you REALLY want these features then go ahead and spend half a hour learning how to flash a phone. It's something any tech savvy person should learn ;)

Yeah so while ATT's coverage may be crap in some areas one thing we don't do is cripple phones in any way. We do take an extremely long time to test and release new phones though ;P Which is a great thing for the average consumer. Look at the iPhone launches. The iPhone has above and beyond the greatest number of problems mostly because not all of the kinks were ironed out due to the fact of the rapid launches.

Highly Ranked

derX @ Jul 20th 2009 11:59AM

I accidentally forgot to hit reply, it seems. My reply is was posted, but I might as well repaste it in this thread because I'm making this post anyway and for the organization freak in me. ;)

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Gerardcon, first of all, don't come at me with this a capitalized directive. I was spewing no garbage. Second of all, I'm actually a pretty big AT&T fan and have been in your position of defending them many times and will be in you position many more times. I'm no overly-passionate VZW employee AT&T-muckracking as a hobby.

There was definitely a point when the BlackJack II's GPS was locked down and you needed to "unlock" the GPS feature to use non-AT&T supplied software. Click the following link (http://www.intomobile.com/2007/11/26/unlock-your-samsung-blackjack-iis-integrated-gps-receiver-to-work-outside-of-telenav.html) or do a simple Google search for "BlackJack II GPS." Also, notice the search term isn't "BlackJack II Locked GPS" or "fix BlackJack II GPS"; the first hits you'll get on "BlackJack II GPS" tell you how to use it with other software other than TeleNav.

"And the C905a DOES HAVE WIFI AND EXCHANGE SUPPORT. It's just been disabled by the software." The reason you give is because of battery life and that's a popular excuse, but I don't find it to be a very convincing one. You talk about how "anybody with a little brains" can use GPS with software he or she so pleases, but you have little faith for "anybody with a little brains" to turn off WiFi if he or she sees it's draining battery life. If they were truly mainly concerned about battery life, they could've very easily made it very simple to turn WiFi on and off when you need it and having a warning that WiFi can drain battery life.

People keep saying all you have to do is debrand the device and I am baffled as to why they think what they're saying is okay. I don't see why anyone should have to make any sort of firmware modification to use hardware included with the device. One shouldn't have to be tech savvy to use WiFi on his or her WiFi-capable phone.

Gerardcon and William, this was never intended to be a personal attack on anyone and it's not. This is simply a level-headed conversation about the c905a and AT&T. Again, AT&T is my preferred carrier in light of its flaws--there is no carrier without them. However, I do not agree with the double standard that some companies like VZW are (rightfully) blasted for disabling certain features on their phones while others walk away scott-free.

Neutral

gerardc @ Jul 21st 2009 3:48AM

The Blackjack II GPS "lock" was a screw-up by Microsoft with the GPS drivers being written for a professional device not standard device. Due to the nature of the Tele-Nav app GPS was able to be used with that application but not google maps. If you google blackjack II GPS you'll see that they explain it on Modaco pretty well. Since then it was fixed.

I was told battery life lasted less than 2 hours with WiFi turned on. Google c905 battery life and read all the complaints. And I'm sure you're smart enough to turn off WiFi when you're done browsing but most people aren't. I get people coming in complaining about their phone suddenly getting poor battery life and half the time it's because they left Bluetooth and WiFi on.

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zephxiii @ Jul 19th 2009 5:59PM

GPS was not locked or crippled on AT&T smartphones. I also had a BJII and ran into no such locked GPS, both on 6.0 and 6.1 ROMS. I also had a TILT and GPS was not locked on it either.

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spaceaged @ Jul 19th 2009 7:50PM

I just looked at a c905 in a store. I don't understand why AT&T disabled Wifi. I was looking forward to the DLNA feature use.

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zephxiii @ Jul 19th 2009 8:24PM

debrand it, you can have all of that back.

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jeremy @ Jul 19th 2009 11:09PM

i bet at&t crippled the email app that sony put on there and put their worthless mobile email on there. it has 8 megapixels, but can't use gmail... i bet at&t is so proud of their lack of innovation.

Highly Ranked

derX @ Jul 20th 2009 11:56AM

Gerardcon, first of all, don't come at me with this a capitalized directive. I was spewing no garbage. Second of all, I'm actually a pretty big AT&T fan and have been in your position of defending them many times and will be in you position many more times. I'm no overly-passionate VZW employee AT&T-muckracking as a hobby.

There was definitely a point when the BlackJack II's GPS was locked down and you needed to "unlock" the GPS feature to use non-AT&T supplied software. Click the following link (http://www.intomobile.com/2007/11/26/unlock-your-samsung-blackjack-iis-integrated-gps-receiver-to-work-outside-of-telenav.html) or do a simple Google search for "BlackJack II GPS." Also, notice the search term isn't "BlackJack II Locked GPS" or "fix BlackJack II GPS"; the first hits you'll get on "BlackJack II GPS" tell you how to use it with other software other than TeleNav.

"And the C905a DOES HAVE WIFI AND EXCHANGE SUPPORT. It's just been disabled by the software." The reason you give is because of battery life and that's a popular excuse, but I don't find it to be a very convincing one. You talk about how "anybody with a little brains" can use GPS with software he or she so pleases, but you have little faith for "anybody with a little brains" to turn off WiFi if he or she sees it's draining battery life. If they were truly mainly concerned about battery life, they could've very easily made it very simple to turn WiFi on and off when you need it and having a warning that WiFi can drain battery life.

People keep saying all you have to do is debrand the device and I am baffled as to why they think what they're saying is okay. I don't see why anyone should have to make any sort of firmware modification to use hardware included with the device. One shouldn't have to be tech savvy to use WiFi on his or her WiFi-capable phone.

Gerardcon and William, this was never intended to be a personal attack on anyone and it's not. This is simply a level-headed conversation about the c905a and AT&T. Again, AT&T is my preferred carrier in light of its flaws--there is no carrier without them. However, I do not agree with the double standard that some companies like VZW are (rightfully) blasted for disabling certain features on their phones while others walk away scott-free.

Neutral

johdaxx @ Jul 20th 2009 3:31PM

I suppose the argument is that it's more expensive for ATT to tell a several hundred thousand battery-life complainers to turn off their Wifi rather than for a few thousand Engadget reader / Hofo Nerds to grab A2uploader and zap their phones back to life.

Figure with still only a 930 mAh battery it is plausible that battery life would be an issue.

The compromise still sucks, though.

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