Tell us about the basics too

Putting aside the issues with the camera, it seems common now for reviews to focus on the "additional" features of the phones, ignoring the more basic things, related to basic communications.

Having just bought one of these phones I'm dissapointed to find that the vibrator is so weak that I miss calls unless the phone is in direct contact with me - if it's sitting loosely with my season ticket in my shirt pocket I don't feel it buzzing so miss calls. I've also noticed that there isn't enough contrast between the keys and their backlights (silver version) so that, in many lighting conditions, I find myself having to tilt the device to see the legends, making texting more time consuming than it needs to be.

Both of these are simple things, which should have been picked up in testing, both by the manufacturer and reviewers but which obviously weren't. They also don't get picked up by the buyer until it's too late and they've actually bought the thing ! Having said that, this review did mention call quality and signal handling (and is correct; call quality is high and signal drop outs seem few and far between) - again things you need to know if you want to comunicate, not just listen to music or take pictures !

Also note that if you buy an O2 branded W890 Google Maps isn't installed as per the review - you have to fetch it yourself, but it won't install alongside the otehr locational related apps.