Several people will notice the beautiful shine of the touch screen that comes with the Sony Ericsson X10. This beautiful touch screen makes it possible to have 65,536 colors on a massive 854×480 pixel screen. This beautiful screen can render photos, apps and text as clearly as possible through the engineering that Sony has put the Sony Ericsson X10 through. It is certainly a unique phone with the layout of the buttons to the touch screen setup. There is even a special feature known as the Timescape, which calls the last several actions to occur such as music listened to, messages from friends through social networks and so much more. The Timescape is very similar to other solutions that are available from other manufacturers but none of them are as beautiful for sure.

The Sony Ericsson X10 makes use of a full keyboard that is software based that works just as great as a physical keyboard. The best part about the phone is simply that anyone that owns one will simply enjoy using it for its aesthetic beauty as well as functionality. It does take advantage of the Android OS which is based off of Linux and is capable of several great possibilities with the phone in terms of software integration and upgrades. The Sony Ericsson X10 has full 3G capabilities which make it perfect for surfing the net and streaming videos but you will be able to do so much more with a high end mobile phone like this.

Sony Ericsson are on the move recently and the Aino is very much part of the agenda. But living in the shadow of the Satio and X10 is not much fun we guess. So, the Sony Ericsson Aino is keen to live a double life. At first glance, it’s a touchscreen PMP, but on a second look it’s a regular slider phone with an extra big screen. It’s not the ultimate PlayStation phone but it does have Remote Play, to wirelessly pair with Sony’s PlayStation 3.

As far as feature phones go, the Aino has pretty much everything – excellent connectivity, full-featured navigation, a great camera, plenty of internal storage and a simple-but-snappy touch media menu.

By the way, don’t let anyone tell you touchscreen functionality is limited to the proprietary Sony Ericsson multimedia menu. We were pleasantly surprised with Opera Mini, which seemed to quite agree with the Aino touch system. Touchscreen navigation is all there and it performed very smoothly. This means touch controlled Java games might work as well.

All right, this was just a single little secret revealed. Let’s take a closer look at what else the Aino may be hiding there.

Key features

* 3″ 16M-color capacitive touchscreen, 240 x 432 pixels
* Quad-band GSM support
* Tri-band 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 2Mbps HSUPA
* 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash; geotagging, touch-focus, face detection, image stabilization; VGA video recording @ 30fps
* Some degree of touchscreen functionality – touch-enabled media and camera interface
* Touch works in Java apps as well, e.g. Opera Mini
* Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS; Trial version of Wisepilot navigation software
* Wi-Fi with DLNA
* FM radio with RDS
* Stereo Bluetooth 2.1
* microSD card slot
* Wireless Bluetooth headset with 3.5 mm audio jack and nice headphones, desktop docking station and 8GB microSD card in box
* Remote play for Playstation 3

Main disadvantages

* No standard USB port
* No 3.5mm audio jack (but there’s one on the Bluetooth headset)
* Touch control is limited to camera, gallery, multimedia players and some Java apps
* Media library updates very slowly in the touch media menu
* No DivX/XviD support
* No xenon flash
* No camera lens cover

The box contents are a sweat deal too – the matching desk stand and wireless headset would fetch a pretty high price as a separate purchase, but with Aino they are part of the experience. And the 8GB microSD card in the box should be enough for most people.

Uncomfortable questions start to emerge though – the Remote Play feature doesn’t really do much more than DLNA and is useless with anythingbut PlayStation3. The touch functionality sounds great but not having it in the built-in browser sucks.
But asking these questions is missing the point. If you owned the original PlayStation, then upgraded to PlayStation 2 and have the 3rd version sitting next to your BRAVIA set, well this love letter in the shape of Sony Ericsson Aino is addressed to you.

According to the manufacturer, Sony Ericsson S312 is literally created for spontaneous photo and video. Despite the low price, this phone has several features that allow fast work with the camera. But first things first …
Design of majority of inexpensive candy bars from Sony Ericsson has long ceased to evolve significantly. Minor adjustments of the keys are made for the new models, which slightly retouch the front panel, and now the “new” phone is born. Alas, this is partly true for Sony Ericsson S312 as well.
The device is made in a monoblock form factor, traditional for Sony Ericsson devices in parallel lines and edges and not less than the traditional dimensions and mass (100 x 46 x 12,5 mm/80, 1 g). Plastic Case of Sony Ericsson S312 has a silver side faces and dark blue front and rear walls. It is noteworthy that in addition to blue, they plan to release models in the light-silver case that is sure to catch the fancy girls.
The mirror sheeting display is originally made. It is not abrupt halt at the edges of the shell and rests in a plastic frame, but as a smooth “rolled” on the edge. The absence of the plastic frame on the perimeter of display has given the new product a fresh and even futuristic look. The device is pleasant to hold in your hand – to the extent of heavy, pleasant to the touch, and pleases the eye. For the budget model it is the ultimate dream.

Display

LCD display of the novelty is a typical budget solution proven by time. On the one hand, a small diagonal and low resolution of 176 x 220 makes viewing the photographs and videos not very comfortable, but on the other hand, 262 thousand colors will not miss a single detail. The brightness and clarity of the new item is to the occasion. The one hundred percent truthful rendition is also pleasing. But viewing angles, alas, are not the best.

Luggage

When creating S312 the developers had a difficult task before them. On the one hand, they had to maximally reduce the cost of the device, and on the other – making it a good cameraphone. They decided to maximally cut through the installation of a novelty CMOS-sensor, which has only 2 megapixels. Even by yesterday’s standards it is quite modest, but by today it is very little. Naturally, the built-in camera is not equipped with auto focus. So that S312 could be called a cameraphone, it’s equipped with additional buttons (which we have already said), but also found next to the lens, LED flash.
Of course, the camera on this shoot was no better, but the increase in functionality, according to the manufacturer, should probably somehow compensate the shortcomings of quality. Of course, there are also drawbacks.
The exposure adjustment fails to improve the quality of images. Small details are lost (this is typical of any cameras without AF), noises are present in large numbers even when shooting in sunny weather, but under complex lighting automation is simply lost. The only thing that can be commended for the camera in a novelty, is a good color reproduction. Video clips also did not differ with decent quality – noise and lack of detail is not visible except when playing back footage on a small phone. So we can draw the following conclusion – S312 camera is easy to shoot, fast and convenient, but there are no pretensions to quality.

Communications

In terms of communication capabilities S312 belongs to the classical GSM-models of recent years, working in the 900/1800 MHz bands. Work on the Internet is carried out thanks to the GPRS / EDGE module. Reception of the new items in the measure of sensitivity, and the quality of voice are good enough.
Connectivity is maintained by the Bluetooth module, and the A2DP profile provides phone compatibility with wireless headphones. Bluetooth has been tested on sample and data communications with HP iPAQ Pocket PCs 4700. Devices quickly find each other, but the transmission of data (two dozen pictures) on your PC, as always, was very slow – average speed was 0.13 MB / sec.

Multimedia features

Despite the fact that the manufacturer has put the usability of the camera at the heart, all the other multimedia capabilities of modern phones are also not forgotten. Audio player is different with neutral interface and many options sufficient for not too demanding user, among which is worth mentioning 4-band EQ and level controls low and high frequencies. Video player did not have any settings, although it is extremely simple to use. Program for viewing photos has a little more opportunities. With the help of it the image can even impose one available in the arsenal of phone digital effects – for example, take a picture black and white or in shades of brown.
It is slightly annoying that all these players are not collected in a single multimedia unit, as in more expensive phones of Sony Ericsson, and literally scattered on the menu. But the FM-radio traditionally allocated to a separate tab, is located on the main page. It is good that producer sets FM-module with the ability to receive RDS-message even in their low-cost model.

Conclusions

Unlike many other budget sets, which practically do not stand out from the large gray mass of their own kind, Sony Ericsson S312 boasts a special feature – thoughtful management of the camera, as well as the presence of an LED flash. But not to increase the value, the camera is installed at the new items, alas, outdated. For this you can indefinitely blame the manufacturer, but otherwise the S312 simply ceased to be called a Budget.
Also pluses to this phone should include a fresh design, quite comfortable operation, long battery life and a complete set of hardware inside.

Sony Ericsson T715 is another slider which belongs to the middle-price category, aimed for the mass market. The novelty can become prominent, as it has all the prerequisites – curious design, it is available in several colors, simple menu, decent functional. Now let’s consider everything in order.

Design

First of all I’d like to mention that I had the pink device. No, I do not mean that I am the enemy of this color but it somehow annoys me. However this can be accepted and understood by the part of the female audience, and may be someone would like to buy T715 because of its color. Corners of the shell are smoothed; however, this device does not cease to be a neat block. In addition, its size of a credit card allows you to put the phone in almost any pocket. Of course, the phone is not a slim one; we can’t call it thick, neither, so it can be called medium.
Now let’s have a look at exterior – the back panel is made of metal. It is removed easily. On the back lid is situated the eye of the camera, LED of the flash, slit of the polyphonic speaker. On the right side there is the camera button and volume control wheel, on the left side – the universal connector.
It has already become a tradition to decorate the backside slider with funny patterns. Sony Ericsson T715 is not an exception.

Display and Keyboard

Sony Ericsson T715 is equipped with a 2.2-inch display with 260 thousand colors. The screen itself behaves well, even in the sun. Though it doesn’t have big viewing angles, but they are enough. You can even e-book or play games.
Above the screen there is almost an invisible light sensor, which is responsible for automatic adjustment of backlighting. By the way, this can be done manually in the old-fashioned way.
Themes of the menu are very beautiful; a couple of them seemed to be drawn especially for girls.

Keys are stylish. Yes, don’t get surprised they are really stylish. However glamorous central navigation button hides a drawback. It is arranged so that when you press it in left or right direction you can easily press the green or red receiver. In addition, the navigation button is not very convenient. In order to stop arguing I will say that I did not like the control elements, but I can assure you that I met much worse ones.
Plastic keyboard is more or less adequate. Initially, small distance between vertical buttons strains a little, but if you press them with pads of your fingers, then you can avoid pressing unnecessary buttons. Due to uniform lighting all designations are clearly visible in the dark.

Menu and Functions

The menu has not changed, however, I did not expect to see anything new. So everything is done like in old models.
One of the most useful functions is “Organizer”. Here we see a convenient calendar; there is also a simple reminder, as well as editor of notes. Here is a file manager, timer, and stopwatch. And finally it is equipped with a flashlight. When you have to go downstairs from the 5th floor in pitch darkness, then you will understand why it is sometimes needed.
Alarm clock is a very useful thing, that’s why it is included in the main menu. Here are five independent pieces.
From useful things we should also mention Google Maps.

Entertainment

Music player is completely inherited from its predecessors. I mean both the interface and opportunities of musical applications. We can not say something special about the sound quality – the volume is sufficient for the underground, rock music sounds a bit synthetic, tint. However, with good headphones – Sony, Philips, etc., you can listen to music though it isn’t Nokia N96.
With the admission of FM-stations there is no problem in the city limits. It supports RDS, respectively, the names of stations and information is displayed on the screen.
To the usual arcade and Sudoku (games of T715), is added chess simulator Kasparov Chess.

Camera

Those who need a 5 MP camera should choose another phone, as T715 can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 3.2 MP, plus it does not have autofocus. The functional reserve of the camera is small. For example, there are several filters, presets for white balance, night mode, and the ability to attach geo notes on the photo. There isn’t any GPS-receiver in the novelty, so the location is determined by BS.

Conclusion

Sony Ericsson E715 is a typical representative of a mid-priced device segment. And it wouldn’t be appreciated, if not pleasant shape, and in our case, a cool color. It has too many competitors, among them this novelty can easily get lost.

Sony Ericsson Aino is a musical mobile phone with great screen. It is, really an interesting model and is indeed worth attention.

Design

The Novelty from the Swedish-Japanese joint venture is very voluminous. It hardly fits in the palm, and it is clear that someone may not like it. Well, someone has a small hand. However, if you’re a lumberjack, a master of shovels and sledgehammers, or just a big man, then this is your size. However, everyone has his/her own taste. Want a great phone? Here’s a great phone.
What I personally do not like is the fact that it is not very comfortable to hold, the phone seems somewhat unpretentious, despite the verified design.
By the way, when we first met it we all thought that the device is fully touchscreen, and has no keyboard, seeing the large diagonal display. Half a minute later we could find the keyboard, moving the top half of the shell.

The quality of the materials used does not cause problems – everything is done solidly, reliably, on the reverse side of the cover is relegated stylishly executed corrugated metal insert. I really liked the decision.
Of course, inserts on the ends could also be made of metal, but it would make the device even more slippery, and, of course, will increase its value.
Oh, how nice it was to see in such a multimedia device standard 3.5-mm audio input, but alas … Sony Ericsson took up the old one and put on the left side the firm universal connector. On the right side there is the camera button and control wheel of sound, in the bottom we see the slot for the dynamics of polyphony. In short, everything is as usual.
In general, the device produces a pleasantly strong impression with a high quality and successful combination of materials and, of course, great display.

Display and keypad

It is equipped with a 3-inch display, with non-standard resolution of 240 x 432, high brightness (adjustable by hand), greater viewing angles.
Screen is convenient, comfortable to understand information. It allows you to read e-books, to watch photos and video. I will tell you honestly, Aino is suited for this purpose perfectly. You can watch images on your PC.
Interestingly, when the keypad is locked (the phone is closed) the screen turns into a horizontally oriented one. Simply put the closed device, go with a finger across the screen, thus removing the lock, you’ll see five icons multimedia features and … can chose what you want to run. Finger input is easy, because all the icons are large (even as beautifully drawn) and mistakes simply do not happen. The sensitivity of the screen is what should be. Just great!

Camera
In Aino is installed an 8-megapixel camera with flash. Resolution is impressive; there are users that pay attention to it. As we already know, the camera works only when the phone is closed. Interface is touch, you can take a snapshot by traditionally pressing the shutter button, or simply clicking on the screen by selecting the focus point. After 1.5 seconds the camera “catches” the focus and makes that shot. By the way a very amusing feature. As I already mentioned, it’s very convenient to control – the icons are large and well-painted.

Focusing speed is high, misses almost do not happen. You can assess the quality of images from a merely remark that the matrix starts to make noise even when adequate artificial lighting.

Entertainment

Yes, Aino does not belong to a series of Walkman, but the MP3-player will be enjoyed by all without exception, I am sure for one hundred percent. Music application is tastefully decorated. It’s nice that some of the settings slightly redraw that somehow distinguishes the shell of what we have seen in old models. Also, we note that the scroll bar to display the names of songs is located on top. If you flip phone, then it will turn taking a horizontal position and an image. There is no sacred meaning in this act, if you do not pay attention to animation styles. These are decorating tricks to please the user’s eyes. Most of all I liked the tape, which swirls while playing videos.
When the track comes to an end, it ends on one side of the tape. If anyone remembers, the way it happens in the recorder, it may cause nostalgia. There are more animations with CD, records, flying balloons, etc. This looks more than amusing.

Outcome

Sony Ericsson Aino will interest fans of products of the Swedish-Japanese joint venture. Moreover, everyone wants to hold it in his/her hands and play with touch screen. Price is 20 thousand rubles. For me Aino is a decent device, which has many pluses, at least a rich and complete set of gorgeous screen.

Strange things take place in the kingdom of Sony Ericsson. Having developed a good platform, the company washes everything on its way in search of gold nuggets. If you want to buy an inexpensive, but functional Sony Ericsson of clamshell format, you will inevitably find yourself in the fork of choice – W710i or Z710i? Let’s discuss everything together.

Design
The first thing that the manufacturer has changed, separating device into “music” and “normal” is a color solution. This is perhaps the weakest point of Z710i. Walkman was painted in the standard for the brand colors: gray, white and orange. Version Z tries to look stern, but without wearing expensive “clothes”.
When you look at Sony Ericsson Z710i, you want to compare it with a luxury Korean car, especially for the domestic market. Yes, they are made good, sometimes even cute, but in the background of the Europeans they seem to be a rattle. In other words Z710i was born as a Walkman, and plastic surgery wasn’t very successful. If we consider Z version separately from W, the image becomes less dark, but it is not still colorful to call Z710i a beautiful phone. It is difficult even to say that the model is not to the point: antenna, chrome, blue backlighting of the keyboard, or all together.
The hallmark antenna-arc in Sony Ericsson Z710i looks absolutely ridiculous. Imagine Maybach 62 with spoiler “dream watermelon Baron”, and you will feel the comic structure.
You will get used to design features, but I don’t think that it will be interesting for you to get used to the screaming colors. How I love the orange color, however, it is very eccentric for everyday devices such as mobile phone. But perhaps this is a matter of taste.

Display
Almost all the rest, the model Z and W are similar to each other that will not prevent us through this maze. External displays are identical, both phones have 1.5 inches (128×128 pixels), which look very solid, especially considering the amount of shell – 88×48x24, 5mm.
Small screen and monochrome models are distinguished by the fact that in Z series supports 4 shades of gray, and W has the same, but with an orange backlight.
The internal display does not produce such a favorable impression as the front one; its dimensions are quite standard – 1.9 inch (176×220 pixels). The TFT-display shows up to 262 thousand colors.
Display has ideal contrast and sharp, with excellent viewing angles. The quality of the screen is comparable with the older models of the company, and in their price range if not given something supernatural, then, at least, nothing inferior to the best representatives of the market.

Keyboard
On other side of the external display there are keys to work with MP3-player in the closed position. Actually the huge display is enough to work with the player. The left side is a place for keys which activate the camera (in the closed position it does not work) and paired “rocker” to adjust the volume.
When the phone is closed, the “minus” shows planned for the current affairs events, and if you click the plus sign, then the important information is displayed by phone: profile, your contacts, and battery power in percentage ( convenient and accurate).
On the right end there are keys which are responsible for locking the phone when it is closed.
With characteristic click, opening the phone, we’ll see buttons – big and small. All of them separately or together are already familiar.
Standard handsets there, took their place, two soft keys, an excellent job with their roles. Below there is a key “return” and “C”. The entire keyboard is made in typical Sony Ericsson style. And only navigational key somehow gets out of the context, W710i, definitely looks more organic. Numeric keys are medium in size, but due to the division into three blocks and a clear course to work with text, or simply dial the number comfortably.

MP3-player
With all the similarities and differences, consumers are interested in one thing – music features. Engineers went to indirect ploys that artificially divided the model. So in Z710i there is no profile A2DP, which puts an end to stereo Bluetooth-headsets.
Thus, the player is simplified, but not fatal.
Yes, a little about the FM-radio. With it we understand what praise for the quality of reception and ease of use is.
The main difference will be the headset. In W710i there is a stereo headset HPM-65, while Z710i has only HPM-60. During the test, I stepped on the Headset HPM-70, which fell out from somebody’s pocket, as the number of citizens in a narrow street, I did my best to return it to its rightful owner but I couldn’t. Since both models have a standard connector Fast Port so we tested with the headset of Z710i.
The output will not be comforting for the Walkman, with a good headset Z710i is not inferior to his brother in terms of musical sound and plays a couple of specific functions.

Multimedia
In this regard, telephones Z and W differ only by a lack of the first section of Fitness and all that is associated with it. Otherwise, as you know, there are no changes. Both phones support EDGE, Bluetooth (2.0, EDR, but without A2DP in Z version), Infrared, Java, themes, radio, powerful organizer and other functions of a modern phone. Both devices also have the support of Memory Stick Micro (M2) card.
Here lies the second major difference in W710i it has only 64MB. Hot-swappable memory card is not provided; it is implemented in the “warm” form. When changing the memory card you have to remove the battery cover.
Internal memory is 10 MB. As before, the device provides a convenient work with files of phone card, or simultaneously with all together.
Another distinctive feature of Sony Ericsson phones has become a function of multitasking. Player, games, calculator – all these and many other applications can run together.
Organizer and work with contacts are made on a solid top five.

Camera
Cameras in phones differ only in the presence of the mirror at Z version. All other features are standard for phones of this class. CMOS, 2 megapixel, autofocus and the lack of an acceptable quality of images, 2.5-fold-digital zoom. Maximum resolution of the image is 1600×1200 pixels, the average size photo is about 400 Kb. It has standard settings like white balance, and a few simple effects.

Video can be recorded in high quality and for MMS which means the resolution at 176×144 and 128×96 pixels, respectively.

Conclusion
As you can see, the differences between W710i and Z710i are cosmetic, just for a marketing purpose. Today the difference between a Walkman and Z is about 2000 rubles. For this money you can still easily buy a 512MB memory card and a good headset like HPM-70. This is in case you need something not orange, but the extent of solid music phone. Our sample even though it was an engineering one, worked very steadily.
710i is equipped with a Li-Pol battery with capacity of 900 mAh that’s just supports the work of up to 3 days in the active mode without problems, but if you choose the mode with disabled GPRS-module, then up to 5 days.
As a result, we have two absolutely equivalent apparatus. Choose with eyes, most of the major differences can be easily compensated.

Introduced in 2005, Sony Ericsson W800i was greeted by critics and consumers. Key factors for success were few, but all of them were verified to the last detail. It was the first phone with a legacy of the famous players Sony from no less famous Walkman brand with all the ensuing consequences. In fact, the phone W800 was really a serious music player. It shows today’s situation in the market, new F300 from Samsung, Nokia 3250 or 5700 XpressMusic. To grow on megapixels 2 million cell phone makers have taken a time out. Secondly, W800i has serious functional content.

Design

Certainly, now thin phones are fashionable, important and sometimes even very practical. However, the overwhelming number of slim-devices is extremely inconvenient to use. In pursuit of millimeters manufacturer forgets about ergonomics, forcing the user to break the nails on the keyboard and when working with menus to twist his/her fingers in the untold patterns.
Fortunately, this fate to a greater extent bypasses Sony Ericsson W880i. Its dimensions are 103×47x9, 4 mm and weight is 71 grams. Thus, the device is long enough, but due to its rectangular shape it has stunning design.

Thickness, or rather its absence, and light weight make it possible to carry the phone anywhere. Whether it is a breast pocket of your shirt or the pocket of tight jeans, W880i looks good from everywhere, more precisely, in jeans, it is imperceptible.

The front part of Sony Ericsson W880i is made of stainless steel, and can be in silver (Steel Silver), and black (Flame Black) colors. In the first version the rear face of rubberized plastic is matte black, while the second one is orange. Both the colors and the presence of metal among the components add to an already excellent design of W800i a fraction of sophistication. Moreover, it is worth noting the excellent build quality of this phone.

Keyboard

When dealing with the keyboard of Sony Ericsson W880i it is possible not to feel discomfort.

But there is an unambiguous claim to the navigation key. It is too small.

And if girls with nails of medium length speak positively about the numeric keypad, than they will scold the navigation. So if you prefer long nails, you should think about shortening them.

On the right side there is a key to access the camera (horizontal mode).

At the top there is a small multi-purpose “rocker” (or even a slider).

With its help you can get into the menu of the phone, adjust the sound volume, or play around with the scale of the photographs. Access key to the player Walkman 2.0 is located on the left end.

By tradition, the Sony Ericsson phones are not usual green and red phones, and their functions are performed by two context keys. Beneath them there is a button fast access to the Internet browser and “My Menu”. Below that are key “return” and “C”.

So we glad to note that the keyboard of W880i is somewhat unusual, but it is viable.

Display and menus

Screen of W880i is rather narrow, but it has dimensions of 1.8 inches, supports QVGA-resolution (240×320 pixels) and displays up to 262 thousand colors. The display, of course, belongs to the premium class – high brightness, excellent clarity, rich colors. Due to its elongated shape, the upper line with the level of reception, battery indication, hours and other information icons are always active when you move the menu (if you have the theme Walkman), unconditional and very significant advantage.

Simple and intuitive menu of W880i consists of 12 icons, and subsections in a tree form.

However, changing the theme to the standard Walkman on “Bits of the City” you can get a stylish black and red menu with icons, arrayed in a row. These moves through the main menu will be accompanied by a mild vibration.

To master the organs and functions of control of W880i can even unprepared person. Anyone who has ever spoken on Sony Ericsson phones over the past three years, the process of learning and adapting to the new product will take a couple of minutes.

Multimedia

Traditionally, the older phones of the Walkman series inherit a full set of features and capabilities of their business counterparts. So the user of W880i gets 16 MB of internal memory, support for memory Memory Stick Micro (1 GB card included) card, Bluetooth with support for A2DP protocol (wireless stereo headphones), convenient and functional web browser Net-Front, Java , support for USB and much more.
Well if living without ICQ to you means not to exist, then go to the menu “Applications” and run powerful client which is able to function (like other Java-based applications) in the background.

The phone works in three GSM and UMTS 2100. This means support for video streaming and video calls. For the latter there is a small camera on the front panel.
In general W880i is a modern phone with classically-considered trifles. Does it have tuned Bluetooth? Does it easily work with uploaded files? Does it have functional organizer? Can it work in Flight Mode? All these questions can affirmatively be answered with the abbreviation of five characters – W880i.

Walkman 2.0 is stuffing, let’s consider hardware. Headset connector (HPM-75 included) is located at the left bottom.

This is quite inconvenient, since the plug is not small, so it still goes on thick wire, which is not particularly flexible. The most reasonable accommodation would be a 3,5 mm input on the top of the phone. Headset HPM-75 has decent quality and should satisfy most of the audience. We have to test headphones Sennheiser CX 300, in order to feel all inside the player. Fortunately HPM-75 is a structure of the adapter and headphones, so that the 3,5 mm input is available, albeit not at the phone.

To start the music application you can use the little orange button or through the menu.

At the start screen “My Music” can sort tracks by artists, albums, play-list or simply the list of tracks.

Play-lists can and should (because 1 GB is about 250 songs in good quality, very easy to get confused) be created directly on the phone.

In addition, the player has a standard set of visualization (animation, or album cover), play mode “in a random order”, repetition, and changing colors of the application.

There is also an equalizer. Unfortunately, it was a simpleton, from the available preset modes you can choose – Bass, Mega Bass, voice, lifting high frequencies.

In addition to these four settings, it is a possible and a manual calibration. Player responded only to the most understated or overstated frequency. And the description on the website Mega Bass Sony Ericsson says “improve bass, let music become more volume, in practice, the sound remains flat. But what pleases me is that only player can be scold in W880i.

The volume is enough comfortably to listen to music not only on a busy street, but in the subway or any other public transport.

Out of interest, just as noteworthy feature, is TrackID. A

gain we turn to the description on the official site – “Just record a song a few seconds and all the information about the track, artist or album will be available within a few seconds”.

Funny opportunity for Walkman with FM-radio on board, but in the case of W880i it is a useless icon on the desktop, because the music that pours from the player to know there is no possibility, as composition should be recognized only through a microphone. Another function of downloading content PlayNow seems much more interesting in this case.

The player supports popular formats such as: MP3, AAC, AAC +, E-AAC +, WAV, WMA, M4A, however, it is difficult to imagine that many users listen to music in the format E-AAC +.

As a conclusion of the player it should be noted that it has many useful features. As for the level of the music, Walkman in this sense is ahead of other phones. However, if you are a music fan beginner, features of Walkman 2.0 will be sufficient.

Camera

In case of W880i camera is more a design element than a serious application. In fact, a small lens with a penny coin and the matrix of 2-megapixels is not as bad as it might seem at first glance.

Using the camera in landscape mode is very practical. The camera settings are standard – resolution, quality, effects, 2.5-fold digital zoom.

Conclusion

A small step for Sony Ericsson is a big leap for the market. Player phones go to the next level, slowly biting more and more of the market. Union of a phone and a music player looks more organic than a phone and a camera. In case of W880i nirvana is aggravated with battery with a capacity of 950 mAh. At 30 minutes of calls a day, using all sorts of functions and player for 2 hours a day, the phone worked for five days. It is an excellent result.

Having examined W880i brick by brick on the components, we have a stylish phone, rich functionalities and a decent player. Definitely a successful model, I recommend to buy it.

Sony Ericsson has a new flagship model K850i. This is a heir of serious phones like K810i and K790i, and like no other device it deserves the “brutal monoblock” definition.
If you look at a brand new device Syber-Shot from Sony Ericsson K850i, you’ll understand that this is a real flagship, a kind of severe male phone for touch fans.

Keyboard
I don’t want to play “find 10 differences from K810i”, although some similarities can be traced in the appearance of both typesetting keyboards. Unlike its predecessor, the buttons are not circular and made of metal. Buttons are square.
But the principle of location of these buttons has remained the same. There is a distance between the “squares”, so no mistakes occur while dialing numbers. The proceedings of the buttons are small, fixation is not very clear, however, no inconvenience arises.

Display and menu
K850i does not have a touch display. TFT-screen with a resolution of 240×320, caresses view of quality and natural color reproduction, ultra-fine grain (if you notice of course), high contrast. Out onto the actual settings, there is only brightness.
In the sun, just under the rays, the screen behaves properly, ie the image quality is good; the picture fades slightly, so you can work almost at any lighting. Yes, probably, under the rays of the North African sun, you have to cover up the display with a hand, but it’s not a problem.
K850i menu will be familiar to the owners of Sony Ericsson, because the principle remains the same. Bold icons, clear “image”, known from previous models.

Multimedia
Though this is a Cybershot and not a Walkman phone, K850i is one of Sony Ericsson’s flagship phones, and the K850i’s music-oriented feature set is identical to most Sony Ericsson Walkman phones. Auto-rotate of the display works in the Media suite of applications, and it’s generally fairly responsive. Video playback performance is better when auto-rotate is turned off. The display is one of the best we’ve seen on a mobile phone: extremely bright, sharp and saturated.

Media uses Sony PSP interface which is both intuitive and cool looking. The app handles photos, video and music. The FM radio with RDS has a good reception. The FM radio app can save favorite channels and play the radio in the background. K850i has Sony Ericsson’s free TrackID service that identifies songs playing on the radio or in the environment, and this feature works quite well (it requires a data connection since the track info is downloaded over the Internet using the phone’s browser).
The phone supports a wide variety of audio formats including MP3, Podcasts, Audiobooks, MP4, AAC, RealAudio (.ra, .rm), WMA, XMF, M4A, WAV and midi. Video formats include MPEG4 (MP4 with AAC or AMR audio), 3GPP, WMV (.asf, .wmv) and RealVideo 8 (.rv, .rm). The K850i supports OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0 for copy protected music, video and Java applications.

Camera
Obviously, the 5 megapixel camera with an autofocus lens and Xenon flash is the centerpiece of the Cybershot K850i. And it didn’t disappoint us, in fact for the first release firmware, the camera was stable, and overall did an excellent job of imaging. The SE isn’t as fast as a dedicated digital camera, but it’s quite usable and you just might manage to catch a fleeting moment.
K850i can shoot photos at a maximum 2592 x 1944 resolution in 5MP mode and has a variety of lesser resolutions from 3MP down to VGA. The camera can shoot video at QVGA resolution (320 x 240) at 30 fps. The phone has a hardware slider button that you’ll use to select photo, video or playback mode. There’s a tiny camera application launcher button that turns the camera on and off as well as controlling the lens cover. When the camera app is running the entire screen becomes a viewfinder and it runs in landscape orientation.
Photo quality is excellent, with more usable data than K790i and K800i’s 3MP images and better exposure (no white haze or washed out effect which we sometimes noticed with K800i). Colors are accurate, if not sometimes understated and we couldn’t find a hint of color cast in outdoor shots. Indoor shots became overly warm as the camera didn’t compensate well enough for incandescent lighting in auto exposure mode with the flash on (turning off the flash fixed the problem). Indoor evening shots in poor light were pleasing with good blacks, but surprisingly the N95 managed a more exposed shot.

The K850i’s Xenon flash illuminates close subjects very well, but doesn’t add much ambient lighting, which means your subject will be decently exposed but awash in a sea of near blackness. For all but dark club shots and outdoor night shots, we recommend experimenting with turning the flash off – we consistently got brighter and more balanced shots while it was off. The camera uses a LED (actually 3 tiny LEDs) to illuminate the scene for focus and fires the power-hungry Xenon flash only when snapping the photo.
Should K790i owners upgrade it, based on the higher resolution camera? That depends on what you do with your photos: 3MP is really good enough for viewing on the average monitor (if you’ve got a 30″ LCD display, that’s a different story), and you won’t be able to view a 3MP image at 100%, let alone a 5MP image. But if you want to print photos, the extra pixels and sharper images are worth it. From what we can tell, the lens quality hasn’t improved.

The camera has a wealth of manual settings for ISO, white balance, flash control, auto/infinity focus, metering mode and 7 scene modes. Sony Ericsson’s BestPic feature shoots several shots with varied settings so you can choose the best one, and Photo fix lets you tweak photos you’ve taken before transferring them to a PC. The camera has 16x digital zoom, but alas no optical zoom (that’s still a rarity on camera phones). Video quality is very good with no jerkiness or blockiness. Colors are strong and accurate, even in low light, and the sound is clear.

Working with K850i
When you connect your phone via cable to the USB-port on your computer, mobile phone becomes visible as a normal flash drive, for ie it is available as a card, and built-in memory about 40 MB.
Data transfer rate floats from 75 to 60 kB / s, for example, the absence of the cable makes it easy to transfer a few tracks in MP3-format into the phone.
The battery power is enough for about two days: you can listen to music, make few shots a day and for an hour and a half use the Bluetooth-headset and talk 15-20 minutes a day. If you find yourself a more active user, then the battery life will decrease accordingly.

Conclusion
We get a very feature-rich (and not in vain) phone that can compete with brand new smart phones from top manufacturers.
Significant functional and somewhat dramatic appearance make K850i unless a bestseller, and surely one of the most cherished and sought after market mobile phones.

It is well known that the most long-expected novelties are rather expensive and sophisticated smartphones, or as for Sony Ericssonn – these are popular devices of Walkman series. A new clamshell Z555i by Sweden-Japan partnership is not the one of super-expected models and that is why it can stay unnoticed even by those whom it is addressed to. Although girls might like it.

Design

We can see a typical not expensive clamshell, something from a series of “phone for USD 250″.
In order to make its typicalness stay within the limits of allowable, the producers put on some glam to the front panel. Its surface is alike covered with small prisms that are playing in the sun beams falling on them. It looks especially effective in the sun when the phone just flashes out in the lights.
The obvious minuses are weakness of the front panel for showing all the fingerprints and other kinds of contamination, but we do know very well that such behavior is typical for the great quantity of modern phones. That’s ok; we are getting accustomed to that little by little. Except decorations on the front panel we can find a camera lens with a tiny LED (flashing upon certain circumstances), polyphonic loudspeaker and a single-line black-and-white inverse display showing service information.

In standby mode it is “hidden” under the glossy panel and reminds of itself while there is an incoming call, incoming SMS and if you press a volume control wheel. Everything is typical and accurate. Oh, almost forgot that even if it is rather hard to open the cover with one hand, still it is possible, nevertheless, you should not try to do that while walking, in other way you can badly drop the phone. The back side, to be more exact the cover of the battery, is fulfilled with a rather thin rough plastic; the same is used for the W910i model.
In fact, we do not have a “hot” change of a memory card, but a “warm” one, because we still have to take off the battery cover for that purpose. On the upper side of the phone there is an “ear” for the thong, on the left – a jack, on the right – a volume control wheel. Everything is traditional. No patterns, flowers, ornaments and other decorations of modern phones, oriented first of all to women’s attention.
The interior of Sony Ericsson Z555i is more modest, than stylish.

Keyboard and display

The disposition and the form of keys are rather typical, but frankly there is one novelty about this. For example, the key responsible for turning off/on the phone is placed right in the middle of the front panel, “clutched” in between the browser key and the key of quick menu launch.
Such arrangement does not make problems in working, because you get used to that for 1-2 hours and besides, short pressing this sacred key does not lead to turning off the phone. In spite of this you can see the profile list on the screen. On the picture we see a slightly curved shape of typesetting keys that plays a good part practically as well as aesthetically – it is pleasant to look at it, and fingers are not making accidental pressing.

The size of the keys is optimal, and as for me I liked the short response. Its clear that the digital block is not ideal, but we have what we have. It is pleasant that black keys have light inserts, but it cannot be considered a super-stylish decision, it looks satisfactory, nothing more. The navigation is not very comfortable, mostly because of the flat 4-position key at the same level with other keys. It’s just hard to feel the keys bounds with a finger and you have to be careful. The micro-lights depend on the light sensor which is working very correctly – the battery economy is never something extra.

The main display is very common – TFT matrix with a resolution of 176╤Е220 pixels. I remember that such display characteristics were the same as people-music-youth device of 2005 – Motorola E398. We should frankly tell that Sony Ericsson Z555 matrix is better of course, the lights are richer, the image angles are enough to write SMS when you are elbowing in the transport. The image quality is not bad, the grains are almost not seen, and the brightness resource is good. One thing is bad – a small physical size and that is why you can feel that the producer did not spend much for display.

Menu, Control

A typical menu presented with a usual set of 12 icons is quite common for SE devices that is why it will hardly surprise anyone or call admiration. It is comfortable to move around the icons because the device is slightly vibrating, showing every movement like that.
There are functions list, and you wont be accompanied with vibration moving around there. And yes, as always there are several themes in this device (to be more exact – four of them).
They are cute, one of them is even nice (with flowers), and that is definitely for girls.
Shortcut menu consists of 4 marks. One of them shows information about events, the second shows the applications you are using right now, the third – quick access to the functions you are choosing yourself, the fourth – web URLs.
Besides that, you can program the directions of the 4-position key for quick launch of these or those functions.
Its a pity that you cant change a web browser launch key, because surfing the net at using a small display is not so pleasant.

Useful trifles

Unlike Nokia devices, Z555i has five alarms versions, activated on certain days of the week and you can choose any MP3 melody as alarm ring tone.
I liked a simple reminder function; for writing down a new event (meeting/call) I needed not more than 20 seconds. The notebook is of the same style, just without a remind function.

The calendar has a rather good functionality, but the month table looks a bit small there. I am serious; you have to look intently to see what date will be on next Saturday. If the letters were bolder and the table was bigger there won’t be such problems.

There are common things like timer and stopwatch with nine intermediate results.
The memo book is of the same kind like the previous models have and has very comfortable horizontal keys too.
You can write down five numbers for one contact, e-mail and web address, choose a personal ringtone and a picture, and fill in the personal data like mailing address, company name, place of work, birth date.
On one hand – not so much, on the other hand – quite enough for the majority of users. As usual, the phonebook of the device itself and a SIM card are not shown as a single list, but you can choose showing the SIM card contact list by default.

Camera

Sony Ericsson Z555i is the type of the phones that you are not expecting anything unusual about them. That is why, frankly speaking, I was not even surprised when I saw a 1,3 megapixel camera. Of course it would be more pleasant to see a 2 megapixel camera, but…

There are not so many adjustments. The user can chose the size of the picture (1,3 Mp or VGA), a single frame or a series of 4 pictures, two types of the image quality, night mode, balance of white, several color effects, 4 sounds for confirmation of the shutter actuation, timer.

In other words, everything is more than usual. Not the whole display is used for the viewfinder purposes (we can see that on the pictures); the upper part is given to the series of icons, which, in fact, you don’t need, the lower part – for the signatures of the context keys. It is quite easy to use this simple camera; the picture is taken when you press the left context key or the central key. The camera is working really rapidly, the image recording to the phone or a card memory lasts for no longer than 1,5 seconds. The quality of the pictures is expectedly not high; in fact, you can see it on your own.

Player/radio and games

MP3 player (to be more exact – its interface) is also familiar due to the previous models. A rather strict, imperceptible design, several preinstalled equalizers, working in a background mode. There is also a function of sorting by an artist, track, and you can make your own playlists.

The quality of sound of our test example was not bad, we were especially surprised with a high volume (the music was heard quite well in the other end of the room – 12 m), but as for the bass function – it is not so good if you wear the earphones from the set as well as inlay earphones by Philips and Koss. I guess that the commercial examples of the player will be better.

The FM receiver sensitivity is not bad. Five of the stations make noises, the rest of the twenty were quite fine (the sound is clear with minimal noises).
There is also a mode of automatic tuning working quite correctly and finding out the radio stations even with a weak signal. The RDS system is working quite well.
As well as a player, a radio can turn into tray releasing display for other things. The most comfortable way to activate it is to choose it among the mentioned list of the applications.

Games are: logic Jewel Quest II and photo hunting FotoQuestFish. Both games are good, but I liked the one with fish most.
The sense of the game is that you are a diver and for the limited time you have to make good pictures of different kinds of fishes (no need to go to Egypt). In this game you get the points by the following way – the more fish you get into the frame of your photo camera, the more points you get. The game is quite pleasant and the time you spend going for work glides.

On-line

The data transfer speed between the phone and PC via Bluetooth is 32-38 Kb/second. Besides that, Sony Ericsson Z555i had no problems working with different BT accessories including stereophonic. There are no claims on the connection quality, everything corresponds to the expected level, and there were no connection breaches, the people you are talking to can be heard quite clearly. The battery charge was enough for three days without turning off the phone for the night (as for me – I practice that sometimes), talking for 10-15 minutes a days, long-time searching around menu, about half an hour of listening the music, rare Bluetooth sessions.

Outcome

Sony Ericsson Z555i cannot be called a stylish, glamorous and a kind of attractive device. If it is a Dusted Rose color – you can call this a device for girls, but if it is black it’s not clear who should be the user. A girl will hardly choose something like that – she is willing to choose something more elegant, a man will just pass it through. So, it means the device is something in the middle, which is quite offensive.

Design

Though this device belongs to the budget sector this does not mean that there are any objections to the quality or assembly.
The apparatus is a classic monoblock, but its size is somewhat less traditional: 103,0 x 46,0 x 13,5 mm. Its weigh is 83.5 g. You can easily put your phone even in a shirt pocket.
The entire front panel looks brilliant … until the first touch by hand. Then, on the surface appear numerous traces of fat fingers, and the attractiveness of the phone disappears until you’ll clean it with a soft cloth.

Keyboard

We can’t consider the keyboard convenient. There is no clear division between the dialing and navigation buttons.
At first, it is a bit confusing, but after half an hour with the phone you understand that the compact miniature keyboard is suitable both for fragile girls, and bigger people.
There is no exception and even weaker sex with long nails can easily use the phone, as there are small gaps between rows in order to prevent accidental pressing of the adjacent buttons.
There is no joystick. Instead of it there are four navigation buttons with the square confirmation key.
The existence of four additional navigation buttons helps you to work conveniently. The only weak spot here are dim white lights, illuminating, not all symbols.

Display

TFT-display with a diagonal of 1,9 inch, QVGA-resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and support for 260 thousand colors is very good. Color, image sharpness and the viewing angles are also good.
But the images fade in the sun, because of that the use of the telephone in a clear day is very hard.

Features

In addition to the unusual keyboard, the device has a number of other interesting features. For example, the speaker. It is located on the back surface and looks like a barely visible horizontal cracks extending from one edge of the shell to another. The external speaker’s sound is always loud and full.
There are two additional buttons – a swing volume button and a button for activating the camera. They are located on the right end of a narrow border corps.

The other end has a slot for Memory Stick Micro cards up to 4 GB.
Under the cover is hidden the battery compartment. However, the operation to install the card will take no more than five seconds and does not require a power outage.
G502’s battery is at 950 mA•h, and the charge is sufficient for three days (about 30 minutes a day, with an address book and the Internet), and two days of intensive work (listening to music, viewing photos).

User interface and communications capabilities

The menu is traditional for Sony Ericsson phones on the A200 platform. It is based on a classic 3×4 matrix format, which consists of stylish colorful icons. Well, all sub-menus are designed in the form of lists. There are five animated themes in the device, but they differ from each other very slightly – only the basic colors. Icons, menu items and additional trifles do not have any changes.
The manufacturer has paid much attention to the address book. Each contact consists of five-sheet information.
It is incorporated in the book “excellent” and not overloaded with unnecessary details, and thus it works very fast.

In addition, from the applications you have Google Maps to determine the location of mobile base stations. However, the accuracy is sometimes in the range of 400-500 meters, so this program is good only if after a good party you suddenly wake up in an unfamiliar area of the town and try to understand where you are, at least approximately. And, of course, the program can show you the way to the house.
By the way, the mobile communication … G502 supports not only the network GSM 900/1800/1900, but also UMTS / HSDPA 2100, making it a novelty in budget units that does not support network 3G. Internet connection is supported via GPRS / EDGE (Class10), so you will not feel lack of speed when surfing in the web.  As an internet browser there is the NetFront, which supports all standard protocols. It’s quite fast.  At present, you can find links to BBC news blocks, Google, and Sony Ericsson.
For communication with other devices, Sony Ericsson has a Bluetooth 2.0 module with support for EDR. The data transfer has perfectly acceptable speed – about 0.1 Mb/sec. Moreover, one can not help but note the support of the transfer via Bluetooth stereo, so that together with G502, you can use not just a headset, and stereo headphones for listening to music.

Multimedia

The manufacturer does not hold multimedia capabilities of G502, as particularly outstanding, and yet they are somewhat higher than would be expected from a simple phone. In addition to the opportunity of using Bluetooth-stereo headphones, the unit has a MegaBass function, which enhances the bass frequencies and makes the sound volume, as well as the availability of on-board FM-radio with support for RDS.
The shell, which is responsible for multimedia, is familiar to us from other models of Sony Ericsson. This stylish black-and-white animated interface with a user-friendly player in the music formats MP3 and AAC, videos and photos. There is even a photo album, which sorts pictures by date and topic.
From games you can find QuadraPop – the original kind of Tetris. G502 is equipped with a digital 2-MP camera without autofocus, mirror and flash.
It has traditional for the cameras functions: quality settings, white balance, the imposition of digital effects, shooting timer, etc. Maximum image resolution is 1600 x 1200, and the size obtained with the files ranged from 300 to 500 KB.
We can not say that the camera user will appreciate the high quality of images.

Conclusion

Sony Ericsson G502 is a good device for communication: voice communication, communication via the Internet, communication via wireless protocols. The address book will allow keeping all possible information about a person.
The manufacturer has chosen the other functions with taste and quality. Over 6,5 thousand rubles, and you’ll obtain one of the best phones which you can find on the shelves today.