Posted by Mia in 
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.
