| Sony Ericsson Z500 |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 / Gsm 1900 |
| Announced | 2004, March |
| Status | Available |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 93 X 49 X 24 Mm |
| Weight | 110 G |
| Display |
| Type | Cstn, 65k Colors |
| Size | 128 X 160 Pixels |
| | - Second External Display 4096 Colors
- Wallpapers, Screensavers |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Polyphonic (40 Channels) |
| Customization | Composer, Download, |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 500 X 8 Fields, Photo Call |
| Call Records | 30 Received, Dialed And Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 10 (4+1/3+2 Slots), 32 - 48 Kbps |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | Class 6, 177.6 Kbps |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Infrared Port | No |
| Usb | |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms, Ems, Mms, Email, Instant Messaging |
| Browser | Wap 2.0/xhtml |
| Games | Java, |
| Colors | |
| Camera | Vga, 640x480 Pixels, Video |
| | - Push To Talk (voip Service)
- Java Midp 2.0
- Image Viewer
- Exchangeable Covers
- Organizer |
| Battery |
| | Standard Battery, Li-ion |
| Stand-by | Up To 260 H |
| Talk Time | Up To 10 H |
|
Sony Ericsson - Z500Sony Ericsson Z500
A lot of marketing hype has surrounded the tri-band Z500a from Sony Ericsson. It's positioned as a dual screen VGA camera phone with multimedia features such as MP3 audio and MPEG4 video support. Additionally, it supports both GPRS and EDGE network data for web and email access. With all of these features, one might guess that this is a top-tier phone, but in reality the Z500a is an entry-level camera phone that Sony Ericsson hopes will appeal to a younger crowd.
Design Form
The Z500a has an attractive clamshell design. The phone's primary teal color with silver accents might not appeal to everyone, but it does get style points for not looking like every other phone on the market. Sony Ericsson is trying to attract the younger buyer with ability to switch out phone covers (SE refers to them as 'style up covers'). Like the rest of its current mobile line-up, there is no external antenna to interrupt the lines of the Z500a. The face of the phone is home to the external color sub-display (4096 colors) with the camera lens just above it. While it's not an ultra-compact phone, it's lighter than it appears, weighing in at 110 grams.
Opening the phone, I was impressed by the somewhat invisible hinge. It almost seems over engineered. The hinge feels very solid when you are opening and closing the phone - like a good car door should feel. While I had a favorable first impression opening the phone, I was immediately let down by the size of the display, especially considering all of the physical real estate Sony Ericsson has to work with. Officially, it's a 128 x 160 pixel display, but seems even smaller, perhaps due to the excessive border around the display. Sony Ericsson claims that the display is a 65K color unit, but the colors don't seem vibrant to be able to notice. As the phone does not sport a TFT display, direct sunlight viewing is nearly impossible.
The amber backlighting of the keypad is pleasant, and the spacing of the inset keys is more than manageable, even for large hands. Just above the keypad is a five-way controller (including a center button) surrounded by four additional buttons - two softkeys for option selections (based upon screen selections), a 'back' key and a 'clear' key. Looking at the five-way key controller, it almost appears to be a nine-way controller with diagonal directions, but in reality, that's just a design touch.
Function Overview
The user interface (UI) is typical for recent Sony Ericsson entries and provides the usual options such as address book, camera operation, games, messaging (email, SMS, and MMS), sound recorder, and instant messaging. The phone supports themes, which change both the phone's wallpaper and color scheme. One interesting note is the support for animated wallpapers on the main display. While the themes that come with the phone are not as vibrant as the ones that come with the S700i and the K700i, they are neat to play around with.
Notably absent are Bluetooth and infrared support, forcing the phone to exchange information either via email or a USB cable (which is considered an optional accessory and not included with the phone). As much as this phone is touted around sharing the multimedia captured by the phone, one is certainly limited by how you transfer sounds, images, and video off of the phone and onto another device such as a computer or PDA for sharing or archiving. This is important, especially considering that the phone only has 6 MB of memory and no support for memory cards.
Perhaps making up for the limited connectivity options is the Z500a's support for EDGE data communication. The EDGE specification supports data rates between 100 and 200 Kbps, making it a much faster system than the typical GPRS network. Sending a picture attached to an MMS or email through an EDGE configured network is considerably faster than with GPRS.
The Camera
As the camera is a VGA camera, which only supports 0.3 megapixels, the images themselves are relatively small in file size. That small file size also contributes to sub-par image quality. However, the Z500a's images compare favorably with those of other VGA cameraphones on the market. None the less, I would have liked to have seen a 1+ megapixel CCD camera in this phone. Also missing is any kind of flash or light assist. The Z500a does allow you to edit pictures and apply various filters, such as sepia or negative. You can also apply pictures to contacts in the address book, which then gives you a picture caller ID on both the main and external display.
The camera also supports MPEG4 video capture and playback. The video capture length is only limited by the amount of available memory. The Z500a does not limit video length to 20 or 30 seconds like so many other cameraphones that are capable of recording video clips.
Audio
The Z500a supports polyphonic ringtones, including MP3 ringtones. I was at a loss at first as to exactly how to apply a MP3 song on my computer as a ringtone on the phone. Normally, I would just send the file via Bluetooth or infrared, but since the Z500a does not offer those options, I had to think about a different approach. Eventually I figured out that I had to send an MP3 clip over email and retrieve it from the phone.
The phone also supports MP3 playback through its MP3 player. However, with only 6 MB of memory on board you are not going to be carrying a library of songs around. There is no chance that the Z500a will replace your MP3 player on the road. In my opinion, it's rather pointless to even include an MP3 player on a device with such limited memory.
Phone Quality
Of course, none of the other features will amount to much if the phone does not work well as a phone. I am pleased to report that the phone performance is as solid as the engineering and construction. Voice quality and output volume are excellent. An added bonus, particularly for a mobile phone in this category, is the inclusion of a speakerphone. While it was not the best speakerphone I have used in a mobile phone, it was decent enough for me to use it on a frequent basis. Callers on the other end noticed a slight difference and spoke of a tunnel effect once the speakerphone was on. However, on my side, the speaker had good output and good range with very little distortion.
Battery Performance
As usual, the phone really does not live up to the advertised battery performance. Sony Ericsson claims six hours of talk time and eleven days of standby time. In my tests, I found that actual talk time was around 4 hours and a normal usage standby time was closer to three days. Still, I was generally not worried that I would run out of juice before the end of the day, even when I was talking more than normal. While the actual numbers are far from what is advertised, I was not displeased with battery performance.
Trying to remove the battery is quite the chore, though. I found it very difficult to get the battery cover off in order to get to the battery or the SIM card. Perhaps the plastic latches that hold the battery in place were just too stiff or because the phone was new could explain why it was difficult. In any event, this is not something the typical user will need to do often.
Summary
While the Z500a would normally not appeal to a business user (the category I consider myself in), I did have a favorable impression of this phone. Phone performance, the speakerphone, and overall usability are all very good. This was my first experience with EDGE web access, and I can see that I could get spoiled by it quite quickly. It is similar to experiencing high-speed internet access at home for the first time. It's hard to live with a dialup connection after that. |
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