Sony Ericsson S710a
Overview
Reviews: Cell phonesPros:
Sleek design, built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, large screen.Cons:
Poorly placed microphone, slow at times.Sony Ericsson new camera-phone is sleek, comes with a large screen and bundles a lot of multimedia features, but is it as good as it looks?
The brand new Sony Ericsson S710a is a sleek camera/phone hybrid. At first glance the S710a might seem like the latest Sony digital camera, equipped with an LED flash and a large 2.3 inch color screen. Once you swivel it open it turns into a sleek phone, with integrated EDGE technology for fast Internet downloading, and Bluetooth support.
The S710a comes with many multimedia and phonebook features, such as MP3 support, video recording and play back, as well as the ability to use your stored photo as caller id when receiving calls from your friends. The screen is large and very bright, with 262k colors and a whopping 320×240 screen resolution. The screen comes in handy for dialing outdoors, browsing the internet and viewing your photos and videos. The quality of the photos was good, while the video quality was acceptable for a phone. The audio quality of the speakerphone was pleasing – MP3 playback was crisp and clear. The S710a has 32 megabytes of multimedia storage and supports the Memory Stick Duo for external storage needs.
The S710a is not flawless. The number keys are a bit too small for the average finger and noticed that the menu is often slow in transitioning between different menu pages or even when using the phone in camera mode often falling behind the user’s commands. This problem is similar to one found in the Nokia 6600, but it is more noticeable with the S710a. Another major concern is the location of the microphone. Static cuts into the conversation if a user holds the phone too close to the face or moves it too much while talking. To properly use this phone the microphone needs to be held at least an inch away from the mouth. This is not a very comfortable position.
If you want the latest cool phone with a great look and a nice built-in camera, then the Sony Ericsson S710a is for you, but be ready to use your Bluetooth headset or the speakerphone when making calls.
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