I bought this phone in March this year as I have always loved Sony phones mainly because the camera was of such good quality. The phone has many features such as a 8mp camera, bluetooth, infa red, a interlink with your computer, a radio, email capability, picture msging, games, video capture etc. It also comes with the option to submit items via youtube or use the gps that is integrated on the phone. Unfortunately however the GPS isn't free and you end up paying around £5 a month for a product that isn't as clear as a traditional GPS system.
The camera quality is very good and the camera itself has many features such as scene mode, flash/red eye/no flash, auto focus, smile detection etc and the pictures do come out very well. The video capture offers you the chance to get quite a lengthy film including sound which is good for a phone. However there is no option to rotate the videos and many times the videos end up the wrong way when you upload them onto a PC.
The phone itself is quite heavy but generally looks quite stylish. It can take a couple of minutes upon starting up as there is so much data on it. There are quite a few interated options to customise the phone with different screensavers/themes that you can choose. You can upload pictures/music files from your PC onto your phone via the USB cable. The memory card slot enables you to fit a card of your choice size depending on how you are going to use the phone. The majority however tend to come with a memory card if you buy it on a contract.
I do have to add however I had quite a few technical issues with the speaker of this phone. Around 4 months into having bought it I could no longer hear people when they phoned me. I had to put on the speaker phone just so i could have a normal conversation! I took it back to Vodafone who sent it back for repair which took around a week. I had a courtesy phone around this time as I had insurance, however some people do choose not to take this option. Upon receiving it back the second time the same problem occured where this time around even the speaker phone was too quiet and the inner speakers were making this funny noise and were far too quiet. I sent it back again and only this time round did the phone get properly repaired. In my honest opinion however I believe they only fixed it properly this time around as if it wasn't repaired after three times being sent off you're entitled to a new phone!
So overall it is a very stylish, up to date phone but the model I had did have quite a few technical issues. The new models may be better off though.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Superb camera, wide ralnge of features, good for calls and texting. Disadvantages: Still the age old slide phone issue. Battery life varies with use.
Oct 25th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
