Sony CMD-J5
Product Type: Sony mobile phones
Newest Review: ... mobile phones are known for.' The phones features are as follows; grey scale high resolution graphic display Alarm clock fu... more
Sony, the greatest, the best, the only option!
Sony CMD-J5
Member Name: IainMc
Product:
Sony CMD-J5
Date: 17/05/01, updated on 17/05/01 (1120 review reads)
Rating:
Advantages: Quality of sound, Sonys reputation, Quality of features
Disadvantages: Its not a Z5, Getting used to its use
I'll start with this has got to be the most recommended phone ever and I imagine in nine months people are going to realise what a great phone it is and it will become as popular as the 3210 did when it was at its most popular! Just as Sony blew Nintendo and Sega out of the water with the playstation a few moons ago, they are set to do the same to the phone producing giant's Nokia, Siemens and Motorola. They have the reputation for the highest quality and they are the best in every market they have a stake in. Believe me, they aren't going to tarnish that reputation by producing a shoddy phone, or even just a good phone, they only produce the best phones on the market!
The design is slim, smart and sleek. The size is similar to the Siemens C35i, the weight, extraordinarily light. When I first got the phone I pick it up and thought "wow, that's too light to be true, ah, no battery and SIM card put in yet, that's why!". Then I put the SIM card and the battery in and thought "no noticeable change in weight!, maybe it will change if I charge it or something!", and no that didn't work, I just had to except it was seriously light!
The phones features are yet again outstanding to go with the design and quality, having the usual (expected of a new phone) vibrating alert, Backlight, SMS messaging, multiple ring tones, loudspeaker, clock, alarm, call divert, games, WAP access and a calculator. However some of the other new phones don't have all of those, but they certainly don't have most of the features that set the Sony model above the rest. Such as the ability to attach sounds and detailed pictures to SMS messages, the fact that the memory holds 20 text messages in your inbox and remembers the last 20 you sent with details of who you sent it to and what time, finally for text messages it has the life saving (or finger tip saving) T9 dictionary so that it guesses at words as you write them, saving much
time when it comes to text messages. The ring tones can only be described as shocking (but in the best possible way), they have multi-layered sound which means that they don't sound like annoying beeps, in fact they don't sound like any other phone in that they sound almost like lullabies, very catchy and very impressive. A real nice touch is the ability to record your own ring tones, whether it be you screaming (people know when you have a call!) Or the ones I have perhaps, a drunken friend hurling football abuse at a group of cows in a field trying to get some shut eye! The clock has a world clock which displays a map of the world allowing you to find the required place and giving the correct time there but also the phone code for that area (very useful for international calls), the alarm is combined with an inbuilt scheduler to help you keep track of appointments, meetings, dates, football matches, just whatever your life is filled with, its yet another nice touch!, whereas the games have now took a diverse control of my life!, snake on the 3210 was fairly addictive, try playing Banana's where you have to try to knock another monkey out of its tree by aiming bananas at it before it gets you!, and there are many other games, each with its hypnotic lullaby soundtrack too! The WAP is in a league of its own, using Microsoft mobile Internet explorer (allowing some HTML pages to be viewed as well as the standard WAP ones) which is a first for a WAP mobile, and the Sony model has such a huge finely detailed screen its easier to look at pages realistically rather than just a couple of lines at a time. Of course your e-mail is available over the WAP but the phone itself can be set up with POP3 e-mail so that going through WAP is not needed, just write an off line e-mail and send it using the e-mail function, saving important battery life and WAP call cost unless you are on BT Genie.
Add to this the pretty little graphics it has seaming everythi
ng together (now come on Sony, that's just showing off!), which flick along as you use the jog dial. Aha, the jog dial!
The jog dial is found on the upper left side of the phone. Its a little wheel that can be rotated upwards and downwards and can also be clicked inwards to select things. This at first is extremely hard to use, confusing and seems like just a brain ache to have on a phone but after a week it becomes common practice and you forget you are using it. Example, today I used my old 3210 for a few minutes and I repeatably tried to use a non existent jog dial. Anyway, this jog dial is one of the features that has been patented by Sony so expect to see it in the future, only on the Sony phones though!
The memory on the phone is huge, holding about 600 name and numbers, also holding e-mail address's and grouping together one persons e-mail, home, mobile and office number. This shortens the phone book when you want to look for someone, when you find them, one click of the jog dial and you get to choose from there various numbers that have been grouped. Another form of grouping is getting certain contacts into groups. Example, all my football team are one group, all my family are another, etc. etc. for various areas of my life. Now the different groups can be assigned different ring tones so that even before you pick up your phone you know what kind of person it will be!
Next to the jog dial on the side of the phone is a sliding switch. Slide it down to turn on/off the keypad lock (handy, quicker than keypad combinations), and sliding upwards rotates the mode of the phone between silent, normal, one beep and vibrate. Again, quickly done, no faffing about in menus for these functions.
Initially the battery life is poor but after a few complete discharges and recharges it will be better than most! And a final advantage is the pin number for accessing the phone, it doesn't have to be 4 letters, it can be as man
y or as few as you want, therefore increasing security for you.
From the main screen (standby) there are many quick options;
Moving the jog dial up or down takes you straight into the phone book, clicking the jog dial takes you straight into a animated menu. Pressing the call key gives you the ability to quickly call the last 20 people who you called, or who called you, and finally pressing the loud speaker button takes you into the WAP menu.
Overall this has got to be the greatest value for a phone on the market, with prices varying between networks, but tending to be just a touch dearer than a Nokia 3310, the only better phone I can think of is the Z5, which is a hell of a lot more expensive, so pick one of the two depending on you own budget!
The design is slim, smart and sleek. The size is similar to the Siemens C35i, the weight, extraordinarily light. When I first got the phone I pick it up and thought "wow, that's too light to be true, ah, no battery and SIM card put in yet, that's why!". Then I put the SIM card and the battery in and thought "no noticeable change in weight!, maybe it will change if I charge it or something!", and no that didn't work, I just had to except it was seriously light!
The phones features are yet again outstanding to go with the design and quality, having the usual (expected of a new phone) vibrating alert, Backlight, SMS messaging, multiple ring tones, loudspeaker, clock, alarm, call divert, games, WAP access and a calculator. However some of the other new phones don't have all of those, but they certainly don't have most of the features that set the Sony model above the rest. Such as the ability to attach sounds and detailed pictures to SMS messages, the fact that the memory holds 20 text messages in your inbox and remembers the last 20 you sent with details of who you sent it to and what time, finally for text messages it has the life saving (or finger tip saving) T9 dictionary so that it guesses at words as you write them, saving much
time when it comes to text messages. The ring tones can only be described as shocking (but in the best possible way), they have multi-layered sound which means that they don't sound like annoying beeps, in fact they don't sound like any other phone in that they sound almost like lullabies, very catchy and very impressive. A real nice touch is the ability to record your own ring tones, whether it be you screaming (people know when you have a call!) Or the ones I have perhaps, a drunken friend hurling football abuse at a group of cows in a field trying to get some shut eye! The clock has a world clock which displays a map of the world allowing you to find the required place and giving the correct time there but also the phone code for that area (very useful for international calls), the alarm is combined with an inbuilt scheduler to help you keep track of appointments, meetings, dates, football matches, just whatever your life is filled with, its yet another nice touch!, whereas the games have now took a diverse control of my life!, snake on the 3210 was fairly addictive, try playing Banana's where you have to try to knock another monkey out of its tree by aiming bananas at it before it gets you!, and there are many other games, each with its hypnotic lullaby soundtrack too! The WAP is in a league of its own, using Microsoft mobile Internet explorer (allowing some HTML pages to be viewed as well as the standard WAP ones) which is a first for a WAP mobile, and the Sony model has such a huge finely detailed screen its easier to look at pages realistically rather than just a couple of lines at a time. Of course your e-mail is available over the WAP but the phone itself can be set up with POP3 e-mail so that going through WAP is not needed, just write an off line e-mail and send it using the e-mail function, saving important battery life and WAP call cost unless you are on BT Genie.
Add to this the pretty little graphics it has seaming everythi
ng together (now come on Sony, that's just showing off!), which flick along as you use the jog dial. Aha, the jog dial!
The jog dial is found on the upper left side of the phone. Its a little wheel that can be rotated upwards and downwards and can also be clicked inwards to select things. This at first is extremely hard to use, confusing and seems like just a brain ache to have on a phone but after a week it becomes common practice and you forget you are using it. Example, today I used my old 3210 for a few minutes and I repeatably tried to use a non existent jog dial. Anyway, this jog dial is one of the features that has been patented by Sony so expect to see it in the future, only on the Sony phones though!
The memory on the phone is huge, holding about 600 name and numbers, also holding e-mail address's and grouping together one persons e-mail, home, mobile and office number. This shortens the phone book when you want to look for someone, when you find them, one click of the jog dial and you get to choose from there various numbers that have been grouped. Another form of grouping is getting certain contacts into groups. Example, all my football team are one group, all my family are another, etc. etc. for various areas of my life. Now the different groups can be assigned different ring tones so that even before you pick up your phone you know what kind of person it will be!
Next to the jog dial on the side of the phone is a sliding switch. Slide it down to turn on/off the keypad lock (handy, quicker than keypad combinations), and sliding upwards rotates the mode of the phone between silent, normal, one beep and vibrate. Again, quickly done, no faffing about in menus for these functions.
Initially the battery life is poor but after a few complete discharges and recharges it will be better than most! And a final advantage is the pin number for accessing the phone, it doesn't have to be 4 letters, it can be as man
y or as few as you want, therefore increasing security for you.
From the main screen (standby) there are many quick options;
Moving the jog dial up or down takes you straight into the phone book, clicking the jog dial takes you straight into a animated menu. Pressing the call key gives you the ability to quickly call the last 20 people who you called, or who called you, and finally pressing the loud speaker button takes you into the WAP menu.
Overall this has got to be the greatest value for a phone on the market, with prices varying between networks, but tending to be just a touch dearer than a Nokia 3310, the only better phone I can think of is the Z5, which is a hell of a lot more expensive, so pick one of the two depending on you own budget!
Summary:
