A fairly good cheap phone. (Sony CMD-J5)

Member Name: slimtim2003

Product:	Sony CMD-J5
Date:	12/09/03 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Light, wheel for fast scrolling

Disadvantages: Looks, feel of the keys, charger

I used to have a J5 (I now have a Samsung T100, read my review for that as well!) which was a replacement for a broken Siemens. I wouldn’t have chosen the phone if I had had a choice, but it was the best one out of the selection available.

First of all I will say a little bit about the size. This is by no means a small phone, but it is however fairly slim. It’ll rest in your pocket quite happily until you sit down. The length of the phone and the aerial could make it a little uncomfortable. The phone is also surprising light but this maybe due to the fact that the battery is quite small and slim.

The most notable feature of the phone is that it has a nifty jog dial on the left-hand side. This gives the phone an ugly appearance but it enables you to scroll very quickly through the phonebook and through text messages. Most phones get annoying when you have to hit a key over and over again to be able to read the text message you’ve just written (the Samsung T100 for example). The dial does feel a bit tacky though, especially when it is pushed in to operate a function and the phone is also too slow to keep up with the fast scrolling pace of your finger.

The menus on the phone are well organised and you can actually see the menu scrolling round unlike with a Nokia phone where each menu option takes up the whole screen (I don’t like this). The layout of the text message symbols is good and they can be accessed quickly with the jog dial, although if you are using your thumb to write the message it can be difficult to stretch it to the dial. A two handed approach is often necessary and quicker but as you all know this is often not possible.

A few extra points to round up. The charger has an unusual way of disconnecting from the phone, you have to twist it to unclip it. I would much prefer a button to press or something a bit sturdier. You can also record your own ring tones into the phone, which is a novel ide
a. Recording you and your mates singing while a little tipsy is always good fun at the time, but can be quite embarrassing if you set it as your ring tone and it then goes off in a public place!


When i bought this phone I think it was around £100 on O2 pay as you go.

Summary: