Sexy in Silver. (Sony CMD-J70)

Member Name: mrdarblay

Product:	Sony CMD-J70
Date:	24/01/02 (1677 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Attractive design , Ease of use , Recordable ring tone function

Disadvantages: doesnt ring AND vibrate

As former Nokia worshipper, I have found the perfect antidote to the Nokia addiction, the slim, sexy, sleek silver Sony CMD-J70. What a beauty, the handset itself is just 4.5 inches long and is an attractive silver colour.

The phone has the Sony standard "jog-dial" this is a dial on the left hand side of the phone that spins and can be used to access the phones various functions.

You may have noticed that there is a new trend for personalised ring tones, and these are usually accessed via pricey premium rate phone lines, but Sony CMD-j70 users dont need to call pricey lines to recive a tone that sounds nothing like the real thing because with this handset you can record your own 30 second ringtone, and it does raise a few eyebrows when my handset "sings" instead of rings. You can also record your own ten second sound clip and use it as sms recived notification. If you dont want to record your own ringtone you can use one of the 22 built in polyphonic tones. For those embarrased by ringtones the record your own option is a must have, failing this the vibrate option is avaliable on the handset, though unlike the Nokia you can not have it ring and vibrate.

The carribean tone sounds remarkably like a real steel pan band, this will give you an idea of what poloyphonic means. You can even programme different rings to different people, you will be able to see who is ringing you without looking at your phone.

There is even an option to choose an icon for different people, you can tag different people as "family" "business" and so on, there is even an icon for your girlfriend or boyfriend!

The phones WAP browser is powered by Microsoft Mobile Explorer and is fast and reliable, there is a homepage setting for fast access to your network providers homepage and space to save your favourite wapsites addresses. The phone has user freindly SMS messaging function, compared to older handsets sen
ding an sms from this phone is a doddle, and the t9 predictive text programme saves time when sending messages, when you recive a message the senders name (providing it is stored in your phonebook) is displayed along with the date and time the message was sent, an envelope icon will show wether the message has been read or not.

The phone comes with fun extras there are four games, the nintendo gameboy-esque Bananas , a fun platform game similar to donkey kong. PicPuz, which is a picture puzzle game, Sandart, an etch a sketch type game, and Mindblaster, a number puzzle.

Also included is a calculator which is much easier to use than the type on Nokia handsets and a World clock that has to be seen to be belived, chose this option and a world map appears on the screen, use the Jog Dial to scroll across the screen until you are at the country of your choice and he time will be displayed, you can even set your phone so that it shows your home time and another countries time on the screen, this is handy for travellers.

The scheduler allows you to enter reminders for birthdays anniveraries and the like, when the time comes a cheery tune will remind you, so no more forgotten birthdays!

The screen on this phone itself is reminisent of the first gameboys, the backlight is the standard green and illuminates the screen nicley, you can even adjust the contrast on the screen to your liking. You can then chose your wallpape, there are three options, your network providers logo, a bird in flight, or a globe.

The battery life is good, and lasts for around 330 hours on standby, the talktime on a fully charged battery is around 9 hours, impressive the heavy mobile user will probably need to recharge the battery once every 2-3 days.

The sound quality is definatley very good, lets face it Sony have been making walkman stereos for years! On a noisy train or busy street you will not have too much trouble hearing the person you are
calling/been called by.

This is definatley the best phone I have ever owned and I have got through a few in my time, the PIN option is easy to use and this added security feature makes the phone even more attractive.

Summary: