The definitive cameraphone (Sony Ericsson S700i)

Member Name: de_construct

Product:	Sony Ericsson S700i
Date:	11/04/05 (689 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great imaging features all round., Easy to use, looks and feels great, Great entertainment facilities

Disadvantages: Slightly large, The swivel is not the best opening mechanism although it looks great, Needs to be recharged daily

When the S700i was first demonstrated to me, I was totally sold by the quality of the screen. It's a 262k colour, 240x320 pixel screen, about as high a resolution you could reasonably expect for a screen on device as small as a mobile phone. Previously, I owned a SonyEricsson Z600, and this model shares the Z600's fine ergonomics. The SonyEricsson proprietary UI is as easy to use as ever, and is superior to most other manufacturer's UIs at the moment IMHO. Whereas Sharp's Cameraphones seem to be ahead in the megapixel race, The SE phones seem to be easier to use, and as I have the O2 one, it has prettier icons than Voda branded ones. The camera is a CCD as opposed to a CMOS sensor, and is generally regarded as the best 1.3 megapixel cameraphone sensor around. SE abandoned Mophun in favour of the Mascot capsule Java 3D engine, and the phone has a range of 3D games available. The swivel is a bit of a gimmick, as a slide probably would have made the unit easier to open one-handed, like the Samsung D500. Also unlike the D500, teh S700i has a memory stick duo slot and also comes with a full-size memory stick adaptor. Unfortunately, it does not support Duo Pro cards, so tops out at 128MB. However, combined with its onboard 32MB, and the 32MB card supplied, you get 64MB out of the box, and 160MB maximum, which is plenty for digital snaps and mp3s. The phone comes with a stereo handsfree, which also doubles as a radio antennae for the FM radio. The Media player plays MPEG4 video and audio as well, meaning it will play iTunes encoded m4a files, but not purchased m4p files. The video playback is merely adequate, however, as it doesn't utilise the screen to its full potential, possibly due to slightly weedy processor. The UI is also quite slow because of this, but firmware upgrades when available should fix this. Also, there have been more software bugs with this unit than I am used to with mobile phones. The phone is also on the thick side, but it is very well built and looks and feels very sturdy. It's not quite a smartphone, but with its excellent bluetooth, music, excellent camera and easy to use phonebook (try using the RAZR's and you'll see what I mean) this phone really excels. WAP is finally a joy to use as the screen is so large. The imaging features are excellent, it has slideshows and really feels like a digicam. Somehow the S700i pulls off the trick of being a jack of all trades.

Summary: