I'm not one of those people who has to have the latest mobile phone, or replace my handset every year. In fact, I'm quite happy to stick with whatever phone I have until it stops working. My needs when it comes to phones are also pretty basic: I am only really interested in making and receiving voice calls and texts on my phone, just to give me access to friends and family at all times and as an emergency if the school needs to contact me for any reason when I'm out and about. I really have no interest in my phone being able to play music, access the internet or jump through hoops, and whilst it is nice to have a camera on my phone, again, I don't view it as absolutely essential.With these very simple needs in mind, I recently began scouring the internet for a new phone, as my previous LG model was having problems charging after nearly 3 years of use.


My first stop shop was the Tesco mobile website, as my phone is currently with the Tesco network and I have no desire to change. I am currently on PAYG, and when I top up, which is only usually £10 every 3 months or so, they give me triple credit, provided i use the free credit within the first month, so I basically get a month's worth of free calls and texts, which suits my needs fine. The extra Clubcard points I rack up doing this also come in very handy too. Because of this, I just wanted a Tesco mobile which I could fit my old sim into, in order to keep my current tarrif, number, and contact details list.

Although I like a simple phone, I do like my phone to look as nice as possible for the money, which in my case is a budget of around £30. I always tend to be drawn to the pink phones, and two phones on the site caught my eye, one was a Samsung model and the other, as Sony Ericsson. Using the website compare feature, I was able to look at the specs of each phone, and decided that the Sony Ericsson was better for me, as it looked nicer and had a long battery life, which is a feature that I consider really important in a phone. The phone cost £24.97 on the site, with 48 clubcard pints and free delivery. I could have also opted to buy the phone with my clubcard points, as £10 in points = £20 to spend on phones.

*My new phone!*

My phone arrived really quickly, and I was really excited when the courier delivered the little box! The box contained the phone, battery, some paperwork and instructions, a sim card, a charger and some headphones.


Setting up the phone was easy, and just a case of slipping open the case, inserting my old sim underneath the battery, and charging the battery, which didn't take long at all. The phone came with a sheet that expalined all the basic functions of the phone, so it was simple to get started. Although I have never had a Sony Ericsson phone before, I found the handset simple and intuitive to use, as well as very comfortable to hold and use.

I really love the look of the phone. The model comes in various colours, but mine is candy pink, in a brushed metal style finish. Compared to my last LG phone, which looked quite tacky and cheap, this one looked solid, well made and good quality. The screen is quite large, 4 x 4.5 cm, and has a mirrored effect. This can be good or bad. It is great if you want to check your makeup, but on a bright sunny day, the mirror can make seiing the screen display more than a little difficult, and I actually think that it would be better without the mirror! Beneath the screen are two menu buttons, the two basic pick up and hang up buttons, and a central directional button for accessing the on screen menu. The phone is a slider phone, so i can slide down the back of the phone to reveal the keypad, which is soft and rubbery to the touch and lights up in blue when you slide it out, as well as lighting up the other buttons from underneath and illuminating the screen.

*Using the phone*

The slider is great, as it allows me to answer the phone and hang up without fiddling with the smaller buttons (I always end up pressing the wrong one and cancelling the call!) There are lots of ways to customise the phone, and you can opt to change the slider functions if you wish, but for me, using the slider feature to answer the phone is simple, quick and easy. When I close the slider, the phone is automatically locked, so I can't accidentaly call anyone by mistake, great when the phone is knocking around in my bag!


The phone comes with a charger, which isspecifically for this modle. It plugs into the side and I can then charge the phone easily, usually in about an hour. A single charge will usually last me about a week, which I think is great, and I always have my phone switched on at all times. The charger port is also the same port you use to plug in the headphones, but to be honest, I have not even opened the headphone packet in the 3 months I have had the phone, as I am really not interested in listening to music on the phone. I have an ipod, which doesn't get much use either. When I am out and about, I am usually with others, or my kids, so I would never get chance to listen to music or browse the internet on the phone anyway, as I am so busy chatting or doing other things.

The basic display on the phone is a background picture-either a wallpaper or your own photo. The network, in my case tesco, is displayed on the top of the screen and the time in the right hand corner, with an indication of battery charge next to it. The signal is displayed on the upper left of the screen and the date is on the bottom right. There are 3 options along the bottom of the screen: Calls, Menu and Contacts. I will now explain the contents of the menu screen, which you access by pressing the round centre button on the handset.

*Menu*

The menu has 9 icons, which represent your options.


1: Organiser-This is represented by an icon with a picture of a bell and a calendar. When you access this menu, you can set an alarm, or organise your life by placing reminders and notes on your phone. Personally, I find this useful for writing out shopping lists, "to do" lists, or bus times. This menu also has the standard timer, stopwatch and calculator functions. I do actually use the stopwatch when I take the kids to the park, to time them when they run!

2: Tesco Mobile-This menu allows you to access the WAP feature of the phone. This is pretty unimpressive, and i have had a quick look at it, but it is nowhere near as sophisticated as using the actual internet on a computer. It is a very basic form of internet, and for me, has very little practical use.


3 :Entertainment- This menu has 4 options. The first is TrackID, which allows you to use the phone to identify background music, telling you the artist and track title. I have never bothered using this feature, as it doesn't interest me much. The phone has an FM radio which again, I have not bothered with! This only works with the headphones, which work as radio antenna, useful on long journeys maybe...Another feature is a record sound feature which again...you guessed it..I have not used, although I probably will at some point to record the kiddies voices. There are also two games on the phone. the old classic asteroids, and a tetris style game called quadrapop, which I play sometimes, although the tinny music is annoying!

4: Camera-The slider activates the 1.3 MP camera, and you simply press the round button to take a photo. The menu allows you to use various effects, such as black and white and sepia, as well as changing the picture size and quality. There is also a night mode. I have taken a few photos on the camera, but it is hard not to get a blurry one, as the slightest movement seems to blur the picture! You can set the pictures you take as wallpaper.


5: Messaging- Unlike the other features, this is a feature that I use a lot! The menu allows to to send text or picture messages, and texting is pretty straightforward once you have deactiated that pesky predictive text feature! My only gripe with the texting feature, is that the phone is very slow to put the letters in, and if you have to input more than one letter on the same key, you have to wait a few seconds before it allows you to put the next letter in, making messaging very slow and infuriating! It is not as easy as other phones I have had in the past, though a handy feature when you want to send a text is that it will list the last few people you texted, so you can find them quickly rather than navigating a long contacts menu.

6: Music Player- This menu has Artists, Tracks and Playlists listed, but as I don't use it, there is no music on my phone to access! Songs can be sent to the phone wirelessly or via USB.


7: Calls- A list of everyone who has called you and everyone that you have called. Very handy to refer to, and self explanatory, really.

8: Contacts- My list of everyone I am likely to need to contact! The list allows you to input mobile, home, and work numbers all under the same name for eay access. Inputting new contacts is really easy to do, and by putting a single letter in, you can quickly access the part of the list that you need quicker.


9: Settings- This is a really mig menu, with a really big submenu, allowing you to personalize your phone in many different ways. in this menu, you can set different profiles, such as in car or outdoor calls, or of course, silent mode! You can change the time and date, change the wallpaper and ringtones, as well as manage and set up bluetooth settings with other devices. When I went to France recently, I was able to easily modify the timezone, and the phone automatically tuned in to the French Networks. One gripe i have with the ringtones list is that you can't listen to them before selecting, which I think is a big design flaw, as you want to know how your ringtone is going to sound!

*Day to day use*


On a normal day, the phone is usually bobbling around at the bottom of my bag. I always have the profile set to "outdoors", as I am usually outdoors, and it is pretty hard to hear the phone ring otherwise. Anseweing the phone, as I have said, is easy, thanks to the flip function, but seeing the display on a sunny day is impossible, due to the mirrored screen. The BIGGEST problem I have is actually hearing the person on the other end. there is no way to increse the volume of the speaker, and if I am in the car with the kids (as a passenger of course!) it is really hard to hear what the other person is saying. this is by far, the biggest drawback of this phone. I like the phone, but the fact I can't hear who I'm talking to definitely loses points for me.

For the techie minded, here is a list of specs from the Tesco site;

Access Internet Pages Yes
Batteries Included Yes
Bluetooth Yes
Brand Sony Ericsson
Built-in FM Radio Yes
Built-in MP3 Player Yes
Camera Yes
Colour Screen Yes
Downloadable Arcade Style Games Yes
Downloadable Ringtone Capability Yes
Expandable Memory Slot No
Features of Product 1.3 MP Camera. TrackIDTM music recognition. Web browsing supporting HTML. BluetoothTM. Compact slider in a metal-and-glass housing. RDS FM radio
Games Included Yes
Handset Colour Pink
Handsfree Speakerphone Yes
Keyboard Standard
Network Tesco Mobile
Product Depth 1.5 cm
Product Height 8.3 cm
Product Weight Units g
Product Width 4.7 cm
Quadband No
Resolution in Megapixels 1.3
Send Images and Sounds Yes
Smartphone No
Standby Time in Hours 400
Talk Time in Hours 9
ThreeG Video Calling No
Touch Screen Yes
Triband Yes
Vibrate Alert Yes
Video No
Voice Dialling No
Wap2 or Higher Yes
Weight 93
With Flash No

Thanks for reading and I hope that my review has helped you decide whether this is the phone for you. It also appears on Ciao under my username.