Sony CMD-Z5 Review

Watch this item
Sony CMD-Z5
3.9 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.9 out of 5

From 1 rating and 37 reviews

Thumb up 78% of users recommend this product

Best Price: £FREE !

Rate it Now:

Click on the stars above to rate this product:

Tweet This Item


tn.'s Review of Sony CMD-Z5

18th Jun 2002

Overall Rating

1 stars
  • Value for money
    1.5 stars
  • Reception
    4 stars
  • Features
    1 stars
  • Style
    4.5 stars
Good Points

Compact, lightweight.


Bad Points

Daft 'jog dial' needs two hands to operate; poor sound; see main review for further gripes.


General Comments

The first Sony CMD Z5 mobile phone I had resulted in a lot of conversations with people who kept saying 'pardon?'. The sound was distorted at their end (though I could hear them clearly). So I got another one. Now whoever I talk to can hear their own voice echo - it's about a 1 second delay. Dodgy microphone, perhaps? Twice??

The 'jog dial' - what is the point of a device that requires two hands to operate? It's a real pain.

Texting - write a text message and hit 'send'. OK, what's your mates mobile number, then? You'd better have it memorised, because you can't summon it from the phonebook. I followed the manual on this and it didn't work. So I tried other vaguely plausible methods. Didn't work. So now I write the numbers down on a piece of paper before texting. Sigh...

To be fair, the Z5 is small and light, the battery life is OK, the screen is clear, and it's visible with that flappy thing shut...but that's it, really.

Soon as my contract runs out, I'm getting a Motorola or a Nokia.

Tweet This Review

On average, people found this review helpful

How helpful did you find this review?


Members' Comments ontn.'s Review

  • Mr_Yogi. on 20th Aug 2002

    Small note to ur review u can access the address book after u have written a txt msg. On the screen where u enter the telephone number push the jog wheel either forward or backwards (can't remember which - one takes u to the address book, one takes u back to the msg composer) and that takes u to the address book, find the number u want and push in the jog wheel in and the number u want is now ready to send. Just a note about the jog wheel, it scrolls up and down, you can click it in and also pull it towards u or push it away from u, all directions have different funtions, the manual doesn't make the towards and away movements obvious.

  • Procky. on 12th Dec 2002

    It's true, the echo effect is annoying! The only solution I found out is to turn the volume of the earphone to the lowest position (just use the jog dial while talking). Regarding the Text-Messages: I don't know which firmware version your Z5 has, but if you have finished writing your SMS, press the jog dial: 'Send to:' appears in the display and a hint how to get the phone book is displayed at the top of the display: Push the jogdial to the back and you can scroll through your entries (although you can't use the groups you habe specified)