Sony Ericsson S700

The Sony Ericsson S700 mobile phone is just an upgraded K700i, which was a great device. Imagine adding a 262K screen, and a more capable speaker to the K700i? You get a Sony Ericsson S700.

Let's discuss the key features:

This mobile phone is an exception among all Sony Ericsson phones! The reception is simply outstanding (unlike most Sony Ericsson's). You just need one antenna bar to be able to converse smoothly. Of course this also has its own drawbacks, which is extra battery consumption. With a 780 mAH battery (the K700i had a 700 mAH) and such a big screen, don't expect much from the device. The most you can get out of the phone is two days under normal usage.

Messaging follows the same set of rules as in most 3rd and 4th generation Sony Ericsson mobile phone's - very intelligent while simple to use. For example, the phone capitalizes the first letter after a period. You can also draw a line under the sentences (by pressing # twice). The symbols are also very complete, and you can find almost any sign you want. You also have the choice to insert a number of smileys, therefore expressing feelings in your text.

The contact book is also very easy to use, but one setback is that you can only assign 5 numbers to a name (like most 3rd and 4th generation Sony Ericsson's). You can also attach additional information to the contact, including email, address, and other information etc.

The best part however, is that you can easily transfer your numbers on to the Contact book from the SIM card and vice versa. When you copy a name in your contacts to your SIM card, it breaks up the contact and its phone numbers, and decodes them into a format recognizable by any other Sony Ericsson device. For example, if a contact name has 1 mobile number and 1 work number, it is saved on the sim as xxxxx/M or xxxxx/W, where xxxxx is the contact name, /M is for mobile and /W is for work. /H stands for home, /F is for fax and /O is for other. If you had to reset the phone, in which case your contacts in the phone are lost, you just need to copy the SIM information to the phone, and the device recognizes the format and positions the right number under the right attribute. All the /M's to the mobile of a contact, /W's to the work of a contact, and so on. This format is universally understood by all 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Sony Ericsson mobile phone's and devices, but it won't work on other brands (don't try it with other brands, you would wind up losing your contact information).

The camera is above average. It's just like the K700, but it's 1.3 MP. Since the screen has a far better resolution than the K700, you get the impression the images are of better quality, but once downloaded to the your PC, besides the fact that it produces a larger resolution than the K700, the overall quality is the same.

This was all good news. Now for the bad news...

The design is weird. The phone is not for drivers, or even walkers for that matter. You have to be very careful when rotating the keypad. It's almost impossible to do it with one hand. With 2 hands you have to rotate the the keypad first, and since you have a better grip holding the keypad, you have to rotate the whole phone to hold it in the right position.

Occasionally when searching for a name in the contacts, I found it easier to scroll all the way to your desired number. This especially happens when you are driving. However, most menu options are accessible without the need to rotate the keypad.

As I mentioned earlier the battery is also not satisfactory, which is understandable considering the screen size.

The phone comes with 32MB of internal memory (30MB for user) and a 32MB of external media in the box (expandable up to 256MB), which is not quite enough if you like carrying your music with you.

Overall the phone is nice. In the morning look at the screen, and you will get a good feeling which stays with you the whole day.

All in all, the Sony Ericsson S700 is an acceptable mobile phone, despite a couple of minor shortcomings.

It is stylish without being flash, and manages to find the right balance between being small enough to carry (and, of course, look cool), and still be large enough to be used by adults.