Ericsson R520m

I have had my Ericsson R520m phone for over a year and it is GREAT!I have had loads of other phones in the year but felt that it had to be used again by me because the phone is such a great phone and I will be taking this phone everywhere with me from now on!

If anyone would like to send me an email then please do.My email address is [email protected]

I bought the Ericsson R520m mobile phone in August, 2003 in a clearance store for US$56 (or GBP 43). It was supposed to be brand new but for some reasons only the charger and the phone were in the package. I downloaded the software supposed to be on the CD from www.bennysoft.de (a must visit site for R520m user, loads of info + downloads). Featurewise, the phone is excellent even to-date. Phones with similar features but only added better ringtones & skins cost 6-7 times more, often with more fragile build! The software version on mine is R3A so only one version down from the very latest. Hopefully, one does not need to use the lift (or elevator in the US) much. Because you get 'SOS calls only' when you come out. It does not like sudden loss of transmission and cannot recover the signal well. Accessaries are non-existent (maybe from eBay or 2nd hand shops?). Backlit is very week compared to my Moto P7689 (aka T250i). Also, the shortcut function is as inaccessible as other functions, again compared to my P7689. I can see why those who bought this phone with earlier versions of software had gone nut. I guess I cannot complain at the price of $56. I guess this will be the phone I will put into my collection when it retires from service. This is one of the few phones still available with a bit of lightweight metal casing. If you needs functionalities, low-cost (by 2003), sturdy and big phone (good for the poor eye-sight and with a big hand / fingers), then go for this if you can still find it. Make sure you get one with SW version R4A (the very latest version) if you can.

The best phone ever made. All the functions you need (i don't need color). The best radio performance with IAT-10 (behind the 350gr R250s).

When I first got this phone I loved it - feature packed and easy to use. My two gripes however mean I will be ditching it in the very near future - the software is very slow which means a slight pause with every menu select which soon adds up - and worse still is the reception which has got to be the worst of any phone I've had. Poor reception is also a problem of my business mobile - also an Ericsson - and not a mistake I will make again..

The R520m is the successor for the R320s phone, a phone intended for the businessman. This means stacked with all the features they could find.

First looks:

* You will most likely encounter a "Streaking Silver" model, this is the standard model: a silver grey finish on the casing and the keys. The first 25000 phones were "Copper edition" phones, this is a mix of copper and silver on the casing and black rubber keys. Otherwise these editions do not differ from each other in any way.

* The phone is big (13 cm, 16cm with antenna) in the eyes of most people, yet the phone is extremely thin (only 17 mm with battery) and light (about 105 gr with battery).

* The phone feels and is very well-build: no creaking when you put pressure on the casing. The back of the phone is made of magnesium (also used in the frame of certain laptops) a durable yet light metal, the front is made of some kind of plastic, as well as the keys.

Features:

* The phone is a TRI-BAND (900, 1800, 1900 MHz) GSM phone. This enables the phone to be used in Europe, Asia and USA, i.e. a world phone. It also support GPRS and HSCDS for fast data communication with the built in MODEM.

* The phone has built in INFRARED and BLUETOOTH to connect and/or synchronise with other devices (carkit, computer, pda, printer,...)

* It has a built-in SPEAKERPHONE to make conference calls (or for when your arm gets tired of holding the phone ;-)

* It has a VIBRATE FUNCTION.

* It supports 1.2.1 WAP (with encryption)

* The phone has room for 510 phone numbers (each contact can have 4 numbers and an email adress assigned, also room for company name and job title)

* The R520 has VOICE DIALLING and VOICE COMMANDS (there can be up to 50 voice entries).

* It features a MAGIC WORD to activate voice dailling or commands without having to press a button.

* It has a VOICE MEMO function (92 sec).

* It has a LARGE SCREEN with CHANGEABLE FONT SIZES (l,m,s), you can have up to 6 lines of text.

* There is a built-in PIM (CALLENDER & TASK MANAGER).

* CALCULATOR, ALARM (with MOTION SENSOR: just wave over your phone to go into snooze mode), TIMER, CODE MEMO (a vault to put in all your codes and passwords).

* EMS text messaging, this enables you to put small pictures (you can also COMPOSE your own pics on the phone), animations and sounds in your text messages. You can also write more than 160 characters in a message.

* 8 USER DEFINABLE RING TONES

* 2 GAMES (ERIX & TENNIS)

* USER CHANGEABLE BACKGROUND PICS

* Supports 7 PROFILES so you can quickly change a number of settings (ring volume, ring tone, divert calls, ...) .

Performance:

I use the phone in Belgium (Europe) where there is excellent coverage in 900 and 1800 MHz, performance may vary in 1900MHz zones (USA).

* When you have a recent software version (R4A008 or above) the phone is stable, fast, reliable,... When you haven't things are a little bit different, expect to see the phone perform rather sluggish and to have crashes once in a while. Fortunately PHONE UPGRADES ARE FREE while the phone is under warranty, and take about 30 min.- 1hrs.

* When fully charged my phone has about 260 hrs standby time and 8 hrs talktime, with the standard BSL-11 (600mAh, LITHIUM-POLYMER)Battery . This is an estimate calculated by the phone. This is highly dependant on network strength. This is with bluetooth and IR DEactivated.

* At first the size of the phone makes it a little akward to hold but after just a short while it becomes very comfortable, there is enough room to assure a firm grip. Still the phone is not very pocketable, yet I (and I stress that this is my opinion) wouldn't want it any other way.

* SOUND QUALITY is EXCELLENT, very rich sound. The R520 has a BACKGROUND NOISE FILTER. The speakerphone is very usable in quiet environments, with a lot of background noise it tends to be more difficult to use.

* The phone proves to be very reliable and is a real workhorse.

* The big screen is a real plus for WAP and EMS usage.

* I did find that I did need some time to adjust to the keypad, I sometimes needed to press a key twice because it lacks feedback.

* Voice dialling is very usable, you hold in the YES-keys of volume slider (or say the magic word) till you hear a beeb, then say the name of your contact, wait for the second beeb and the say wich number you want to call (home, work, mobile, other). Very nice! You can also switch profiles or record and play voice memos with voice command.

* I haven't used GPRS, HSCDS, so I can't comment on that.

Overal Opinion/ Recommendation:

I will never need/ want another phone.

Buy it! At 100-150$ it the best bang for the buck you'll ever find.

Just make sure you upgrade the software and this phone will blow you away.

The only drawback is the size and rubbish (early) software versions.

It's solid, feature-rich, and inexpensive.

Dietbrand Vandenberghe

Check out Howard Chui's review at: href="http://www.howardchui.com"> Howard Chui

href="http://www.howardchui.com/modules.php?name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=27&page=1"> Direct link to review

The R520m mobile phone appears to have been rushed out of the door by Ericsson and suffers from a slow processor which makes most use tedious.

However... you get bluetooth, tri-band capability, a cool design (that actually feels like a phone - unlike all these micro-phones out now!) and a package that fundamentally works (despite the software speed).

Be careful buying bluetooth PCMCIA cards for your laptop as the hardware seems to be a bit of a nightmare. After speaking to a guy in Ericsson technical support I discovered that the 3Com card I purchased (the one with the cool flippy out ariel) does not work with the Ericsson phone (apparently a 3Com problem! ;))... therefore I had to go out and buy a Xircom card instead. It seems to work - but I did appear to see quite a long lag time on the connection and I do not like the way the software installs -too naggy.

Overall i am very impressed with the capabilities of this Ericsson R520m phone and it's user friendliness. I have to admit that i was astonished at the speed of wap over gprs and the fact that you only pay for downloading is great considering the phone is constantly connected to the net. Great phone and i would recommend it to anyone either travelling to the states or living in the states.

Great looking Phone, but the fault in the initial software leaves the battery life much to be desired. The R520m has recently been recalled by the Ericsson factory. Therefore I found it selling at a 30% discount in HK.

I am using this phone's BT function from 5 metres with the Hewlett-Packard 545 Pocket PC plus the Nokia BT Connectivity Card (Symbol BT is identical) with no problems encountered.

Using Visual IT's Simple SMS V2.0 excellent software on the HP545 with this combination saves your fingers from looking for the hard-to-see letters on the silver-coloured keys.

This was truly a dream come true for Ericsson fans. A great phone with all the features one could imagine. This has indeed been a feather in Ericsson's cap especially after much improvements from its predecessors i.e. R320s and R380s.

The phone comes with an ultra slim battery that can give you one week of battery standby with nominal usage. This is the first time I have truly experienced a phone that needs to be charged once a week. Many other manufacturers would boast this in their brochures but hardly turns out to be a reality.

The phone just got released in Malaysia and its not commercially available yet. DiGi Communications is promoting this model. The Infra Red Port looks very futuristic and not like the traditional ones on Nokia and Motorola. I have not tested the GPRS function as yet but I have read very positive articles about it from the website I've mentioned above. It has also email capability for you to check on the go. I normally do this with my Palm M105.

Ericsson has also included text variations whereby one could use the font size he or she prefers. This also is packed with animation. The calendar is very advanced and far better than the ones in Nokia. They can be sent via Bluetooth. I also travel to the US on business and this would now allow me to move without having to swap any handphones as it supports Tri-band.

The phone also is packed with a speaker phone which gives us a truly handsfree conversation. I've also been told that Bluetooth adds a lot of value to the converstation. The headsets are still very pre-mature in Malaysia. I guess it will comercially be out soon.

My only drawback is if Ericsson could begin to sell the Leather pouch for this phone as it might help avoid it from scratches. The R380s came packaged with it.

In short, I would defientely go for something more corporate like this rather than getting attached to childish phones i.e. 8250, 3310 and etc. This is a phone truly for serious people! Viva ERICSSON!