Sony Ericsson Z710i - Little Package of Style, Performance, Music

The attractive, clamshell design of the Sony Ericsson Z710i is not as trendy nor as thin and lightweight as many other handsets currently available, but it is a nice, well-made mobile phone that offers superior performance and excellent music capabilities. The typical Sony mobile is available in two colours, a sophisticated twilight black and a lighter metallic sand.

The Z710i is very user friendly and quite comfortable to hold and operate. The keypad offers a nice, functional design with well spaced buttons and a convenient backlight display. Navigating through the menus and accessing the phone’s features is simple enough for even novice mobile phone users.

The capabilities of the Z710i are nothing extraordinary, but the phone offers most of the essential features, as well as a decent camera and an excellent music player. The phonebook has adequate storage for most users, holding up to 1000 contacts complete with street addresses, and provides plenty of organizational tools including group assigned ringtones.

Ringtone possibilities are endless with the Z710i. The phone can use both MP3 and AAC formatted ringtones or you can download new ringtones through Sony’s PlayNow service. With a fun feature called MusicDJ, you can even create your own polyphonic ringtones. Any of these can easily be assigned to individual contacts, as well as groups. Photos and videos can also be assigned as ringers, but they will not appear on the outer monochrome display screen.

The outer display screen does, however, make it convenient to use the music player without ever opening the handset. The display shows all the vital information about the track being played and the easy to use controls border the screen, including a locking mechanism to prevent pushing the controls accidentally.

The Z710i’s music player is typical of Sony Ericsson’s superb detail to music capabilities. Supporting all major formats, the music player also offers excellent play list and playback features and includes an FM radio as well. The user interface of the music player is simple to understand and quite friendly and the music automatically pauses when a call comes in.

The 2 megapixel camera offers decent picture quality, but doesn’t compare to many of the more sophisticated camera phones currently available. The Z710i features a self-timer, night mode, and digital zoom but, disappointingly, doesn’t have a flash feature. The camera can also record video clips with sound and the phone is installed with PhotoDJ and VideoDJ for editing and formatting options. A starter version of Adobe Photoshop is also included with the software.

The Sony Ericsson Z710i is a good looking, practical mobile phone. With excellent connectivity and plenty of productivity features, as well as a good camera and an outstanding music player, the Z710i is an ideal mobile for business users and personal users. The Z710i offers reliability and superb performance at an affordable, mid-range price.

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