Sony Ericsson S500i

Sony Ericsson is obviously taking a lot of pride in designing their phones to look and feel really flashy. The S500i is no exception at all. It may look like a simple slider phone at first glance, but believe me when I say it looks nothing like that when it’s switched on. When it’s on, it’s really on. Take a look.

Form Factor
Yes it’s a slider phone that’s really smooth. I have to say this is really comfortable phone to use. The S50i has a brilliant 2-inch screen with a display resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 256k colors. The keypad although easy to use as is a little odd. There seems to be quite a lot of space around the keypad. It’s wasted. If you ask me, I think the keys could have been a bit bigger then. The good thing is that the keypad is dual, as in; it has Hindi alphabets as well. There’s also the shortcut key, cancel button, return and web keys are neatly placed on either side of the 5 way nave pad that has a dedicated camera key on top. It’s easy to use all while working the phone from any angle. The camera is located at the rear and can only be used when the keypad is open.

The volume keys on the side are slim and go really well with the design and on the other side is Sony Ericsson’s (sigh) 3 in one, proprietary connector port for the earphones, USB connectivity and charger.

What I absolutely abhor about this phone is the extremely poor build quality of the M2 card slot located on the to next to the power key. It’s made of, what seems to be cheap plastic that just doesn’t seem to stay shut. Another peeve with the new range of Sony Ericsson phones is the SIM card slot that works with a spring action system similar to memory card slots. You have to push it in till you hear it click in its setting and doesn’t come back out. Similarly you have to push it in till you hear a click and it springs back out. The problem is that it’s situated in a bit of an awkward place so if you don’t have nails, this is not really easy to do. But then again, how often do you keep taking your Sim in and out right?


Misc. Features and Performance
To be blunt, if you’ve seen one Sony Ericsson, you’ve pretty much seen ‘em all. There’s nothing new with the interface nor are there any new applications to look out for. Though the absence of an FM radio is something to be noted. Although the interface may look the same with the same old icons, it’s the inbuilt themes that will really knock your socks off. Ina word, although redundant I’m going for it, Brilliant! There are 2 options a Night and Day option and an Ever-changing option. The night and day theme is simply bright and catchy. The colors will change according to the time of day. Now here's the good part, the Ever-changing theme has these superb animations and bright icons. Changing colors is one thing but to have ambient light that alters according to the theme is quite another. It gives the whole phone an extremely cool and classy look.

The biggest problem with these fantastic themes is that it drains the battery with the many, many colorful animations and screen savers. And if you’re charging the phone there seems to be no indication whatsoever to let you know that the battery is full. Even plugging and unplugging the charger doesn’t help. I guess you’ll just have to take it for granted that it’s full after a few hours of charging. The thing is though, I’m just presuming it’s a glitch in this particular phone, the entire menu and even messaging is just too darn sluggish

Other features that the S500 has is a Bluetooth remote application that allows you to control stuff on your PC like your player or desktop and you can even use it as a wireless presenter. Setting it up to be used like that is a bit tricky though. There are a couple of fun games to play as well. Not very high tech, but they do help pass the time.

When it comes to being your ‘PDA’ the S500 is loaded with calendar functions for reminders, keeping notes and synchronizing the phone to your PC. There’s also a stopwatch, timer calculator and an option for keeping code memos. Unfortunately no world clock. There’s also an RSS reader in the message settings.

Audio and Video
I’ll say this and I’ll say it loud – or I’ll let the S500 speak fro itself – but for you to know, the Speakerphone is awesomely loud. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the music player being used through the earphones. The earphones are actually quite comfy, but just too low. The music player isn’t a Walkman series type but has similarities. You can create playlists, or change the EQ settings with either the presets available or manually adjust the settings yourself. There’s also an option for Stereo Widening. None of these options really make too much of a difference however. Besides having no FM radio it doesn’t have an option for Track ID either. It reads MP3, and AAC+ formats.

The videos in MPEG4 or 3GP format are clear. But here’s a glitch I noticed and again I’m hoping this is one with only this piece. If you open a video through the File Manager and you opt to view it in full screen you even get a navigation bar at the top of the screen. The thing is, that bar is useless. You can’t forward or rewind the file. Now if you open it using the Video Player, you won’t see any bar at the top of the screen, but you can rewind and forward the video by using the nav-pad. But since you cant see how quickly it’s doing that, you wont know if you’ve reached the place you left off or wanted to go to in the video. Bad! Bad little S500! When watching a video though the ambient lights including the other lights of the phone tend to stay on for some strange reason. Another cause of battery drain.

The reception is great in almost all places. Both sound and voice come in clearly, so no problem at all there. The mic has good range if you're using the speaker-phone and also if you’re using the voice recorder. There are also plenty of options in the AV category to fool around with. For example there’s the Video DJ application that allows you to jazz up your videos by adding images and words in between frames or even splicing two videos together. The Photo DJ application allows you to edit your images, and the best of all is the Music DJ application that allows you to pretty much create your own ringtone. That’s really cool, but not new to Sony Ericsson users.

Camera
The 2 megapixel camera that the S500i is equipped with is good. I wish they’d allow you to use the entire screen as the display though. All you have to work with is just a little more than half of the screen. There are plenty of options to choose from though including various White Balance settings, effects like black and white, sepia and negative settings. It also has a night mode and a self-timer. In video mode you have the option of switching off the microphone. The S500 also has inbuilt frames to choose from, or you can even take shots in Panorama mode (which is not bad by the way) or in Burst sequence.

If you adjust the settings correctly the images are really quite good for a camera phone. They aren’t spectacular or anything but definitely quite good.

There is no macro mode so close ups are out, but you can make a few allowances and the pictures still come out nicely.

I have to say the camera is one of the better things the S500i has to offer.

Connectivity
S500 supports EDGE so net connectivity is ok. There’s the option of using the full screen which I would definitely recommend. There’s also an option to zoom into the screen and view it according to your preference. Switching the screen to landscape mode gives you a wider perspective but typing is a real b*t*h though considering the keypad doesn’t rotate. Hey it isn’t the iPhone.

You can connect to your PC using the proprietary USB connector provided. Just be careful with the cord, cheap ones are hard to come by. The Sony Ericsson PC suite is not the easiest to use, so don’t. Another great part about this phone is that it supports Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP compatibility. So if you have a great Bluetooth headset, then you can surely enjoy a great music experience. It doesn’t really offer anything more with regards to connectivity. But that’s not bad as is.

Sony Ericsson has also incorporated two additional applications in the S500i. Using EDGE connectivity you can access information through an application called Accu Weather that, simply put, gives you just that. Information on the weather in various places. Another application is the Audible player, another application for getting music off the net. The PlayNow option is of course just for downloading content.

The Bottom Line
The S500i is actually a really good phone for a street price of around Rs. 10,500. But the biggest problem is you’re going to have to charge the darn battery at least two times each day. Yes it really is that bad. I can’t attribute it to being a faulty piece as there’s too much going on with the phone with the funky animated themes with likewise wallpapers and the ambient lighting that tends to stay on no matter what. But what really bothers me is the poor build quality of the M2 card support and the sluggishness of the phones. So I’m going to say, even though it looks and feels good, the Bottom Line is – it ain’t worth it if the battery’s that bad.



Specs Sony Ericsson S500i

Network GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE
Physical: 99 x 47 x 14 mm, 94g
Display: 240 x 320 pixels, 256k colors, 2 inch
Memory: 12MB internal, M2 external support
Media: MP3, AAC+, 3GP, voice recorder
Camera: 2 megapixels, video
Connectivity: Bluetooth v2.0 (A2DP), USB Proprietary
Battery: 240hrs stand by, 2 hrs 40 mins. talk
Street Price: Rs. 10,500(india)