Abhinandh

The $180 3G phone from Sony Ericsson…

With 3G services all set to start from january 2009 here in India, I was planning to get a 3G supported phone as my first mobile. After doing my bit of research in various websites I went for the Sony Ericsson G502. It’s been almost a month so here goes the review….

Looks and Design:

The Sony Ericsson G502 is available in 3 colors – Premium Black, Brilliant Hazel, Celerity Red (I own the black one). The design of the phone is not the most stunning but it is good enough to catch the eye at the first look. The screen is a 240×320 pixel TFT which is stunningly crisp and clear even in broad sunlight. The G502 weigh’s just 83g.
The ergonomics need a special mention here… the keypad is a breeze to use. The four way navigational keys are a bit different but I got used to them in no time. The number keys have a bright white back-light and the Accept/Reject keys have an orange back-light.

Performance and Connectivity:

The signal reception is Good. The battery life is good too. The charge lasts for about two full days on moderate use. The interface is slick and responsive to navigate through.
Regarding the connectivity, there is Bluetooth with A2DP support. 3G connectivity with HSDPA is also present apart from the normal GPRS support. Another gripe is that there is no USB cable or the software CD along with the standard packaging! As soon as the phone is connected to the computer, a menu pop’s up asking the mode of connectivity – Phone mode(to be used with SE pc suite), Media Transfer, Mass Storage and Pictbridge.

Camera:

The camera is a 2MP one without auto-focus or flash. Another major quirk is that you cannot zoom while capturing images at 2MP. I hope a software update fixes this. The PhotoDJ app on the phone is cool. You can add frames/text/effects to your images.
Camera quality is not exceptional though. The camera is OKAY to snap a quick picture or two.

Media and Applications:

G502 sports walkman player v3 which supports a wide variety of formats. The media manager interface looks very slick with smooth animations. The volume through the external speaker is loud and clear. FM radio is also present and can be heard through the speaker. An FM alarm can also be set. The quality of video’s is good.
The applications on the phone include a push email client, an RSS reader, Google maps, Stopwatch and a web browser with cursor support.

This phone has a 32mb internal memory and support for expansion using Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) (upto 4gb). The memory card is hot-swappable.

PROS:

• Slick and responsive interface
• Many music formats suported
• RSS reader and push email
• A browser with cursor support
• 3G with HSDPA

CONS:

• No zoom under 2MP mode in camera
• No USB cable/CD bundled
• No EDGE support (It does have EDGE as I get an ‘E’ icon while browsing)
• Poor camera without autofocus and flash

P.S: Due to data loss on my hosting provider’s server, some comments of this post have been deleted. Apologies for that.