Sony Ericsson T700 Review

The Sony Ericsson T700 is a sleek new handset by Sony Ericsson which aims to combine stylish looks, decent functionality, and great multimedia functions – MP3 and a nice 3.15 MP camera all into one. It is the newest entrant in the mid range category by Sony Ericsson and succeedsthe moderately popular Sony Ericsson T650. It aims to compete with the likes of the Nokia 6500 Classic, Nokia 5310 and other mid range multimedia phones. In this review, we check out the T700 and its features and see whether it could possibly be Sony Ericsson’s new bestseller this holiday season.

Sony Ericsson T700 Specs:

• Dimensions: 104 x 48 x 10 mm
• Weight: 78 gms
• Display: 2.0 inch TFT display, 240 x 320 pixels, 256K colors
• Memory: 25 MB shared memory, 512 MB M2 card
• Connectivity: GPRS class 10, HSCSD, EDGE class 10, 3G HSDPA,
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0
• Camera: 3.15 MP Camera, 2048 x 1536 pixels, Video – QVGA @ 15 FPS, Flash
• Battery: Standard Li-Po 950 mAh (BST-33), Rated 370 hrs Standby, 9 hrs Talktime

Other Features: Java MIDP 2.0, MP3 / eAAC+ / WMA Player, MPEG4 / WMV / H.263 Player, TrackID, FM radio with RDS, HTML browser

Design:

The Sony Ericsson T700 sports a stylish and sleek design encased in a partly metallic body. It sports a candy bar form factor. It is very similar to the Sony Ericsson W890 in terms of design and dimensions. It is a very compact and portable phone at dimensions of just 104 x 48 x 10 mm. It also weighs in at just about 78 gms which is just about the category average. The metal and plastic body feels very nice and durable. It should easily withstand shocks and bumps. The metallic elements lend elegance to the whole design. The body edges are not rounded but rectangular and the design is minimal. The front side sports just the 2 inch LCD display and the navigational keypad below it. Above the display, you find the earpiece and the ambient light sensor.

The keypad consists of a D pad in the center, the control keys besides it – left and right soft keys, activity shortcut key, cancel key, call and end keys, and the alphanumeric keys below it. The D pad is very ergonomic and very easy to operate. It is nicely sensitive and navigating the menus using it is a joy. All the keys are very responsive and offer great feedback. Typing can be done very fast on the T700′s keypad. The keyboard is also backlght so that you can find your way about it easily in the dark. The right side of the T700 sports the camera key and the volume rocker while the left side sports the proprietary Fast port which can be used to connect the data cable, the headser or the charger. The top and bottom of the phone are completely clean. On the back of the phone you find the 3.15 MP camera, the LED flash and the loudspeaker grill.

Display and Interface:

The Sony Ericsson T700 sports a 2 inch LCD display with a QVGA (240 x 320 px) resolution and 256K colors just like almost every Sony Ericsson phones. The display is nice with good brightness levels. The sunlight legibility is decent and workable. The display is a bit too small, you would expect atleast a 2.4 inch display in a multimedia phone.

The phone sports the standard Sony Ericsson interface, it is very similar to that of the W890. There are slight improvements over the older versions, mostly performance based, which are not very noticeable. Almost all Sony Ericsson phones sport the same interface which has become slightly monotonous, not to say that is bad but we would love to see a new interface – not the same with just different themes. It supports some basic multitasking, which is a great addition.

Multimedia:

The Sony Ericsson T700 comes with the new Music Player 3.0 which is a downsized version of the Walkman 3.0. It supports almost all popular music formats – MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA, AAC+, E-AAC +, M4A etc. The sound quality is very nice but the speakers are not very loud. You will have to use better headphones than those bundled, if you are an audiophile. The bundled earphones will do for most casual users. You won’t find many differences between the sound quality in the W890 and the T700. The Media Center also includes a good video player with a clean interface. It supports fast forwarding, rewinding, full screen playback, landscape and portrait views and all other normal features.

The photo gallery is also nice and easy to navigate through. You can view them as thumbnails and also zoom into them. The FM radio also sports the standard interface. It has nice FM reception quality and can auto scan radio channels. It also has the RDS features using which you can view extra information on a data network. The TrackID feature is still intact using which you can identify and download music directly to your phone.

Camera and Other Features:

The Sony Ericsson T700 sports a nice 3.15 MP Cam which can capture images at a max resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. It also comes with a LED flash which is good for night shots. The camera quality is decent and produces nice detailed images. It can capture QVGA video at 15 FPS. It also supports Geotagging to attach geographical coordinates to images. The camera interface is simple and sports features like shoot modes, picture size, self timer, white balance and other settings.
The T700 sports standard connectivity features like GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G HSDPA as well as Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0. using the A2DP feature, you can listen to your music wirelessly with a Bluetooth headset. It also comes with the Netfront HTML browser 3.4 which handles even detailed web pages quite well.

Battery:

The Sony Ericsson T700 is powered by a standard Sony Ericsson 950 mAh Li-Po battery, the BST 33. It has a rated talk time of 9.5 hours and a standby time of 370 hrs. It does manage to reach that figure with moderate usage. It can last for about 3 days easily with moderate usage.

Pros:

• Nice Design
• Good Pricing
• Nice Camera and Multimedia features

Cons:

• No Autofocus
• Can’t view Office Documents

Final Words:

The T700 is a nice phone with a stylish design, good build quality and nice features. It comes at a decent price which makes it an even better buy. The Nokia 6500 classic is also a good deal at this price point.

Our Rating: 4 / 5.