Simple Technology Choices - Cell Phones - Cingular Sony Ericsson Z520a Review

The Sony Ericsson Z520a from Cingular

Ease of Use: Overall Rating:

Reviewed by Jamie Lendino 7/15/06

The Z520a is a beauty; it’s hard to believe this is a free phone. The Z520a offers some high-end features, including a clear color screen, a well-lit keypad, and extra frills including games and a media player.

The phone’s design leans toward high-tech, with silver accents and blue lighting. We liked it but we can see how some might call it gaudy. The screen is a lower-resolution model, but Sony’s clearly designed interface graphics help considerably. The phone has an odd shape due to the external antenna, which looks like a mini “handle”. You don’t feel it in your pocket, despite its cumbersome look. The hinge in particular feels like it would withstand a building collapse. It clicks into place each time you open it, and once opened, it doesn’t give at all.

The keys have good weighting and curved, raised surfaces, making it simple to dial. Unfortunately the control pad is more difficult to navigate; you have to aim carefully in order to press Left or Up without accidentally pressing another key. Sound quality was generally stellar, a nice surprise for a free phone. The z520a sounded better to us than the more expensive T-Mobile Samsung T609. Like with the Nokia 6102, our testing model didn’t let us send photos, though we were able to scroll through our pictures without a problem (they’re automatically saved each time you take one).

Phone settings are stored in profiles. To make changes to your default settings, such as ringer volume, silent mode, and answering calls using any key, you have to navigate to the Settings icon, which then opens up a tabbed menu with 5 pages. There are 12 icons on the main menu screen, allowing for the large amount of extended features. Confusingly, the phone defaults to a letter prediction process. When we tried to add the names of new contacts, the phone was (uselessly) trying to predict what word we were typing in. To turn this off, press More, scroll down to Dictionary, and select Off; then things become much easier.

Overall, the Z520a is a good value and a nice looking, nice sounding phone. It’s not the overall easiest to use, but we’re nonetheless thrilled with this solid, free option from Cingular.

Pros: nice design, good value, great battery life
Cons: external antenna, slightly complicated menu system

Details:

Sony Ericsson Z520a
Carrier: Cingular
Price: Free with 2-year contract
Dimensions: 3.2 x 1.8 x 0.9 inches
Weight: 3.9 ounces
Camera: VGA
Bluetooth: Yes
Card slot: None
Battery Life: Up to 9 hours talk time

Ease of Use Rating: 3.5 stars
Rating: 4 stars