Sony Ericsson Z610 review: Glossy magic

Two megapixels at every corner

Let me now pay a little bit more attention to the main camera in Sony Ericsson Z610. Its maximum resolution is 1600 x 1200 pixels, that is, 2 megapixels. Two other resolution options are available as well: 1 megapixel or VGA. There are two levels of image quality to choose between. Apart from the standard shooting mode, the camera also offers panoramic and multi-shot. Frames are available too. In the menu you will also run into more options like night mode, self-release, and white balance. The exposure compensation is controlled by moving the main key left or rightwards.

Camera interface • setup options • a picture just taken • possible modifications

To take a picture it is necessary to hold the phone vertically. At the same time a shutter release button is missing on either of the phone's sides. Instead, shooting is executed by a press on the center of the navigation key. The camera does not have an auto-focus option. Once taken, each picture could be sent to a blog, that is you create you own photoblog - a unique service developed by Sony Ericsson in cooperation with Blogger.

Each picture could be accompanied by a legend and text. Publishing on Internet takes a few seconds. A single image displayed on the web is sufficient for a blog to be automatically registered. Subsequently, you will receive a SMS with inscription details allowing you to configure your already existing blog through your home computer. Of course, you could easily update your blog straight from a PC too. The entire application is simple and easy to work with.

 
A standard photo plus three color effects

Let me now get back to the camera menu. It is also vertical and seems to have maintained the same structure Sony Ericsson has been sticking to for some time now. In other words, owners of older SE models will manage to get around pretty easily. Yet Sony Ericsson has failed to resolve one weak point: when you modify the setting in one (any) part of the menu, the entire menu closes down automatically. I myself would prefer to close it manually. Now, every time I modify the camera settings (implies changes of more than one item), I need to enter the menu once again.

 

Sample photos in full resolution (click to enlarge)

The images Sony Ericsson Z610 takes could hardly be compared - as to quality - to those taken with the best cameraphones. They are not bad, but cannot compete with the champs. Saturation becomes far too intensive under favorable light conditions. In result, images look pretty attractive, but less natural. As soon as you find yourself surrounded by less or worse light, the small camera sensor creates significant and quite unpleasant noise. Details of a bit farther situated objects come out especially poor.

The camera of SE Z610 does not feature a macro mode, so anything located at 80 or less cm from the lens comes out blurred. The camera has a double digital zoom, which only creates crops and is thus only applicable in the lowest possible resolution. Video is not even worth mentioning as it comes in handy for use in MMS only. Just think about it: what else would you manage with QCIF (176 x 144) resolution? When a video is being shot, the phone offers you the option to automatically limit record's duration so it can be subsequently inserted in a MMS.

 
Text came out pretty poor

User friendly file manager

The file manager used in Sony Ericsson Z610 belongs among those best on the market (in the category of phones without OS). It allows you to select files (single or multiple), copy them, move them; it also creates or deletes folders according to user's will. The manager is divided into three basic parts - one for files in the phone memory, another one for the files stores on the memory card, and a third one that combines the files from the former two parts all together.

Three items in the file manager

I used the manager to try to find out the exact capacity of the internal memory of SE Z610, about which the manufacturer makes no official statement. The result is 20 MB.

 
Visualization of each of the submenu views

Work with images is intuitive. They could be dealt with in the form of either a mere list, or a list with previews. The name of the respective file is visualized in any case. The date it was made gets displayed in the list with previews only. The phone also offers a visualization of 2 x 2 or 3 x 3 matrix with images, where file names remain invisible. Work with videos is quite similar. Each image preview could be zoomed-in up to 32 times.