Sony Ericsson Z610 review: Glossy magic

Small, but important hint

Sony Ericsson has not made any modifications in the phonebook: it fits in 1000 contacts, each of which can be assigned a total of 28 fields, or namely: three email addresses, a picture, a ringing melody, a company name, a complete street address, a birth date etc. At typing these details the phone will ask you whether you would like them to be copied and pasted into the calendar. There is one unpleasant hint though: the above mentioned 1000 contacts could contain no more than 2500 phone numbers in total. In other words, the phonebook would not fit a single number over this amount. Numbers and emails belonging to one contact can be browsed through the use of the horizontal ways of the navigation key.

Five fields to go with each contact

SE Z610 will also ask you whether you want to browse the contact list on the SIM card or the one stored in the phone. Browsing both at the same time is not possible. Searching is done through gradual typing of the initial letters of the desired contact's name. Each name could be accompanied by a picture and a specific ringtone (not applicable in the case of contact groups). Groups could be used as call filters or for sending SMS. Their amount is not limited.

SE Z610 can alert you of incoming calls with 72-voice polyphony melodies. Sound is superb. The phone supports both MP3 and AAC formats. In addition, the phone has a built-in composer for creating your own music. Call service is perfect: ringing can be silenced without call rejection, microphone can be deactivated; conference calls are available too. If you need to make a record of a particular call, feel free to use all available free memory.

Sound records are only limited by the available free memory

Slightly different message font

The message editor works with SMS, EMS, instant messages and MMS as well as with emails. SMS are written on 5 lines en bloc; font has been slightly modified since SE K750: it is bold and perfectly readable even for users with poorer sight. T9 is reliable as usual. Besides, you can deactivate it completely.

Message editor • SMS • work with messages and their settings

Characters get counted down (the last 20 ones) shortly before a message or sub-message is completed. Each message could be divided into up to 10 sub-messages, each of which is indicated by the editor. MMS may contain text, an image, an audio and a video record.

Time organization in Sony Ericsson Z610 is nearly perfect. Its calendar offers monthly, weekly and daily views. There is only one event type. Which day the week should start with is up to you. Accomplished tasks can be marked off. Stopwatch and countdown are available, of course. The only application you may miss here is a measure and currency converter (not a part of phone's simple calculator either). Sony Ericsson Z610 synchronizes in a way similar to SE K600, SE K610 and their forerunners.

  
A complete organizer menu • typing a new entry • month view of the calendar

Week view • view of a particular day • event details

There could be four alarm clocks; each of them could be attached a picture and a text

Stopwatch • simple calculator (does not respect the rules of mathematic operations)

Pretending that EDGE does not exist

Both WAP and web sites are easy to access. The phone transfers data through GPRS Class 10. As to EDGE, it appears that Sony Ericsson from time to time recognizes its existence (see for example the K790 model), and from time to time decides to ignore it (like in this case). The most convenient, of course, is fast UMTS, as long as the network supports it . The phone has a well elaborated WAP browser, which can also open simple html pages (in landscape mode too).

Built-in Internet browser features plenty of options (zoom, landscape mode, etc.)

For close-range communication the mobile can use either Bluetooth or the USB data cable enclosed in the original package. The phone also supports the standard function Mass Storage. The Infrared port seems to have gone away. The original package also contains an installation CD including all necessary drivers and applications.

A crucial extra for Sony Ericsson Z610 is its music player. The player opens and plays all music files available in the phone memory. If you prefer to create playlists of your own, there is no problem. The player reads details from ID3 tags. When it is minimized, however, and a new song starts, it does not display any information about it in the top part of the display. Repeat and shuffle as well as sound modification through an equalizer are available too. The phone has the famous MegaBass preset. In a result, the bass elements get perfectly expressed, while highs and middles rather disappear. Sony Ericsson Z610 does not have a FM radio.

 
Player is elaborated in Walkman style typical for Sony Ericsson • playing in background

Do you find me attractive?

Sony Ericsson Z610 is an ideal decoration for both your conference and home table. Be sure that its illuminated "invisible" display will make everybody around watch your phone with intensified interest. At the same time, it is a user-friendly phone, which will help you organize your time pretty successfully even if you are into "serious business".

Sony Ericsson Z610 will provide you with 3G support, a standard 2 megapixel camera, a music player, and a Memory Stick Micro card slot. Not a bad offer, don't you think? I am just a bit reluctant about the absence of EDGE and Infrared port. The dust-covered camera lens (a consequence of the lack of protection) and the rather unnecessary state diode in one of the phone's corners won't probably excite users either.