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Review

10/8/05
Cingular Wireless

While non-gaming related, everyone goes through the pains of finding a reasonable phone service without breaking his/her wallet. For myself I impulsively signed up with Cingular via 1yr contract due to T-Mobile's increasingly unreliable service around Cambridge and suburbs. T-Mobile claimed Sony Ericsson's T610 has reception issues, bugs, etc leading to phone freeze ups while dialing or dropped calls. Considering T-Mobile has a great policy of unlocking phones, mine was unlocked 90 days before the contract was renewed. While at Cingular I asked a worker about coverage, areas in question with TMO were fully covered by Cingular. Had them check my phone, it didn't freeze or other weird issues with a Cingular SIM. Anyways I took the advise to opt for the discounted Sony Ericsson Z500a since it supports the 850 band which the T610 doesn't and $59 is cheap. As the Z500a charged, gave the service some testing at home with my T610. Results were zero phone freezes when the carrier name shows once turned on, zero freeze while placing a call and best of all a clear sound with two bars of reception(with 2 bars on TMO you begin to have choppy audio and 50% chance of a dropped call). After the Z500a finished charging, reception was full bars due to the 850 band and noticed the menus for this phone is a noticable improvement. More on the phone below.

 

Cingular's Sony Ericsson Z500a is a flip camera phone with a small external screen for caller ID, MP3 ring tones, basic media player and this phone lacks bluetooth & infrared port. Personally I disliked all the phones carried by Cingular, it was either shell out $250 for the awkward flip-out Sony Ericsson S710a with bluetooth or suffer menu hell with a Motorola $150 V551 and $200 RAZR. At this point, yeah I'll have to consider buying a BT enabled phone while overseas than wait. 6mb of memory is a bit weak for a camera/video phone, since I never really used my T610's camera feature, its doubtful I'll use either on the Z500a. Also the external screen is a viewfinder for self pictures/video while the phone is closed via holding the picture button for a few seconds. Speakerphone mode is useful, personally I find it better sounding than a family member's Motorola V330(T-Mobile) as at loud volumes it rarely distorts. Included games were demos, one is a 3D Field Golf which is an ultra-short demo that ends with a nag screen to buy the full version and the other is called Block Breaker Deluxe which isn't too crippled so you can still play 5 levels then restart. The Sony Ericsson site is weak on games for the Z500a so the freebie "Darts" game is rubbish compared to Cingular's pre-installed Block Breaker Deluxe. In many ways without bluetooth I can't use my headset or dial numbers via my Dell Axim X50 so I do miss my T610. As for connectivity, if you opt for Cingular's pricey MediaNet plan the phone can browse the net, email, AIM, ICQ, and has slots to add new instant messenger support. In my opinion I'd rather leave instant messaging at home than have to deal with it while on the go. I read this phone can be used as a modem or tether to a laptop to browse via MediaNet... in this review it wasn't tested because there isn't any need to and the data cable is required.

Overall its a good phone, you could buy a data cable to add ring tones/themes, offload pictures and maybe install java games. The hinge is more solid compared to cheaper flip phones and it actually clicks once fully opened so you'll know. With all other colour screens they're impossible to read in the sun, its the same with this phone but not as bad vs Motorola's V330(T-Mobile)/V551(Cingular). The external colour screen is a great touch for caller ID and doubling as a viewfinder when taking a picture/video clip of yourself. While testing my old wired handsfree kit which was included with my T610, it actually worked on the Z500a as does the same power adapter.

Cingular coverage:
-Downtown: Full bars, zero dropped calls or distortion.
-Subway: Cingular's coverage is good on the greenline esp tunnels but no network on the Red, Orange and Blue.(I'd guess TMO & Verizon has an exclusive deal with the MBTA eh?)
-Kenmore Sq/Commonwealth Ave: 3-4 bars in many areas, roughly about the same reception with T-Mobile.
-Harvard Square: Full bars, zero dropped calls or distortion.
-Harvard Yard: Solid service even when it drops to three bars. where buildings are more closely together. I've heard from others T-Mobile has zero reception on any phone in certain areas so it isn't completely a SE T610 issue.

Ratings
Cingular Wireless: 4 stars out of 5 (Great)
Pros: Reasonable pricing of phones, bringing back the 1yr contract option at Cingular "retail" locations allows better flexibility for consumer choice. GSM carrier like T-Mobile, you can buy any unlocked phone elsewhere and use it, if you opt for this route get a phone which has 850 and 1900 band... without the 850 band, you'll have roughly the reception of a T-Mobile customer and that can be crippling for reliability.
Cons: Almost like T-Mobile the phone selection leans too far towards the typical American marketing of "free phone" with 2yr contract and usually within 1.5yrs if the phone doesn't die you'll need a new battery which may cost the price of a new subsidized phone.
Cingularized Sony Ericsson Z500a: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Spiffy)
Pros: Design has an integrated antenna, roughly the same size and thickness of a Motorola V330/V551. Keypad, lid and hinge seem more solid compared to the Motorola V330/V551 so if you have no need for bluetooth or hate antennas, this is great phone.
Organizer feature has always been a great feature with Sony Ericsson phones, this will sync via cable and to Outlook for Windows users. Price with a 1yr contract is reasonable at $59($63 w/MA sales tax) or 2yr contract via Cingular's website is free.
Cons: Lacks bluetooth & infrared port so the only connectivity is with a data cable. Organizer support is just Outlook for Windows users with the optional data cable and can't be used with MacOS X's iSync. Battery stats from Cingular list 3.5hrs talk time which in my tests were roughly a bit better than that, SonyEricsson's website seems to be far off or they based it on short calls. It was puzzling to find this phone has the right button dedicated to a mediaplayer, this feature seems useless because 6mb shared memory or 4.5mb free is barely enough for anything(ex if someone added ring tones, themes/wallpaper, games or just random pictures/video). Built-in mediaplayer is only useful for browsing mp3 ringtones... I doubt Cingular will add any streaming audio via MediaNet as you'd burn through 1mb of data on the base plan quite easily. If this phone was offered by T-Mobile, their unlimited data plan would actually make this an awesome time-wastin' phone... then again TMO USA is unlikely to carry another SE phone due to the T610.

Notes: While I'm a customer of Cingular and T-Mobile, both companies have their own coverage issues.
My reason for jumping to Cingular is having a reliable mobile service with decent audio quality and a company which stands behind the service that was sold with the phone. T-Mobile on the other hand enjoys renewing customer contracts when they bump minute plans and offering zero discount on any phone upgrades... retentions with T-Mobile will pressure the unheard of 2yr line renewal contract.
Customer Care like tech support varies from very helpful to blaming a customer's phone then wondering why you haven't taken advantage of the phone upgrade option at the end of your contract/calling plan change. After having a months service credit($80) and another line credited for 6 months($10/mo) based on reporting a continuing service issue, its likely my family will be switching to Cingular very soon.

Phone Specs:

The specs here are from the Sony Ericsson website
Talk time w/GSM 850/1800/1900: 5.5 hours (City of Sims test: 3.5hrs)
Standby 250 hours (not tested)
EDGE: 5.5 hours (not tested)

Imaging
Sound recorder
Picture gallery
Picture effects
Picture Phonebook
Picture wallpaper
Camera integrated
E-mail
Instant Messaging
SMS long (Text Messaging)
4X Digital zoom
Themes display
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
QuickShare™
Video streaming
Video record
MMS Video
Camera VGA
Video Clip
Screensaver
Viewfinder display
Predictive text input

Entertainment
Melody composer/MIDI (MusicDJ™)
MP3 Audio
Media Player
MPEG4 Video
Content Online
Music tones
Games Embedded
Games Download
Java™

Connectivity
Sync ML
EDGE
GPRS
High Speed Data
USB support
RS232 cable support
Synchronization PC

Internet
WAP 1.2.1
WAP 2.0
Modem
WTLS

Controls
Vibrating Alert
Camera button
Internet key
Navigation key
Menu shortcuts
Icon Desktop 12
Selection keys
Side Volume Keys
Voice Mail
Voice control

Organizer
Code memo
Calculator
File manager
Calendar
Tasks
Speaker phone
Stopwatch
Contacts
Memory dynamic
Alarm clock
Timer
Phone book
Conference calls
PIM Sync

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