Sony Ericsson S500 Review

Interface:

As the software of the phone is based on the old Sony Ericsson UI, we won’t discuss all of its features, but just some. This software almost a copy of the one of K800/K810 and is not like the newer one like in W910/K850.


We are happy surprised that this one supports flash themes, which the Walkman phones feature. Preloaded are three themes: Clarity, Everchanging and Day and Night; the latter is most interesting as it changes the main menu view to horizontal list instead of 3x4 grid, which is the standard view.


Phonebook:

The Phone Book is a traditionally good with a capacity for entering 1000 contacts with up to 5 numbers each, though not exceeding a total of 2500 numbers. However, there is the unpleasant drawback of searching by the first name only. As with most of the models of this manufacturer one can add detailed information to each contact, enabling easy access to all important data, concerning your acquaintances. You can also add voice dialing, up to three e-mails and one web-address, a picture, a ringtone, and even more useful information to each contact.

Besides the standard options you may add various types of illumination effects – there is a choice of as many as 16 call lights.


Organizer:

Sony Ericsson have taken care to provide you with an organizer, featuring an abundance of functions indeed, so that you could put your everyday jobs in order and not forget anything important. Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Synchronization, Timer, Stopwatch, Calculator and Code Memo, and are all at your disposal. And before hearing the question where exactly to set the alarm, we will note that it is not to be found in this submenu – it occupies its own place in the main one. Up to five alarms can be set with the additional options of picking a different signal for each as well as setting them to go off on certain days of the week or just once.


The remaining functions of the organizer are standard and well-known from previous models of the company, so we will not discuss them.
The phone features about 14 MB free built-in memory (depending on the installed software) and an option to add a Memory Stick Micro (M2).


Messaging:

The Messaging menu is the one that we are accustomed to seeing in most Sony Ericsson models, providing the opportunity to create text, multimedia or voice messages, as well as e-mails. In order to keep you informed on the latest news at all times, you also dispose of an RSS reader. Sony Ericsson S500 is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/EDGE device, which allows for its trouble free use everywhere – in the USA as well as in Europe and the rest of the world.




Connectivity:

In order to exchange data with a computer, you can rely on several options. For wireless connection, there is the Bluetooth v2.0; the cable from the set will do as well.

The full HTML Internet browser was able to load www.phonearena.com with a comparatively good visualization and only a few “intertwining” texts. As a whole, viewing and reading larger pages will be trouble-free.