Sony Ericsson Z320 Review

This is an unlocked GSM phone which can operate in
the US on AT&T and T-Mobile.

“Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke”. That’s the basic principle the mobile phone manufacturers go by, especially when it comes to the lower class models. An example of that can be seen in Sony Ericsson’s new budget clamshell – Z320. Just like previous models from the Z-series, this one has replaceable front and back panels, so that you can easily change your phone’s look.

The package includes:

• Charger
• User guide
• Sony Ericsson Z320
• Battery BST-33

Design:


Z320 is a compact classic clamshell (85 x 47 x 19.5 mm/3.4 x 1.8 x 0.8 inch), weighing at 90 grams (3.2 oz). All the outer edges of the phone are rounded giving it that “gentle” look. The only thing protruding on the front panel is the camera, and right next to it is the speaker. The black line under them, which has the Sony Ericsson inscription, can trick you into thinking that there is an external display also. Unfortunately, there’s only a simple indicator with four icons, similar to the one seen in the budget line phones by Motorola. The first one lights up on incoming call, the second on a missed call and the last two let you know when there is a message received and when the phone is in silent mode. Keep in mind that those stay lit up for about only 20 seconds after the corresponding event, and afterwards you’ll have to press one of the volume buttons to check them. Actually, the volume rocker (on the right side) is the only button accessible without having to open the phone. It is a big and easy to press. Right next to it, we have the eye of the infrared port. The universal connector used both for charging and for connecting to accessories or to a computer, is on the left side.


You can compare the Motorola Z320 to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.

Get ready for a more extravagant scene once you open the phone. On the top half, we have a 1.8” STN display with 65k color support and 128x160 pixel resolution. It has a nice (high) brightness level and you can use it even in direct sunlight.

In the bottom half we see the five-directional navigational button, which has five other buttons surrounding it; two soft, back, clear and Internet. They are large but are not relieved and are pretty hard to press. The D-pad is not the most comfortable one we have seen either, but it does the job. The keypad looks as if it consists of separate buttons, but this is just a visual effect achieved by the concaving outline. The lack of relief here is also problematic. All keys are lit in white and you’ll have no trouble using them at night.

Overall, the phone has a very nice design, especially with the option to change the front and back panel plates. So far, the only color options announced by the manufacturer are Crimson Red and Atlantic Blue.

Interface:

We are well-acquainted with the consumer interface from many other low-class models of the company. The icons in the main menu are arranged in a 3 x 3 grid, and you can choose from a few preloaded themes. The main menu is easy to use with nothing to confuse the user. There is some lag when opening different applications, which is typical for the budget phones of the manufacturer.



PhoneBook:

Even though the main menu is characterized by the ugly icons (because of the low resolution), the phonebook is the same used in the top models of the company. It gives you the opportunity to store up to 1000 contacts also adding e-mail, web address, picture ID, ringtone, birthday etc., to each of them. Here we have the call register, combining the last calls sorted in separate tabs for calls made, accepted and missed, which is very convenient.



Organizer:

No innovations here. The organizer features the following functions: alarm, applications, calendar, tasks, notes, calculator, timer, and stopwatch. The calendar offers a view of the current month and week; you can set one single alarm and one recurrent.

Messaging:

The messages menu is also well-known from previous models of the company; it contains options for creating text and multimedia messages. T9 can be used for faster text input.

Connectivity:

Sony Ericsson Z320 is a tri-band phone, mainly intended for Europe and Asia (900/1800/1900 MHz). An American version (850/1800/1900 MHz) has been announced, but it still has not been officially released on the market. As we expected, the Internet browser has the problems typical for the budget phones – it does not load the pages correctly, it is pretty slow (uses only GPRS), and when you try to navigate to a more complicated site, it “surrenders” by telling you “the page cannot be displayed”.

For data transfer you will have to solely rely on the infrared port, because of the lack of Bluetooth. You could also connect the device to a PC, but such a cable is not present in the package.

Multimedia:

For storage of pictures, video and JAVA apps you have about 12MB built-in memory and a memory card slot is not to be found anywhere. The available memory actually depends on the preloaded applications and in our case, we have only 9MB free.

There is no media player, but at least you can use an MP3 file for a ringtone. Sony Ericsson Z320 supports different JAVA applications, which can be downloaded from the internet. In our review unit, we had only one installed by default – the game Johnny Crash “Stunt Man” Does Texas, which is fun to play. It is a very simple game, perfect for wasting time while waiting or traveling. Furthermore, that type of cheap phones is usually bought for kids and they will love the game for sure.

Camera:

The camera is 1.3-megapixel with 4x digital zoom, intended for picture snapping only and it lacks a flash of course. As expected, it doesn’t offer any exciting options or features, but you can set the size and the quality of images, use the self-timer (on/off only), add various effects and to change the white balance. The night mode is basically useless and you’ll have to live with the fact that you can only take pictures during the day. The camera has a performance typical for a budget phone; the quality is enough to take a picture of a loved one or to show where you've been. The pictures taken with it definitely cannot be used in the family album or put in a frame and hang over the fireplace.

Performance:

The ringing sound is clear, but not loud enough if using the standard ringtones.  That, in combination with the comparably weak vibration, can result in missing  calls frequently if you are on the move or in a noisy environment.

While talking, the phone left us with mixed feelings. The sound you hear is somewhat muffled, but clear and overall above average. On the other side of the line the your voice is heard as monotonous and unclear, something that cannot be compensated by the good volume. The bad design of the receiver, which doesn’t let you position the speaker close to your  ear, adds to the overall unpleasant experience.

It’s nice that Sony Ericsson have decided to use identical batteries used in their latest models. This way Z320 works with BST-33 (950 mAh), which can be seen in the recently presented G-class of the manufacturer. Despite of the strange call time data mismatch provided by Sony Ericsson (7 hours for Z320 versus 12 for G700), we think that try least. The fully charged battery died in about three hours of talking and countless new records in Crash Jack.

Conclusion:

As we already said, Z320 is nothing different than the previous low-class models of Sony Ericsson. Since it is not intended as a media phone, it lacks FM Radio, Music & Video player. The camera is more of an extra and will probably not be used that often. Nevertheless, we still have the advantages characterizing a budget phone – simple menu, long battery life, reliable construction.

If you are looking for a cheap clamshell and don’t care about the extras, but still wouldn’t mind the nice design you’ll like this phone. It is also very appropriate for a present to a child.