Sony Ericsson txt pro Review

Introduction:

The Sony Ericsson txt pro is a compact feature phone with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. The physical keyboard is its most attractive feature as the phone comes with a dedicated Friends application for sharing Facebook and Twitter updates. The txt pro is social at its core – it was even announced on Facebook to Sony Ericsson's fan audience of 5 million. The phone aims to keep heavy texters content with its 4-row physical keyboard, but also with an affordable price and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The struggle and agony of the txt pro lies in the fact that it's a feature phone with a touchscreen, one of the few left out there and it will inevitably face comparisons with low-end Androids. And it will inevitably lose them. Despite that, Sony Ericsson has equipped the phone with the Touch user interface, on a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen.

Design:

The Sony Ericsson txt pro looks very compact, but not in terms of its waist line. It weighs 3.53oz (100 g) but it's as thick as a brick at 0.71” (18mm). The 3-inch scratch-resistant capacitive touch screen comes with a resolution of only 240 x 400 pixels. The screen is responsive to touch, but we wouldn't say that translates into smooth flicking and tapping - the problem seems to originate in the interface or the slow processor. Otherwise, it has average viewing angles, but it attracts fingerprints, smudges and all kinds of human finger debris at an alarming rate.



You can compare the Sony Ericsson txt pro with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Apart from the screen, the design of the device is very toyish, a feeling conveyed by the plastic materials used to build the phone, but also by its miniature dimensions. Except for that cheap feeling, it looks well built and we were particularly happy with the nice soft touch coating on the back cover.

The side sliding mechanism is sure to take a hit as the common user would pop it open and close it multiple times throughout the day. That's why we were happy to report that it felt solid in operation. Popping the keyboard in and out happens with a distinct loud clicking sound (a bit too loud, actually). We found it to be just a tiny bit harder to slide it in and out than we would like to, but you get used to it.


The 4-row QWERTY keyboard on the Sony Ericsson txt pro is definitely small, but it doesn't feel packed - buttons are well spaced for most hands, but bigger thumbed users still might have difficulties operating them. The big majority though won't have a problem using it. The buttons are slightly tough to press, but you get used to it in a matter of minutes.


On the front, a half-circle home button, a signature feature of Sony Ericsson's latest handsets adds instant brand recognition, but is also very big and easy to press, overall a welcome addition.

Interface and Functionality:

The Sony Ericsson txt pro needs a SIM card to work, but once it's in there, you get the green light to dive into the corner Touch UI. Well, dive might not be the best word as the Touch UI is pretty shallow in comparison to even the most basic Android build, but with a feature phone that's what you get. The overall feeling is of sluggishness – the phone responds to your taps and touches, but does so with a perceivable lag all over the menus. It's not terribly bad, but it's there.


The txt pro offers rich contacts and messaging applications. With full QWERTY you can type away as fast as you wish, but if you choose not to use it, you'd have to struggle with a virtual T9 on-screen keyboard as there's no virtual full QWERTY option.

Except for the standard contacts application, which is pretty straightforward, your contacts are also brought together in the Friends app. It adds a layer of social networking integration to the standard phone number/email style of contacts. You have to first grant it access to your Facebook/Twitter accounts through the Settings menu, and then you're all set for reaching your buddies via those networks. The Friends application displays five of your favorite buddies with a big icon, a nice visual treat in the otherwise slightly ascetic Touch UI. If you use social networks a lot the app might prove to be somewhat useful, but the Friends app is no replacement for a native Facebook/Twitter app, which we don't have on the txt pro.

But back to the corner Touch UI, it's associated with corners for a reason - you have four icons in the four corners of the interface. Accessing those is easy, while right in the middle are your three side scrollable home screens.

Sadly, even though the phone supports microSD cards of up to 32GB, we found some basic options like copy/paste/move of files missing. There was no file manager to help our cause of moving the files either.

Camera and Multimedia:

The Sony Ericsson txt pro comes with a 3.2-megapixel fixed-focus camera, which lacks flash. A dedicated camera shutter key helps snap photos faster, but you'll also have to make do with a shutter sound which cannot be disabled. After each of the shots, you are automatically taken to the last picture taken, which can be a bit of a nuisance as it cannot be disabled and basically means that you can't snap two pictures quickly one after another.

Overall, the camera is as basic as it can get with no adjustable settings whatsoever. If you tone down your expectations, though, you'll find that it performs reasonably okay shooting stills with fairly accurate color reproduction and decent amount of details for such a low-level shooter.

When it comes to recording video, again you have no settings, no complications – just the record and stop buttons. With the poor QVGA, or 320 x 240 pixels of quality, you don't need them as the video is only good for viewing on the small 3-inch screen.

Sony Ericsson txt pro Sample Video:



Multimedia playback on a 3-inch screen is not the best experience out there, but it's something we can imagine some will use. The txt pro only supports playback of MPEG-4 encoded videos at a resolution close to its native 240 x 400 pixels, but those we tried ran smoothly. The music application supports cover art and organizes your tracks by artist, song and album. The loudspeaker on the back of the phone produces loud and clear sound, increasing the chances of you using the phone as a portable media player.



Internet and Connectivity:

The lack of 3G might be one of the biggest drawbacks of the Sony Ericsson txt pro, but even with GPRS/EDGE and Wi-Fi support, the phone does have a basic Internet browser. Don't get your hopes too high – pages render terribly unnaturally on the small screen, getting divided into subpages, so that a single simple webpage will often load as two, three or more subpages depending on its complexity. Double tap and mutltitouch are a no go, and you can't even zoom in or out. Of course, you can always resort to Opera Mini, which works much better, but that's hardly an excuse for the stock browser on the handset.


The handset should also appeal to texters and Facebook/Twitter addicts, but again we have to stress that for both there is no app, only shortcuts to the mobile versions of the two websites, which is a downer given the browser.


In terms of connectivity, the handset sports Bluetooth and FM Radio with RDS, but no GPS or maps application.

Performance and Conclusion:

For a feature phone like the Sony Ericsson txt pro, call quality is of paramount importance. But the handset has taken a shortcut here, as the microphone seems to be on the cheap side judging by its terrible audio quality. Our callers reported hearing us very unnaturally, with plenty of digital noise interfering with our conversations. The earpiece of the txt pro produces loud and clear sound, but overall the call quality of the phone disappoints.

A small 3-inch screen means plenty of battery life, a luxury smartphone users don't have. We easily squeezed three days of use, but we could imagine you could go for even four with the 1000 mAh battery on the handset.

The price of the Sony Ericsson txt pro stands at nearly $170 (120 euro) off contract, putting it right in the low-end class.

Its positive sides include a touch screen, the physical keyboard, a cute toyish design and Wi-Fi connectivity, but some of those look nearly like a necessity for a phone today rather than a bonus. On top of that, it has a sluggish interface and terrible browser which has trouble loading most pages. The txt pro will only suit people willing to overlook all of its flaws for the QWERTY keyboard, while for the rest an affordable smartphone sans keyboard like the Samsung Galaxy mini will be a much better alternative.

Sony Ericsson txt pro Video Review: