There are many things to like about this phone feature-wise which is why I've wanted to test it out for a long time: a decent user interface (now improved since the T616, Z600), Bluetooth, speakerphone, infrared (IrDA) and a video/still camera (albeit VGA resolution).Coming from a Nokia 7250 I noticed things like the 65k colour screen and 40-chord ringtones to be a major improvement, but I also just wanted to use a clamshell phone for a while and see how I like it. Keep in mind that whenever I refer to Nokia, I'm talking about my 7250 and its Series 40 version specifically - things may have improved since.
First of all, for those of you who don't know the difference between the funky Asian-style white model (Z520i) and this unit, the "i" is the International version - supporting languages other than English (yes, life does exist beyond North America!). I much prefer the look of the white phone since it's so different than the millions of silver clamshells out there, and fortunately some eBayers do sell complete white housings for people like me - though I'm using this phone for work and I'd rather not sink $30+ into a phone that doesn't belong to me.
Aside from the good stuff about the phone you can read pretty much anywhere I'll describe some annoyances I've come across while playing around with it for almost a week now.
Opening
It's somewhat difficult to open one-handed compared to some other clamshells that have either a looser hinge, or some indentations to put your fingers. My buddy experienced the same issue and along with other things thought it wasn't worth purchasing.
Camera Button
The camera button way too easy to press and is positioned in an area where you would naturally grab the phone - both open and closed. A firmware update has made this easier requiring the button to be held down for 1 second+ but it still takes pictures occasionally where you weren't expecting it to.
Shutter Sound
Although I understand the reasoning, the shutter sound is very loud. Sometimes you just want to take a picture in a non-invadion, non-malicious way and not draw attention to yourself. Unfortunately many electronic products are now designed for the disgusting, stupid people in the world and we now have to suffer for it. In contrast though, the Motorola V3 (RAZR) will let you select between ~4 shutter sounds, or simply disable it. Was that so hard?
External Display
The external screen is somewhat poor - I'd almost rather have a high res monochrome screen that's highly visible in daylight.
Photo Caller ID
Any picture you have associated with a contact to be displayed when they call doesn't even fill the whole screen, but instead is surrounded by a white Polaroid-like border. Good effort, but not really suited for a miniature screen.
Standby Clock
The external screen displays the time when the phone is in standy mode, but the font size is so miniature that you can't read the time from a distance at all. Either put your face right up to it or hit a button to reactivate the screen.
Headset Connector
Since both the charger and the headset connected cover the entire base of the phone, you cannot charge the phone and have a headset plugged in at the same time (obviously Bluetooth headsets don't have this problem). As with my beloved Nokia, proprietary headset connectors drive me crazy. Why is the standard 2.5mm jack so frightening?
SMS
This isn't necessarily a gripe, but since playing with the Motorola RAZR I found myself liking iTAP better than I thought. In the iTAP world, spelling long words like Mississauga or Burnhamthorpe will require as few characters as possible for the phone to recognize the word and suggest it as an option. Both Nokia and SE unfortunately will require you to spell out the whole word.
File Transfer
Maybe it's because I'm still using IrDA and I haven't tried looking for the options (or read the manual) but I can't seem to transfer any files without the phone prompting me whether I want to accept the file. This is pretty annoying when you're copying over 15 wallpaper images and you've got to babysit the phone and press OK for each file coming down the pipe.
The Good
Here are some things I never came across while reading other reviews:
- Massive amount of details per contact (address, email, 5 numbers, Title, Company name, picture ID, Info field).
- Sending an SMS to multiple people can be done either after composing a message or right from the phonebook. A Mark Several option is provided which turns the phonebook into a checklist.
- Words not already in the dictionary can be added, and when selecting the Spell option, whatever word you were trying to spell is in the text field to be edited unlike my Nokia which makes you write it out again.
- For key SMS combinations that have multiple word options, the most used option will become the default.
- When sending the message to a contact, the most recent contact to whom you've sent messages recently are displayed in a list of Send-To's, with a Contacts Lookup topping the list.
- Countdown timer and stopwatch (Not all phones have them - e.g. RAZR)
- The calendar can be searched for a string of text which will return all appointments that matched the query.
- Alarms (and appointments - optional) will work with the phone off, and recurring alarms can be checked on/off for all days of the week.
- A note can be pinned to the start menu as a reminder - displayed as a transparent PostIt covering the wallpaper. They cannot be as long as an SMS but are great for little things.
- Unlike the Z600, you can actually edit a contact's information while in the phonebook. The Z600 forced you to get out of the Phonebook, into the main menu select some Contact Management icon.
- Unlike Nokia's clumsy implementation, you can send and receive pretty much anything via BT or IrDA. The only thing you could send with the Nokia is a contact's "business card".
- Video playback can be seen in full screen mode, which of course requires the phone to be rotated on its side.
- Self portraits can be done with the flip closed and by holding down the camera button for a second. You can see the image in the external screen.
- Standby mode with the flip closed will show a screen-saver-like clock in the external screen which moves around. Any missed events (calls, messages) will be displayed as an icon. The contrast isn't amazing but better than the T616. Touching the camera button (literally) will reactivate the screen in colour and everything can be seen in better detail.
