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The Sony Ericsson G705 is the reinterpretation of the old C905. The G705 is marketed as the perfect balance between business and fashion, while the C905 is considered to be one of the Sony Ericsson flagships. You should aspect great Internet solutions, because of the "G" line in which the G705 stands. However, in terms of style the G705 loses to its sibling, the W705. Even more, neither "G" line nor "W" line offer fashion phones. So why is Sony Ericsson so eager to sell the G705 as a style phone? The answer is not a mystery, once you have seen the specs list. The G705 is not a high tech phone, and it is not a business model either. Therefore, in order for Sony Ericsson to actually sell the G705, they had to bring the style as marketing solution.

The G705 is the second phone in the new Generation Web line. G705 doesn't really have direct competitors, because most of the middle range Samsung models sport touch screens and 5 megapixel cameras. While in comparison with Nokia, Sony Ericsson G705 stands alone. No Nokia model can actually be considered a competitor to G705. The E series from Nokia includes business smart phones while the N series includes multimedia pocket computers. Although G705 is considered to be an Internet oriented phone, other manufacturers offer the same kind of connectivity in their devices without creating a special series.

If you are also looking to get a great music player in your G705 forget it, redirect your attention to W705, with the same specs, almost the same look but better audio quality. Before diving in the advantages and features list, lets present the main disadvantages: the quality materials used in G705 construction, no office document viewer, memory card slot featured under the battery cover, and bad quality video recording. The Sony Ericsson G705 comes in two colors, majestic black and silky gold. G705 is made entirely out of plastic. Then again what Sony Ericsson slider doesn't? Unfortunately, even with the glossy plastic front panel, the phone still looks entry level, and by far middle range.

The four way keys, under the display, are surrounded by the usual Sony Ericsson keys. On the left, you get the activity menu key and a soft key, and the call button. On the other side you will find another soft key, a clear function key and the end call button. The four way pad is good in terms of usability. You can easily use them and they provide good feedback.

This phone only slides down. By doing so, you will get the keypad. The G705's keypad doesn't just look extraordinary, but you can also feel at touch the good design and materials used. You can easily use the keys. The keypad is large enough, providing good distance between the keys. As an overall look, the only quality element in the design and construction of the G705 is the keypad. Although in a direct confrontation between W705 and G705, the winner will probably be the W705, in the keyboard department the G705 would be the winner by far.

The keys are lid with the same white light found on the W705. Because G705 is a slider, the keypad locks automatically when you slide the phone to close position. This feature is not customizable. Just like the W705 construction, on the left side of G705 you can find the interface connector (with no covering material), while on the right side the G705 sports the dedicated camera button and the volume controls.

On the back, the G705 includes, beside the 3.15 megapixel camera lens, a LED flash. Don't look for the memory card slot, because you are not going to find it. The memory card slot is located under the battery cover. On the top of the phone, you will get the play / stop tiny key. This key is not dependent on the locked / unlocked feature of the keypad. Above the display, the G705 features a forward facing video camera and an ambient light sensor.

The phones dimensions are very good, making the G705 portable in any pocket. It has a height of 95 mm, wide of 47 mm, deep of 14.3 mm, the G705 weight almost 98 g. The Sony Ericsson G705 runs in 2G networks (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900), but also in 3G networks (HSDPA 2100, HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100). Sony Ericsson ships the G705 with a 2.4 inches TFT display with a resolution of 240 x 230 pixels, which sports up to 256.000 colors. Really good is the integrated accelerometer sensor for auto rotate. The G705 accommodates up to nine text lines and four service lines. In some applications, this service and text lines may vary (the display could accommodate up to 12 text lines). Even with the ambient light sensor, the G705 display still gets washed out in bright light. Therefore don't expect to write any emails and texts in broad day light. The G705 is equipped with a standard battery, Lithium Polymer 950 mAh BST 33.

The same battery can be found on the W705. Sony Ericsson claims that in 2G network, this battery will last up to 400 hours; while in the 3G network the battery will go up to 380 hours in standby. In the 2G network the 950 mAh battery will allow up to 10 hours of talk time. For an average user, and depending on the Wi-Fi and GPS usage, the G705 should last between 2 and half days to almost 4 days. The W705 has an inbuilt memory of 120 MB, while the G705 sports a 160 MB unit. Just like the walkman brother, the G705 supports expandable memory cards, Memory Stick Micro (M2), up to 16 GB. The connectivity is ensured by GPRS (Class 10 with 4 + 1 / 3 + 2 slots, 32 - 48 kbps), EDGE (Class 10, 236.8 kbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, HSCSD, HSUPA with 2 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and 2.0 high speed USB port. You can use the USB connection of the G705 with three modes.

The most important one, the Media Transfer mode will allow you to disconnect the phone function and transfer at high speed files between your computer and your G705. For a midrange phone, you get a middle range digital camera. G705 comes equipped with a 3.15 megapixel camera (CMOS matrix without autofocus).

The camera can take pictures in four different resolutions, 640 x 480 pixels, 1280 x 960 pixels, 1632 x 1224 pixels and 2048 x 1536 pixels. Just like the W705, the G705's camera takes photos in two quality compression: normal and fine. However take in notice that at the highest resolution (2048 x 1536) with fine quality, pictures will have an average size of 1 MB. Beside the LED flash, the camera also sports features like, self timer, white balance, effects and other settings you can find in the camera menu. Because of all the connectivity packed in the G705, you will not encounter any problem in web browsing.

The offered web browser from the Sony Ericsson branded operating system is quick and stable.  GPS is a powerful feature in the G705. The device also comes with Google Maps for Mobile preinstalled. You also get Location services to help find your way, view information about your current location, or any other locations. Everything works smoothly. The Satellite view and the Map view are excellent rendered on the 24. Inches display. The only possible drawback would be the small autonomy of the battery if you use the GPS continuously. However, you can always choose for a car charger when cross a bigger distance. You should be aware that this phone will not deliver high quality audio, because it would challenge on the market its brother, W705.

Sony Ericsson ships in the containing box, beside the G705 handset, the 950 mAh battery, mandatory charger, 1 GB M2 memory card, user guide, wired stereo headset, USB data cable, and the Software CD. Overall, the Sony Ericsson G705 is a good balance phone. It doesn't have direct competitors. Therefore it is impossible to say if G705 is a good purchase or not. However, if you are interested in great connectivity phones under $350, and you like the slide form, you should take into consideration G705 as a possible purchase choice.