Camera Phones Plaza

The Sony Ericsson Z500a is another cell phone with great aspect, a lot of features and a low price, made by Sony Ericsson. Being an entry-level camera phone, it has many features but most of them are classic for a mobile phone in our days.The Sony Ericsson Z500a has a resistant plastic case with an attractive design. In standard, it comes painted in blue and silver but the phone cover can be replaced by another of a different color.

Having 93 x 49 x 24 mm in dimensions and 110 grams in weight, it is certainly a light and slim phone and it feels great in your hands or pocket.  On the front side you will see an external display (which supports 4096 colors) and above it, a camera. On the left and right side you will find the camera shutter, two volume buttons and a charger port (which can be used for attaching headphones or connect the phone to a PC with a USB cable).

If you open the phone, you will find a 1.8 inch display with a native resolution of 128 x 160 pixels.  Even if this display supports 65K colors, it is still one of the cheapest displays which Sony Ericsson has ever used. The images have good quality but you will not see vibrant colors like on the other similar cell phones. And probably the most negative aspect is that this phone doesn’t have a TFT display, so if you are under direct sunlight, there is a pretty good chance you won’t be able to read anything on the screen.

For menu navigation, the Sony Ericsson Z500a has a 5-way controller (including an OK button), two soft buttons, a Back and a Clear key. With these, you can easily navigate in the menu even if you have large hands. The keypad is also very nice. With large keys and enough space between them, a positive feedback and an attractive silver finish you will feel very comfortable typing on this cell phone’s keys.

The Sony Ericsson Z500a has a 0.3 Megapixel camera (VGA) which can take photos at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.  This is another negative aspect because almost all cell phones, in our days, have at least a 1.3 Megapixels camera. Lacking a flash or light assist, this camera is recommended to be used only in good light conditions. The external speaker is pretty ok. It produces clear sounds with loud volume levels. If you want to listen to music, this cell phone supports MP3, polyphonic and MIDI formats. But with only 6 MB of free space, it certainly will not replace your MP3 player. Lacking a card slot, you will be able to keep only several photos and maybe, a song.

Being an entry-level mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson Z500a lacks maybe one of the most important features: Bluetooth. Without that and even an infrared port, you can transfer files from this cell phone only with a USB cable or via email. The LI-Ion battery is capable of keeping this cell phone up for 6 hours of conversation and 260 hours in standby mode. Anyway, for a price of $70 you could say it makes a good average phone for people that are on a budget.