Sony Ericsson Z520 / Z525
Average Ratings
Needs a "Disable Camera Button" option
Here are my first impressions of this phone.
I've had the phone for one full day. I like the feel of the phone and reception is good (Cingular, Sacramento, CA Area).
I'm a former Nokia user and was fearful that the Sony Ericsson interface would be difficult to get used to. The interface was actually very easy to get used to.
This is also my first flip phone. I'm still deciding if I like the tradeoffs vs. a bar form factor.
Gotcha: If you use an unknown certificate authority, the phone's IMAP email feature won't work over SSL until you download the certificate to the phone. I expected this to be the case, and after downloading my work certificate using the phone's web browser I can now check my work email over SSL. Most Excellent.
My battery level is about 20% (starting at 100%) after about a day of light voice use and automatic email polling at 5 minute intervals. I expect that if I poll less often I might end up with longer battery life.
My one major annoyance is that the camera button lies where my fingers naturally fall when I open the phone. This means I accidentally take pictures often. None of the menus give me an option of disabling the camera phone. The manual doesn't appear to cover disabling the camera, and the Sony Ericsson FAQ and Knowledge Base also had no entries about disabling the camera. This one annoyance might actually make me take this phone back. I'll either have to learn not to take pictures accidentally, learn to disable the camera button, learn to live with accidental pictures or return the phone.
I've not tried the bluetooth or calendar synchronization yet.
love the form factor but...
i have used this phone for a few weeks in the 520i version and really love it. it has the best reception of any i have used in the past two years. Simple interface, great headphone reception with a Bluetooth headset.
Pros:
great Bluetooth implementation
good camera action
easy dialing
very light weight without feeling cheap
good volume controls
Cons:
Cingular says good luck on wireless internet implementation
No iSync for Apple yet
i always hit the camrea button when i flip it open to answer a call
Overall: I would give this phone a 5 rating--and i've tried everything from the Treo 650, through several Nokias and the z500, this is the greatest BUT if CIngular is bailing on their mobile internet for the unlocked version, wouldn't recommend it. (And i'm getting to the poitn where i wouldn't recommend Cingular's bad attitude and service.)
Sony Junk Z520a
- Ugly appearance with a weird swoosh handle antenna.. I really don't mind.
- Cheap Display, not bright.. I can live with that.
- Screen turns on slowly when opening phone.. thats not too bad.
- Battery life not as good as the nokia phones.. I really don't' mind charging it extra.
- Poor camera quality, very very poor.. I can live with that but its hard going from a nokia that took better pictures.
- Cheap exterior plastic, scratches easily exposing the black plastic underneath.. I can live with that.
- Exterior non-programmable camera button that takes more pictures on its own by being in my pocket .. I can live with that aswell.
- Cheap buttons, hard to navigate with and are glued on so they tend to unglue and fall off.. Now thats really pushing it.
- Phone crashing and freezing when navigating through its software.. Now thats bad.
- In the middle of a call phone crashes, hangs up and makes weird noises, making it unusable until you turn it on and off.. Now this is horrible.
How can I even talk about the bluetooth, 18MB free space, and infrared, etc.. after listing all those cons? I can't, this phone is junk & don't be offended if your a sony fanatic, but this is the worst phone I ever had.
Huge Disappointment
I read a lot of the user reviews. So I was really excited and though this would be a great phone. Boy was I wrong. First, when turning on the phone the quality of the screen is horrible. I think it is blurry and no where near what everyone was saying. The camera sucks. I used to take pictures on my v400 all the time. Now, the camera is useless because the pictures are really hard to see. My boyfriend and I have the same phone. My outside display is bad. It is way to bright. On certain wallpapers, I cant read the words or see the picture and my boyfriends is fine. Overall, the screen just sucks.
The camera button on the side is really easy to push. I keep it in my purse and I had more pictures of inside my purse than of actual pictures that I took.
When talking to my boyfriend, our phones cut out and make this awful noise. We try to call each other back and we cant hear each other but the phone call is connected. What good is a phone if that happens to you. We dont know whose phone it is either.
The speakers are alright, i have heard a lot better.
This is the worst phone I have ever owned. I got this phone for FREE and its not even worth it.
another great SE
After reading all the reviews I could get my hands on, I decided to try it out, and I'm very pleased.
I payed 70 dollars($100 to start, then $30 mail in rebate) which I think is a awesome price for such a cool phone.
The screen quality is excellent, compared to the z500, its much better.
The phone its self is small compact and light.
Has a ton of cool features camera, blue tooth, picture and video editing, and a good selection of demo games.
Ring tones sound awesome on the speaker, Sony ericsson gives you a wide variety of tones to choose from, some are a bit odd, but still cool.
Signal strength seems a bit lower than my Moto. Rckr e1, but calls are still loud and crisp.
Something that is really cool are the flashing blue lights, you can set different light patterns to people in your phone book.
Of course you have your alarms, tasks, to-do lists, world clock, etc...
battery life is very good, I'm always playing with the camera and video and get on average 4 days on a charge
Wall papers and themes look great on the internal screen, a bit dull on the outer, and once again Sony ericsson gives you a good variety to choose from, but a lot of the wall papers are extremely weird.
you can get the "style up" covers to change your phones look.
Well worth every cent I payed, beats the razr any day.
Cons::
The camera can be a bit better, I noticed in all sony Ericsson's the camera isn't all that good compared to others, also would have liked to see a flash. Besides that, this phone is p*e*r*f*e*c*t
Z520a and Cingular a good combo
I purchased this cingular branded phone with new service on Cingular. I bought it through Best Buy which had it on sale for 29.99.
I've used a Z600, T610, T616, T637 before, so i'm very familiar with SonyEricsson products.
My impressions after 1 week of use are great! The phones voice quality is excellent. Incoming volume is loud and rich, and outgoing audio is crisp, clean, and it does an excellent job of walking the thin line between blocking background noise and muting ones own voice. The phone is very comfortable to hold and talk on, as well as having a nice keypad for those who like to text.
Features are excellent and I have yet to find a bug in the firmware. The phone loads quickly on startup and has yet to miss a beat, reboot, or do anything unexpected.
My only complaints are 1) incompatible charging port, and 2) camera key can be too easily hit while the phone is rattling around in ones pocket. It's not a huge deal, but inconvenient nonetheless.
Reception appears to be excellent. I have yet to drop a call, be without service, or have any "issues" with reception. Seems to handle hand-offs VERY well.
Battery life may not be quite the box claims. I have no problem using the phone all day but by the end of the day it's at about 50%. The phones monitor does have a nice percentage reading for estimated battery life.
The screen is nice and crisp, despite the fact it's not the newest and greatest screens, but it's very acceptable. It does suffer a bit from visibility problems in sunlight, as previous ericssons have done.
I have used bluetooth with my computer to transfer my old ericsson phonebook (which loaded perfect) and pics, rintones, and a few games and applications and it was flawless.
All in all an excellent phone and I would highly recommend it. With many phones going toward north american tri-band (leaving off the 900 band) it's nice to have a true quad-band fully featured phone at an affordable price.
SE's best moderate price phone in years
SE has finally produced a fully-featured mid priced phone that is extremely high quality. I have been using my Z520 for 3 weeks. Here are the pros and cons:
Pros: 1) Quad band GSM for access to all bands; 2) Bluetooth works great for headset mode, synchronization. Also, I can use the Z520 in dial up mode as a modem for my PDA; 3) Call quality is excellent, good voice quality and great reception; 4) battery life is very good and much closer to SE claims than previous models; 5) flip function is solid. It is very tight with no wobble and should stay that way given my assessment of the construction; 6) color display is very crisp and easy to read; 7) removable covers are available to keep phone looking good.
Cons: 1) No EDGE although the GPRS on this is much faster than my SE T637; 2) The Z520 is on a new accessory platform so plan on acquiring a new set of accessories, chargers, etc.
I would have given this phone a 5 except for the lack of EDGE. I like to have my phone double as a modem for my wifi based PDA when I am outside a wifi area.
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Awesome phone, even in 2014
Carrier: AT&T
I used to have this phone in 2007. The clear and back keys both broke off and the screen broke. I bought another one 7 years later. This phone is awesome. The blue lights are really cool. Ironically, I only use my iPhone for internet and games now.
Pros:
Takes 1280x900 pictures
Beautiful blue lights
PC Synchronization over USB
Infrared
Bluetooth
Replaceable covers
MusicDJ composer
Video maker
Photo editor
WAP browser
Plays AAC, EMY, IMY, MIDI, and MP3 ringtones
Loud speakerphone
Theme capable
Cons:
Volume buttons don't adjust volume on home screen
I'll never use Push To Talk
Well that's pretty much it.
Owned for a long time
I got this phone in a silver color *(not when they had blue).* i dropped this phone many times and the front broke off by the outer screen, i couldn't see the inside and got the p207 afterwards.
it was a good phone. it was a bit bulky, and had problems putting it in my car *= have a little square cupholder thing and it wouldn't fit in there, but it was a nice phone.
the camera wasn't the best nowadays but back then it was one of the best dang camera's you could ever get.
The rings were pretty loud as well. i hope u can get this phone and when u do it will be great. I got the samsung intensity and it is much better then this but get this if u want a nice basic phone
