Sony Ericsson Z710i

Expected Q3 2006
20th May 2006

A close relative of the W710i, the Sony Ericsson Z710i is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE, a 2 megapixel camera, 176x220 pixel display, Bluetooth and expandable memory.

A look at the specification sheet shows that basically the Z710i is a W710i with several features removed - for example, the Z710i only has a 64Mb memory card bundled (compared with 512Mb), it lacks the Walkman media player and fitness applications, and it comes in a more conventional housing (although it does still have external media controls). The orange coloured external display on the Walkman version has been replaced by a pretty looking blue colour 128x128 pixel panel.

Sometimes though, less is more. And the Z710i is a much more practical and sober business phone than the "Walkman" version, and it still features 10 hours talktime, an email client, personal information management tools, a web browser and RSS news reader. It still comes with a decent multimedia player and an FM radio, and of course you can always buy more memory if you want to. And as it's a quad-band phone, you can use it pretty much anywhere in the world.

The Z710i comes in two colours combinations, "Twighlight Black" and "Metallic Sand". We prefer the look of the latter, although both handsets look quite smart.

Sony Ericsson intend to sell the Z710i in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and and Africa. In addition, there will be a Z710c version available for mainland China.

Of course, not all business will want the digital camera, and we have the feeling that if Nokia were to make a handset like this, then they'd make it a Symbian smartphone. Still, the Sony Ericsson Z710i seems to be a good overall package that will appeal to business and personal customers alike.

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