By Damian Koh
04/06/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,42689974p,00.htm

The Sony Ericsson G700 is part of the Japanese-Swedish company's series of Web-enabled phones announced earlier at this year's Mobile World Congress.

Design

Admittedly, the G700 doesn't excite since the design aspect follows the trialed-and-tested candybar formula. In the hands, it's a different story altogether. Our G700 review model doesn't feel shabby at all, providing a nice heft all around. What we really like is how everything, from the keypad to the 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD, to the front-facing video call camera, is tightly integrated to maximize the front real estate of the handset. It is also remarkable how the company still manages to fit nice, stubby buttons on the keypad.

At the back, Sony Ericsson has chosen to use a ribbed pattern casing which feels nice to the touch. Even though it may be purely for aesthetic purposes, suffice to say that other than the front display, you won't be dealing with greasy fingerprints on the G700. On the same side of the phone are the onboard speakers, a 3-megapixel camera and a pair of LED photolights.

The proprietary connector is on the left edge of the phone, stacked above the M2 expansion card slot. Beside it is an indicator LED that lights up in red when the phone is charging, green when there's an incoming text message. Sony Ericsson has also included a dedicated keylock button on the side which ended up being one of the most frequently used keys on the handset. LG's KF700 model also has a similar keylock feature.

The metallic stylus has a translucent tip and is located on the upper left corner of the handset. Unfortunately, the stylus is a tad too short for comfort. To sum it up, the ergonomics of the G700 is excellent.

Features

Even though the G700 is a touchscreen phone, its touch UI is positioned as an option. Sony Ericsson has kept the left/right softkeys, which we think is a great move. This will help capture a group of users previously reluctant (or skeptical) about adopting touch interfaces, preferring the precise tactility of conventional buttons. Unlike the K850i Cyber-shot, the three dashes below the display serve only as markers and are not touch keys.

The G700 is a full-fledged smart phone in disguise. It runs on the Symbian UIQ platform with 128MB of RAM. That puts it on par with the W960i Walkman and the P1i, but with a much sexier design. In reality, that would give something for everyone, from the average Joe looking for a smart phone that's not over the top, to the business user who wants something that doesn't look too serious.

On the default Home screen is a row of touch menus nested on the bottom edge. These are large enough to be used with our fingers, and swiping it left or right does the job of scrolling to the next option. There are only four shortcuts to commonly used applications, but more can be added from the settings. Once you've done a proper configuration, there's a high chance you won't ever need to go into the phone's menu. Calling up the task manager immediately shows the list of opened programs and provides an option to quit the application to free up memory resources.

Previously, when we wrote about the G700, the HTC Touch Diamond hadn't been announced yet, much less a chance to see the TouchFLO 3D in action. Now that the Diamond is a reality and we've spent a considerable amount of time with it, we feel Sony Ericsson still has some ways to go for touchscreen displays. The iPhone proved that interface is king and the Touch Diamond serves to cement that point. We aren't saying the interface isn't good on the G700. In fact, we think it's great for a mass-market phone, providing the touchscreen option without making it the sole input method. However, when put alongside its competitors, the G700 touch properties pale in comparison.

The G700 obviously isn't Sony Ericsson's first attempt at the UIQ interface and it has done much to improve this over the years. The upgraded Note application is a result of the upgrade. This comes with its own dedicated hard button on the phone's control bar. We could scribble, type or draw on the note, change the background color, file them according to different categories, and send them directly to a blog or to another person via Bluetooth or MMS. Although decent, we won't consider it a killer feature that would make you rush out and buy the G700 just for this.

Other features of the handset include tri-band GSM with 3G connectivity, Bluetooth stereo A2DP and FM radio with RDS. Pity there's no Wi-Fi, which would have made the G700 an all-rounded smart phone. The media interface is similar to many of the current Sony Ericsson models we've talked about, so we won't delve into that.

It's another regret that the camera module doesn't come with autofocus capability, so we don't recommend going too close to your subject when shooting. Otherwise, we like the punchy colors of the pictures taken with this 3.2-megapixel camera and the onboard LED lights lit up evenly during our tests. In addition, the phone's display holds up well under bright sunlight, typical of Sony Ericsson phones.

Performance

The 950mAh Li-polymer battery is rated for up to 12 hours of talktime and slightly over 15 days on standby. On average, most users would be able to get about two days of mileage from a fully charged cell.

As mentioned earlier, the G700 runs on the Symbian UIQ platform with 128MB of RAM. However, we found the phone very sluggish, especially when opening applications. For example, if it wasn't already running in the background, opening the message folder took up to 5 seconds at times. The performance took a further beating when we were listening to music via our wireless earphones or watching videos. The latter caused our review unit to crawl to an excruciatingly slow speed and even stop responding on occasion.

The onboard speakers were very loud. In fact, it was much louder than we expected, to the point that the music jarred even when not at maximum volume. In the hindsight, you probably wouldn't miss a call on the phone.

Conclusion

There's a lot to like about the G700 when it comes to features. Most importantly, its touchscreen appeal coupled with a conservative hard button approach should make the G700 a popular choice. Unfortunately, the phone's sluggish performance is a letdown. It probably wouldn't matter as much to the mass market, but smart phone users would likely be bothered by this.

What the G700 doesn't have, the G900 gives. For those looking for a high-res camera with autofocus and Wi-Fi connectivity, the G900 fits the bill.