Sony Ericsson C702

Editor's Review of the C702

Slim at 106 x 48 x 15.5 millimetres and a lightweight at 105 grams, the Sony Ericsson C702 fits easily in most pockets, while giving users a robust and solid feel of the mobile phone. The Sony Ericsson C702 is a rugged handset that is aimed for outdoor use. Thus, it is solid enough to put up with hazardous elements in the environment such as rain and dust.

The Sony Ericsson C702 boasts of a 55.88 millimetre TFT Display screen that supports 256,000 colours at a 240 x 320-pixel resolution. Because of this relatively wide screen, the Sony Ericsson C702 allows better view of messages and other mobile phone applications.

The Sony Ericsson C702 operates on GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900. It allows users to choose from polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, and offers the vibration alert option.

Being a cyber-shot mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson C702 is highlighted by its 3.2-megapixel digital camera with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The built-in camera has an autofocus feature and a flash, and activates through the pressing of dedicated keys for its camera-focused functions. The Sony Ericsson C702 comes with a picture editor, and allows picture blogging to the delight of its photo-digging public. The Sony Ericsson C702 camera is protected by its lens cover in sliding mechanism.

Besides still photos, video recording, playback and streaming at 30fps are also supported by the on-board camera. For video calls, the Sony Ericsson C702 comes with the QCIF secondary video camera.

The Sony Ericsson C702 has 160 Megabytes of built-in memory, but this capacity may be expanded through an M2 micro memory stick.

The Sony Ericsson C702 offers text messaging, multimedia messaging, instant messaging and email client support, and allows photo calling for more personalized phone-to-phone calls. A voice memo or dial is also offered by the Sony Ericsson C702, as well as a built-in hands-free speaker for more convenient calls. Its phonebook allows 1000 contact entries.

Through the Sony Ericsson C702, users can have high-speed access to the Internet via 3G HSDPA, which runs at the rate of 3.6 Mbps. Web browsing is easy with the Sony Ericsson C702's WAP 2.0 or NetFront HTML Internet browser. The mobile phone also has an RSS reader.

For better connectivity, the Sony Ericsson C702 works on EDGE Class 10 at 236.8 kbps and GPRS Class 10 at 32 to 48 kbps.

As an added feature, the Sony Ericsson C702 comes with an onboard GPS receiver in an A-GPS function. Interestingly, the handset's GPS can be integrated with the Tracker to track running route and speed, as well as other information. In the alternative, the GPS can be used with Google Maps for directions and locations.

To transfer photos, videos and other data files, the Sony Ericsson C702 supports both USB version 2.0 and Bluetooth with A2DP version 2.0.

The Sony Ericsson C702 caters to its music-loving market through its music player that supports MP3, AAC as well as MPEG4 formats. Tuning in to favourite music stations is possible with the Sony Ericsson C702 FM radio that comes with RDS. The Sony Ericsson C702 also has the TrackID feature for the purpose of music recognition.

The Sony Ericsson C702's battery offers a maximum of 7 hours of talk time, and 300 hours of standby time.

Users say that while the Sony Ericsson C702 has good features, it essentially lacks an infrared port for that easier mobile phone-to-device transfer. Some users also contend that outputs from the Sony Ericsson C702 camera are of good quality when taken under daylight. However, as the camera lacks a Xenon flash, photos taken in darker environments may not be impressive.

In addition, some owners say that the battery life of Sony Ericsson C702 is fairly adequate when moderately used. However, when the GPS and HSDPA applications are being used, the battery depletes much faster. In this regard, the Sony Ericsson C702 may require limited usage.

Some also point out that while the Sony Ericsson C702's multimedia player functions as it promises, a 3.5-millimetre headphone jack would have made the handset a better music phone. Some keener users find that usage of the mobile phone could become much more convenient with more well-defined keypads.