Introduction
Although this review may seem to arrive too late as the Sony J70 is
hardly a newcomer on the market, it still has a very interesting price/functionality
ratio.
Appearance and impressions
The phone sports two catchy things: design and menu. On the one hand, the
phone is not small from the today's point of view (113X44X21 mm), on the
other hand it weighs just 92 g. It's currently one of the lightest models
available at less than $150. This model is well-balanced: it easily goes
into a shirt pocket making it a little bulging; and it doesn't sink in
your hand but has an appealing look. There is nothing extraordinary in
design, but this handset looks nicely from 2-3 meters. And once you take
it in your hands you can't help falling in love with the J70 :-).
The case and buttons are entirely plastic. But the phone doesn't look
cheap. Sometimes plastic buttons make the overall impression worse: just
take the Motorola V70: the handset is quite expensive but after just a
couple of seconds one would hardly agree it's priced over $500. On the
contrary, here the buttons are easy and soft to press. As they are
small, it's not a problem to dial a number blindly even for a beginner.
The graphic screen is able to display several gray gradations which
is actively used here; at 96X92 the screen displays up to 5 text lines,
though they are used much more seldom here as compared with other phones
as the Sony J70 incorporates the standard navigation system in the form
of bubbles located in a circle. The most part of operations is connected
with a Jog Dial which, unlike to similar dials of pocket PCs, this one
rotates by 360 degrees clockwise and counter-clockwise. Some users which
never used cell phones or PDAs of Sony before the Dial handling can be
a real problem, though this is exactly what owners of Sony devices really
love here. However, after a week of continuous tests I still faces some
problems in handling it. For example, I couldn't get used to the pointer
that moves to the left when I turn the Jog Dial up in the Calendar. It
certainly must move to the right! :-). There are no more disadvantages
in the only controlling element. It's easy to use both for left- and right-handers.
Unfortunately, there is no a cable for PC connection, and the phone
lacks for an IR port. That is why you will have only pre-set tones and
wallpaper samples at your disposal. But the phone allows recording your
own ring tones using the microphone. Just imagine: you are walking in the
street your handset starts shouting: "Damn, it's my boss!". You press the
response button and say: "Glad to hear from you, Mr.Black". The effect
is striking. The passers-by really like it :-).
The pre-recorded tones are quite melodious and you will probably hardly
want to add your own, though you can easily record any melody even when
driving a car: just make sure the radio-recorder is loud enough.
The built-in speaker gives a high-quality and discernible sound, but
sometimes its power is not sufficient. For example, the hands-free mode
can be used only in a quiet room. When in a car, you must listen very attentively
to hear what the other part is telling you. Next to a busy highway you
can miss calls. By the way, the vibrate alert is not always helpful: you
will feel it only in the jeans or shirt pockets.
Menu
The menu is typical of Sony, but it differs much from models of other companies.
The Jog Dial will help you to navigate: you must turn it to place the pointer
over a certain item and press it to choose the item you need. Press the
Jog Dial in the stand-by mode to enter the menu and a bubble carousel will
pop onto the screen. There are 9 bubbles in all: messages, sound, settings,
divert, phone book, history, extras, time-table and WAP.
The Message item is in charge of everything that's related with reception
and delivery of SMS. Apart from reading new messages, you can send an images
or a melody. By the way, the preset images look very pleasant.
The Sound item makes possible to choose a ring tone or record your own.
It's interesting that you can assign a separate tone for a given group
of subscribers. It comes in handy taking into account there are a great
deal of groups, for example, family, friend, office, client, business,
skis, golf, tennis, football, fishing etc. - 30 in all. I think it's enough
for even the most talkative user, because it's impossible to create new
ones.
In the Settings menu you can choose a language and a logo, adjust contrast,
set a network (which is important if you use roaming). You can also look
through the statistics of the memory: sometimes it's interesting to know
how many people are recorded into the phone book.
The call divert bubble looks ordinary, that is why we will jump it over.
The phone book, where you can add or delete phone numbers, houses up
to 500 entries. Each number can have its own type (home, mobile etc.) and
group. If your friend have three numbers (say, home, mobile, and work),
you will have to make three entries.
The History menu stores information on all incoming, outgoing and missed
calls. It's pleasant that beside the number the phone informs you about
the date and time of calls.
The 7th bubble is called Extras. Here you can find Clock (the world
time is also included), Calculator (which can also be used as a currency
converter), E-mail client and games. There are 4 games: Bananas, PicPuz,
MindBlaster and SandArt. The first one has a lot of siblings on desktop
PCs and modern PDAs. There are two monkeys bombarding each other with bananas
(in PC it can be tanks, towers, gorillas etc.). You are to choose an angle
or a throw strength. The Bananas can carry you away for hours, but after
that you won't even think of it as it makes you bored quickly :-). In the
PicPuz you can build a picture out of small squares or just put all squares
with figures in order. In the MindBlaster you are to guess a sequence of
numbers. Sometimes it takes hours. As for the last game - SandArt - I failed
to get an idea of it. There is a sand-glass above, the sand pours out to
the bottom of the screen making small piles. What I'm to do is not clear.
The time-table underlines the days when you have plans. In all other
respects, it's a usual organizer.
And the last bubble is WAP. The WAP browser works well, jokes can be
read. It's a typical menu.
Impressions and thoughts
The phones leaves a very pleasant impression, at least, thanks to its polyphonic
melodies when the handset even vibrates a little. Sometimes it irritates
that I have to use the jog dial - but for lack of its substitutes we have
to go with it.
Unfortunately, you can't use combinations of numbers in the menu. Sometimes
I have to look for a certain item several seconds lots of times a day.
First I couldn't' find the SIM menu. As it turned out, it's necessary
to press and hold the central key to enter it. At default it opens the
WAP browser, and you can't assign another task.
I couldn't find any traces of profiles in the menu as well. Again, you
have to press and hold the call button to get to the screen a line with
4 buttons of audio profiles.
If you have already bought the Sony phone, remember, that instead of
pressing the Jog Dial after entering the pin code you can just press the
hash button to switch the phone on. In most cases it simplifies the procedure
of turning it on with one hand.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, this is not a business model as it lacks for new wireless
technologies such as BlueTooth and GPRS, and even an IR port. But I consider
it quite a cutie, it will please not only Sony fans but also any student
wishing something original and inexpensive. You must agree that Nokia or
Siemens phones are too widespread, and the J70 with its polyphonic ring
tones and small weight looks much more stylish.
Write a comment below. No registration needed!
