Sony Ericsson Z520 / Z525
Average Ratings
Great choice
Recently, my family switched to Cingular. My parents both got Razrs and I (wisely) chose this phone instead. It has practically every feature the Razr has and then some. Since I've never owned anything but Motorolas before this, the interface took some getting used to, but when I got the hang of it, it made Motorola's menus look old and outdated by comparison. I was disappointed that this phone didn't have a true mp3 player but I found a loophole around that: the sound record option. The sound quality of this feature could be better but it works. Overall:
+
-great menu system
-lots of features
-recorder with decent sound quality
-great signal almost anywhere
-light display is a great touch
-extremely long battery life, accurate battery meter
-
-loop antenna gets in the way sometimes
-doesn't have a true mp3 player
-screen takes a second to come up when flip is opened
Z520 ON PAR
Best reception FLIP phone HANDS DOWN. But freezes and low speaker quality.
It came, It saw, It nearly Conquored.
The Z520 has remarkable reception to be a flip phone. In general, from experience, I know that most bar/straight phones (IE: 6010) have better reception than pretty much any flip. This phone however, is the only flip, that compares to the bar phones.
PROS:
Bluetooth AND Infared (makes sharing
ringtones, pix, etc.. cheap and easy)
Excellent Reception (I carry the 6101, and this phone leaves mine in the dust)
Sufficient Memory
Well priced
Easily removed faceplate (the snap on one)
Camera quality isnt bad... isnt amazing either though.
CONS:
I've had about 1/3 of the Z520's I've sold... returned with the same problem... The volume of the ear piece speaker lowers over time and it becomes nearly impossible to hear anyone. If the phone is turned off for several days (about 1 week) the volume is restored to normal for a few months. This happens over and over.
The menu is difficult to use where as it is different from all other brands. Green is go, Red is stop... but not on the Z520
The back light is short... but its not a major issue.
OTHER:
The problem with the screen being black when you first open it, seems like a ridiculous problem to me. It takes like .02 seconds for it to come on. Its just a slight pause. This isnt an issue. Every phone does it, just its twice as long on the z520.
Overall this is a great phone and a great price.
Good cellph but...
Good small size, light w, nice lite show
Cons: sensitive out side buttons, up and down signal, the spoiler like antenna, poor quality ring tone sound (sounds like a twitter), one cant delete the crappy factory ring tones, low volume ear speaker
Great little phone so far!
I bought the Z520A a month ago, and so far I really like it! My last phone was a Nokia 5160 which I had for 6 years.
Pros:
Lots of neat features
Easy menu to navigate
Good sound quality & reception (Cingular)
Loud ear-piece, speaker & ring volumes
Small size
Lighting effects
Fully customizable
Can list up to 3 numbers per contact
Cons:
The camera button is in a terrible spot, right where you hold the phone, and it's too easy to press by mistake. I'm finally getting used to it.
Doesn't come with any regular ring tones.
When trying to take an outdoor picture, you can't see the screen in the sunlight, so you can't see what you are taking a picture of.
I haven't been able to use the speaker phone with the phone closed, I tried holding the + button on the side of the phone, and I even turned off "Open to Answer", and tried it, that didn't work either.
All in all it's a great little phone!
LOVING this phone!
I suppose I'm a bit biased as I've been using an old mitsubishi up until this point, but I am amazed by how much you can do with this phone. And it is so attractive that I find myself just carrying it around and looking at it, and calling myself on it to see the light show (sad, I know). I'm no expert on phones, but I haven't experienced any of the problems people have complained about so I assume they must've been fixed. I got it for 30 bucks plus a second free for my mom as part of a mother's day special and I like it much better than the more expensive phones they had. I don't think you can get many phones with a camera and bluetooth for that price.
PROS:
-bluetooth
-great camera
-beautiful, vivid screen (I can't stop looking at my little animated wallpaper)
-good ringtones
-great reception (very important in a small, northwoods town).
...and much more (I haven't even discovered everything yet)
CONS:
really nothing that I can think of, except maybe that it doesn't seem incredibly durable so I'm really afraid to drop it, but as long as your careful and get a good case it should be fine.
amazing phone
This phone is great. It's small, sturdy, and all around great.
there were complaints about the screen scratching. Well I found out it was just the "protective film" thing over the screen, and you can easily peel it off. Also there were complaints about it taking pictures in pockets and purses. Well this has happened a few times, but the camera button is not that sensitive.
I enjoy the record button, because you can record full lenght songs and use them as ringtones, or just listen to them whenever you want. I also like the way you cant customize everything. From caller id to the external screen. This phone is awesome, and you cant get bored with it.
The reason why you might be losing signal is because your probably blocking the antenna. Its easy to re-adjust tho (you hands that is)
I say go get the phone. It's great, I haven't found anything wrong with it yet!
AMAZING PHONE EVEN BETTER PRICE
I went to the cingular store to buy a pink razr but when you turn it on it has a very high pitch frequency sound. It turned out to be a problem with all the razrs so I decided to go with the sony ericsson z520.
This phone has everything: a great camera takes amazing photos, has video record, blue tooth which is great and is fast to connect. I don't have a problem with my camera button. it is all in color internal and external displays. great graphics and ring tones, it even has a media player. It has changeable face plates.
Everything on this phone has worked exceptionally well for me. I have had no problems. It gets great signal and battery life.
The price for this phone is like 40 bucks with a 50 mail in rebate or if you order on-line you get an instant rebate of 50 bucks so you only have to pay the forty not ninety in a store.
This Phone is Perfect
I have had this phone since December 05. I have only had a few problems with this phone. The first problem was that when I left the phone on all night and someone would try to call me it would not play the ringtone that was assigned. It would say "Sony Ericsson unable to play sound". It was the ringtone that it came with. That was my first problem. My second problem was when I would make calls inside my house. Sometime I get no bars during a call and it will not look for another signal it will just drop the call. I had a moto razr before I got this phone and it would quickly find another signal so that I would not drop the call. My third problem with this phone was the dark grey and light gray part on the phone where the antenna is at the top. They just came unglued on day. This phone has never been dropped due to me always using a bluetooth handset. So I called up Cingular and they sent my another one and have not had any problems except with the signal issue. I did call cingular about the cingular issue and I am located in Atlanta, GA. They said that there was 56 towers in a 50 mile radius. That explains it if you understand. It is always trying to switch to a different tower during a call he said.
Pros:
Great Flashing Light
Loud Ringtones(When they work)
Great Signal When traveling
Bluetooth is Great especially OBEX saves a lot of money!!!
Good call volume
Cons:
Not good signal when inside a house( except if you live within a 1/2 of a cingular tower)
Not a very loud speakerphone
Very soft vibrate compared to my old LG VX4700
Sometimes I have a problem with the voice mail indicator(it will say that I have voice messages when I really do not)
amazing little phone..
so, after a few months of debate, i finally settled in and got myself the z520. i previously had a z500, through which text messages had ceased to flow. and trying to eat your lunch while having your phone nicely tucked between you ear and shoulder gets annoying (not to mention your arm gets kinda tired)
i love the z520. it's nice and small. there's a ton of features in this little thing, i don't know how it happened..
for example, while on a call, you can actually select to record it (and with 16 mb compared to the z500's 6, you can store an awful lot on here)
you can also turn on speaker phone before the call connects through (a big plus from me for that one, as i always had to wait for the person to answer before)
a few things irk me, such as the fact that edge was not included on this phone. or that you can't change how long the backlight stays on for. or that, while it supports streaming video... it doesn't really work when all you get is gprs class 10..
and as for the camera button, i have yet to have a problem with it. my old z500 was the one that documented my pocket for me and subsequently ate up a full battery in about 3 hours..
speaking of battery, as far as i can tell, the z520 has a pretty good life on it. i haven't hit lower than about 63% (it tells you what percent the battery is at too!) even after playing a game for about an hour and downloading ringtones...
so.. pros:
small, light, beautiful design (especially the antenna)
bluetooth
light effects
customisable
good battery life
streaming video (doesn't really work well, edge would've helped)
cons:
no edge
backlight turns off too quickly sometimes
sim card hard to get out the first few times, same with covers
in the end, this is an amazing little phone. low price for high features, even if it does lack in the edge department (you never know how much you love edge until you don't have it..)
For those people with "the screen scratches"
It's a plastic covering on the main display that is shipped from the factory to protect it. If you are a dealer you will notice there is a little bit of white plastic about 1/4 by 1/2 inches touching the screen. This was intended as a tab to pull the plastic coating from the screen, however it generally pulls off without pulling the clear plasic from the screen.
Result? You get a bunch of people complaining that the screen on the Z520a scratches easily.
For the customer... pick at it a little and you'll notice why the screen is so soft and "scratches" so easily.
I realllllllly hope I'm not the first person to say this...
