In a nutshell: The Sony Ericsson S500i is a stunningly beautiful slide phone, available in green, yellow, copper & purple. It features beautiful wallpaper artwork and specially-designed themes that change with the time of day and the season. Sensational lighting effects accompany incoming calls - it's a real treat! Combine this with a 2 megapixel camera and video camera, a music player, an optional memory card for storing up to 250 music tracks and you have an apparent winner. But, and it's a big but, the build quality of the S500i has gone to pot completely and these phones are literally falling to pieces as people use them. Our advice - avoid.
Best buy: *Free* with a free Sony PS3 from Dialaphone; or £99.95 on Pay as you Go from the Carphone Warehouse.
"The slim S500i keeps you in harmony with the world around you. Slide the S500i open to reveal materials and patterns inspired by nature." Sounds like Sony Ericsson's marketing guys have been hugging too many trees! They've even coloured their phone green. Hey, cut those trees down and put some phone masts up! Let's slash and burn our way through the forest of hype and discover what the S500i is really all about.
First thing to say is that we really liked the S500i (before the problems became apparent), despite our sarcastic introduction. You look at the phone and the first thing that strikes you is its glossy black finish and smooth, slim form. You pick it up, (wiping away the fingerprints that have just appeared on the gloss surface), slide it open, and the thing springs into life, with beautiful wallpaper artwork and themes created especially for the S500i. The background and themes will even change according to the time of day or the season. The keypad is flat and shiny: probably not the best for texting, but pleasing to the eye. The best is yet to come though: wait for an incoming call and the phone really comes alive with sensational lighting effects. The S500i is available in a choice of colours : Mysterious Green and Spring Yellow. Both will stand out from the crowd, for sure. It's a stunning phone, designed for the pixie in all of us.
In addition to looks, the S500i has gadgets too. It's a mid-range phone, so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the top-of-the-range K810i or the Walkman range, but it has everything that most users will want. The most impressive feature is probably the crisp high-resolution display. This is a bright active matrix display that you can view easily outdoors and it does justice to the artwork and themes of the S500i. The phone also has a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capabilities. 2 megapixels is now considered average for a phone, and this one is nothing special, lacking autofocus and a flash. Still, it's good enough for snaps and video clips.
Although it's not a Walkman phone, the S500i does have a good quality music player, with support for Bluetooth stereo headsets. The built-in memory is small (12 Mbytes) and can store a handful of MP3 songs only, but you can buy a memory card to expand the storage to 1 Gbyte - enough for around 250 songs. Transferring music (and other data) between the phone and a PC is very easy using the USB connection, with drag and drop convenience. You can plug in compatible headphones, or use a Bluetooth stereo headset if you prefer.
The phone also has some useful extras such as a sound recorder, flight mode and personal organiser functions. It has fast internet access via EDGE, support for web browsing, email and RSS feeds. It's also a quadband phone, so you can use it worldwide.
The S500i offers a good level of functionality, including all the essentials, and looks beautiful. However, you should avoid this phone for the simple reason that it will probably break. The phone feels quite plasticky and flimsy, but it's the keypad that's the real problem. The keys just crack, as simple as that. Roughly half of our users have reported that their keys cracked. This is an almost unprecedented failure rate, and really you'd be daft to buy one of these phones knowing that. Better to go for the Sony Ericsson W610i or K810i instead. Or, if it's stunning looks you're after, then perhaps the Samsung U600.
news source : http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/sony-ericsson-s500i.htm
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