Sony Ericsson S710a

Sony Ericsson launched the S710a in 2005, the second flip phone launched in the United States after the Z600. Dressed in a basic black pattern, this handset has an attractive form factor with its screen that rotates 180 degrees in order to expose the keyboard. We’re dealing with a rather bulky handset that measures 4.2 x 1.9 x 1.0 inches and it has a curb weight of 4.8 ounces, which means that it will probably don’t fit in smaller pockets.

It has been fitted with a 2.25-inch display that is able to reproduce up to 262,000 colors and at the time of its launch, it was one of the best to be fitted on a mobile phone. However, you won’t be able to see what’s on the screen when under direct light, and also the display is vulnerable to smudges. We should also mention that you don’t have the possibility to adjust the size of the text and the backlight time.

Below the display you’ll notice the main navigation controls with its silver buttons that are set far enough apart, but on the other hand these are quite slippery. The 5-way navigation toggle can be programmed as a shortcut for four user-defined functions, and you’ll be happy to hear that the front face swivels easily in both directions.

The backside of the Sony Ericsson S710a has been designed to resemble a camera and comes with a useful sliding cover that protects the lens and the self-portrait mirror, while the flash is sitting to the side. Once you open the cover, the camera will be turned on automatically, but we should mention that the swivel has to be in a closed position.

The phonebook is able to hold up to 582 contacts and for each you can add various types of information, like five phone numbers, URL, e-mail, address, notes and a business title. Also on board you will find a bunch of organizer features like a task list, calendar, notepad, timer, alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, along with a secure area for storing passwords. The phone also has a vibrate mode, voice recorded, instant messaging, a WAP 2.0 wireless web browser, text and multimedia messaging, USB port, PC syncing, Bluetooth and support for IMAP4 and POP3 e-mail.

The one megapixel camera can take photos in four different resolutions, the highest one being 1,280 x 960 pixels. It comes with an 8x digital zoom, four picture effects, multishot, flash, night mode and four white-balance settings. It is also able to record videos in MPEG-4 format with sound at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144.

The battery has a rated talk time of 7 hours while the standby time is 12.5 days.

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