Sony Ericsson Z610i

Sony Ericsson may have made big headlines with their slim 'Ai' concept phone, but the current line up of phones seem entirely oblivious to the success of the slim RAZRs. The Z series of mostly women-oriented phones continue putting on pounds with the new Z610i.

Design

The phone has a very glossy, mirror finish on the top, just like the Motorola KRZR K1. The Z610i also has an external display that's hidden away underneath the shell, however, it's a monochrome display unlike the KRZR's. But even then, it does look better since you can't see the edges of the display; you only see the text from outside. Also, text is more legible on the Z610i's mono display compared to the KRZR's color display.

As mentioned before, the Z610i is a pretty thick 2cm phone that I didn't feel like carrying around in my trouser pockets. Even in the hand, it felt quite bulky. The phone is also considerably heavy at 110gm. The inside of the phone shows off a large 2.0-inch screen, but it is marred by a low resolution of 176x220 only, though it shows 262k colors. Most of the text is too large for comfort and graphics don't look as sharp as you would expect a 2.0-inch display to show. The aforementioned external display is 128x36 pixels.

The keypad is well spaced out, but the keys are too flat, making the Z610i a fast-typer's nightmare. Even the backlight of the keypad is quite low and the very finely printed text and numbers are not easily visible. On the other hand, the 5-way navigation pad was a decent experience and should present no problems like the joystick on the K700i/K750i does.

Tech

The tri-band only, EDGE-lacking GSM/GPRS radio on the Z610i may not sound too interesting, but the phone does have 3G support with video calling, Bluetooth stereo A2DP and a driverless USB 2.0 interface that you can just drag and drop from. You do need the proprietory USB connector, but you won't need to carry around your driver CD. I still prefer the KRZR's standard miniUSB connector, but the driverless feature is a good step.
The phone memory is only 16 MB, but the Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot gives you the option to upgrade.
Browsing the web on the Z610i is nice with the built-in NetFront XHTML web browser. The lack of EDGE is a disappointment, though.

Conclusion

For Rs. 16,000, I feel the KRZR K1 is a better option. It doesn't have 3G, but it has EDGE and that makes more sense our side of the world. It has more internal memory and a more standard microSD slot compared to the Z610's M2. The battery life of the KRZR is also better. Still, more women around the office liked the Z610i at first look, compared to the RAZR’s first reaction, so there you go.