Sony Ericsson Z550 - user opinions and reviews

Sony Ericsson

Voting results

Design
7.9
Features
7.9
Performance
7.9
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the phone is pretty decent. Good on features and looks. But there is a single feature which i seem to be having problem with. Am not able to set different ringtones for different profiles. The phone takes into account the ring volume, silent mode, vibrator on etc into consideration when saving profiles, but ringtone never seems to be considered.
Could some one please tell me if my observation applies for ur mobiles too.. or is thr anyother manner thro which i need to save the profiles.
The Mp3 ringtones dont seem to play loud at all. i tried 64KBPS and 128KBPS ringtones. Have to experiment with 320KBPS and see if the I get a decent volume.
The memory cards are ridiculously expensive. Here in Chennai, India... I found the 256MB card to cost over 2500rupees(almost US$50) even in the black market. The original card which has come thro the normal customs seems to be costing Rs.4000(almost US$80). While the phone costs Rs.8800( almost US$176), the memory card is not reasonably priced at all.

Otherwise the phone is just quite good.
I was able to install a lots of free java applications from (www.getjar.com) and lots of free themes,wallpapers,screensavers etc from (www.zedge.net). U can even host your own wap site in zedge and this enables u to download the stuff thro gprs. Thats so Cool.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-11 18:36
  • 2SM%
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To fenrir_bob:

Oops. I meant "sturdy" and not "sturfy". It is not flimsy at all.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-11 08:34
  • F4pr
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To fenrir_bob:

The hinge mechanism is totally unlike the bad quality one on the Z520i. The implementation is spring loaded and feels very sturfy. It feels very Samsung like.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-11 08:33
  • F4pr
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To DarkRay,
Can you comment on the hinge mechanism, does it feel flimsy in any way?
Thanks

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-10 23:26
  • nu6$
  • U

i'd like to know if the display quality is similar with K750/W800 or W550?
it's important since W550 display is definitely worse than the ones in K750/W800/K608 etc.

i have owned all the phones.

and then the camera.... is the quality similar with W550 or K510??
also important since W550 cam is sooo bad compared with K510.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-10 08:32
  • PFne
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To DarkRay:
Thank you very much!
Yes,that was a lot of help.
Thank you for taking time to answer my query.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-09 17:30
  • PSkW
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To (no name):

As far as I know, flashing the K750i with W800i's firmware is possible and you will get all the functionality of W800i, including the upgraded media player and "flight mode". But I do not think it is an easy task.... plus, you probably void your warranty. There may be additional issues as well.

Try reading and searching esato.com/board as well as sonyericsson.howardforums.com. Lots of relevant information on this issue.

Hope this helps.... :-)

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-08 23:53
  • F4pr
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To" DarkRay
This isn't about the Z660 but i'm just trying my luck if you know the answer to this since nobody's answering this question of mine in the W800 and K750 page.
If i flash my K750 to a W800 would everything realy be like W800? I mean the "flight mode" and walkman and all it's fucntions?
I hope somebody can help cause i'm applying for a phone and service and submission date is only two days away.
I like the flight mode and the walkman functions of the W800 but I love the K750's design.
So i'm thinking of getting a K750 then have it flashed into a W800. Which leads me to my question...

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-08 20:19
  • PSkW
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To DarkRay:

Aha ok, thanks for making it clear to me. Now I understand why it said 40 on one site and 16 on another. I mixed them both up. Well I've really decided now to go with this phone...I love it already =P And the better part is that it's now available in stores here =D So I will be ordering one tomorrow!!

Thanks again for all the help!

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-08 01:35
  • S3f@
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To dorian:

I think you may be confused about voices and channels (which should really be called polyphony formally). The number of voices determines the maximum number of unique instruments the music player can synthesize, while the number of channels determines the number of unique notes the music player can generate at any time.

Under the General MIDI specification, 16 voices is the standard and as far as I know, all phones currently only support 16 voices or less.

Your T630 has 32 channels and 16 voices, which means that it can playback up to 32 notes simultaneously, but with only a maximum of 16 instruments at any one time.

The Z550i is clearly superior to the T630i since it supports up to 40 channels. In this respect also, we can also say for sure that the Z710i is better for music synthesis since it supports up to 72 channels.

But personally, I do not think that this is important at all because:

1. Seriously, who uses MIDI ringtones when richer sounding MP3 ringtones are available?

2. The Yamaha FM-synthesis chips used on all these portable devices produce at best mediocre music that sounds nowhere like true full range FM-synthesizers.

3. Most MIDI ringtones utiliszes less than 10 channels and so the maximum number of channels is almost never reached. Most of the time, the number of channels is only a marketing gimmick.

The speaker on the Z550i is pretty much the same as the one what you get on K700i, K750i, etc... It has good clarity, but lack bass and can be a little soft.

Just my 2 cents.... :-)

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-08 00:10
  • F4pr
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By the way, it got me thinking. 16 voices on polyphonic signals? That's very few...then the melody-quality can't be good? My old T630 has more...it has 32. What's your opinion about that DarkRay. Also, the Mp3-songs...do they sound good through the speakers? I mean straight from the phone, not with a headset. Cause I've been thinking a little about Z710...and compared those two. Z710 is more advanced and has 72 voices of poly and better camera. But it's thicker and bigger and has these things pointing out. At first I thought it was nicer looking...but the Z550 is more slim and compact and stylish. Goes better down the pocket probably. Also it's cheaper. What do you think about the matter?

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-07 00:34
  • S3f@
  • U

Cool! =)

Yeah the D-pad sounds much better! Haha it's true what you wrote about Samsungs...it irritated me as hell with connecting to internet when pressing the "ok" button.

Well the software part sucked =( With the Samsungs you get headset, CD and USB. I thought about buying the USB to that phone but it got me thinking what you said about the M2 cards. I think my computer is capable of reading that to. So maybe I'll buy the card first and test it out, otherwise I'll buy the USB too.

The display sounded nice, I was a bit worried about it because of the simplicity and size. But it sounds good.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-06 21:21
  • S3f@
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To dorian:

No problem at all. I love sharing the virtues of such a nice phone :-)

The direction pad is definitely not a joystick which is really a good thing. Maybe I have big thumbs, clumsy fingers or something, but I can never get used to the joysticks on the K700i and K750i. I either end up going the wrong way or selecting the wrong thing. Plus all my friends who own these 2 phones are all having problems with the joystick now....

And you are quite correct in saying that it is quite like the implementation on Samsungs with buttons for up, down, left and right. The thing in the centre is a button, more specifically a "Select / Okay" button. Thank goodness unlike the Samsungs, it defaults to the main menu, and not the internet though. :-)

The phone is meant to be "no frills" and is shipped only with the battery, charger, stereo headset and user manual. There is no software, no USB cable, no desktop stand, no case, no hand straps (or lanyard), or any other accessory provided. You can download softwares from SE's website for synchronization of contacts with Outlook.

Software transfer wise, I am currently using bluetooth because I am only filling up its internal memory. No special software is needed beside's Windows XP's default bluetooth software. After I get the M2 card, I will use copy directly to the card using my computer's memory stick reader/writer. Because I do not have the cable, I do not know if UMS (USB Mass Storage) is supported.

The outer display is quite good and is actually standard monochrome inverted LCD display. Because of this and the accompany backlight, you can read it very well under any lighting condition and it does show a surprising amount on information for such a small screen. It does it by displaying messages for missed calls, and messages as well as using icons to depicts the activation of items such as reception strength, battery life, radio, connected headset, battery, etc... If an MP3 is being played, the display will scroll the artist's name as well as the title of the song.

The backlight timings for inactivity cannot be changed. It currently defaults to about 10 seconds for the external display and about 30 seconds for the internal one (the screen saver if selected will come on about the 18th second).

:-)

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-05 22:55
  • F4pr
  • U

You've been of great help DarkRay, thanks for taking your time to answer, you really know your phones =)

So it isn't a joystick on the Z550i? It looks like it...I thought it was. D-pad..you mean like on samsungs for example? There are buttons for every direction? If that's the case whats the thing in the middle? Is it also a button?

Is there any good software coming with the phone? Like an organiser-type for the PC? So you easily can transfer songs, videofiles, pics etc from phone to computer and vice versa? Also, the outer display...is it good? It sais that it can show missed calls, messages etc on it. Isn't it too small for that? Can you change the amount of time the display should be litten up?

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-05 00:52
  • S3f@
  • U

To (no name):

The camera for K750i is definitely way better than the one on Z550i, since the former has a 2.0MP camera with proper auto-focus capability. But by doing away with the auto-focus, the camera for the Z550i is more responsive (less lag between shuttle press and actual photo taking).

There is also more memory (38MB) on the K750i, versus the 24MB that my Z550i have. Another difference will be that the the K750i uses the much cheaper Memory Stick Duo Pro memory card, rather than the ridiculously expensive Memory Stick Micro M2 memory card.

There is also no infrared port on the Z550i, which the K750i has. But since I like Bluetooth so much better, it does not bother me at all.

One big advantage of the Z550i in my opinion is that it uses a proper D-Pad, instead of K750i's joystick. I personally hate SE's joystick implmentation because it seemed quite prone to errors and malfunctions.

Size wise, the Z550i is definitely smaller (shorter in height actually, but otherwise similar in width and depth). The physical screen size on the Z550i is marginally larger (by about 1.5mm diagonally) even though both have the same resolution of 176x220 pixels.

Otherwise, the interface and speed of both phones are really uncannily similar and I am not surprised if they actually run the same processor. After all, the K750i is only marginally more expensive than the Z550i now.

Sound wise, I find the call quality good. It could be louder, but I am getting my communications through as well as receiving them loud and clear.

MP3 quality wise, fitted with a proper adapter to use a standard 3.5mm earphones (I am using Sennheiser CX300) or on the HPM-70, it actually sounded better on certain songs (more bassy ones) than my Samsung YP-T8 MP3 Player. Radio is okay, but the reception quality on my YP-T8 is definitely better.

--

To karry:

I don't think the battery for the Z550i and K750i are the same. Based on my usage of sending about 20 messages and a talk time of about 10 minutes daily, I get about 2 ~ 3 days worth of usage between each charge. I have no idea about how this is affected by MP3 listening or radio as I am using a dedicated MP3 player (Samsung YP-T8) for that.

The media player is similar to the one found on K750i. Volume level is similar to that of K750i as well which is "okay, but certainly could be louder". So far I have not missed any calls yet though.... ;-)

--

Hope the above replies helped! :-)

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-04 22:54
  • F4pr
  • U

to Dark ray

a) I want to know about the battery of Z550i. Is its battery is same as of K750i. what is normal battery backup. Can we listen contiunous FM or MEdia player for 2-3 hours daily, how long will the battery run then?

b) is the medial player is normal one or with outstanding features like in Z530i or W550i. Is the ringtone and mp3 sound loud enough.

Thanks in advance for your response and i am hoping to purchase this phone in advance after your reply.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-04 07:18
  • P$5D
  • U

To DarkRay:

=D

I just have one more question. Is the phone better than the K750i? Cause the number tells the amount of features and how good the phone is right? The higher number in series the more high-tech? So is K750i better than Z550i? And I also wonder about the sound quality of the Z550i. I have the T630 and IMO it has clearer and better sound than many newer phones. How about the Z550i?

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-03 23:30
  • S3f@
  • U

To dorian:

No problem. Glad to be of assistance! This is definitely one of the most under-rated phone around.... and I hope it stays that way - this way my phone stay unique! :-P

Anyway, my guess is that like the Samsung E730, the E760 probably did not support CIF video, but QCIF like SE phones instead. The older E720 had CIF video, and so did the newer E770. No sure why they leave it out of the models in between them, but probably like the vibrate-and-ring issue, just another one of Samsung's weird quirks.

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-03 23:02
  • F4pr
  • U

To DarkRay:

Ok, thanks it really helps. So the E770 has some new tech in video? Cause on the E760 the videos looked really bad. Especially on the computer..like crap. I don't think that it's gonna look better on the Z550i but..that doesn't make my choice. And yeah I know about that vibrating thing on samsungs...really irritating.

You're right about that considering the K750i haha, didn't think of that =)

Yeah I really think it's gonna be the Z550i for me. Because I'm looking for a middleclass phone, nothing high-tech and expensive. And the price on the Z550i is quite good =) But it hasn't shipped here yet...I really hope it's gonna turn up in the stores soon!

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-03 21:46
  • S3f@
  • U

To dorian:

I never played with the E760 buy did fiddle around with the Samsung E770 which I was considering as well. Their display and camera should be similar since they are in the same series.

Comparatively, the display quality between the Samsungs and SE Z550i is very similar. Camera wise, I feel that they are about the same as well (Samsung E700 series phones also have no autofocus).

However, one thing that Samsung E770 wins hands down is definite their video. Supporting CIF video (352x288) versus the crappy 176x144 used by most SE phones, the video quality of the Samsungs has to be seen to be believed.

However, Z550i wins on all other fronts, including the ability to vibrate and ring at the same time (most Samsung phones for some strange reason refuse to support this fundamental feature and the E770 can only do so on specific Vibratones), and tons of options for customizations. If a theme, wallpaper or software can run on a K750i, it will run perfectly on the Z550i as well.

Since K750i is so popular and has been around for so long, you have a ready and huge library of items to download. :-)

  • Reply
  • 2006-08-03 18:57
  • F4pr
  • U
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