GSMArena.com GSMArena.com

Tip us

1.7m
126k
RSS

EV

Merch

Log in

Login

I forgot my password
Sign up
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Videos
  • Featured
  • Phone Finder
  • Deals
  • MerchNew
  • Coverage
  • Contact
ADVERTISEMENT
GSMArena team, 08 July 2010

Tree-hugging business


Sony Ericsson Aspen review: Tree-hugging business

  • Comments (54)
  • User reviews
  • Aspen

5. Multimedia: gallery, music and video, audio quality
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. 360-degree spin, design and construction
  3. 3. User interface, XPERIA panels
  4. 4. Phonebook, telephony, messaging
  5. 5. Multimedia: gallery, music and video, audio quality
  6. 6. Camera, connectivity, web browser, organizer
  7. 7. Applications, GPS software
  8. 8. Conclusion
  9.  
  10. Sony Ericsson Aspen specification
  11. User opinions and reviews
  12. Review comments (54)

Sony Ericsson Windows Mobile Touch UI

Image gallery looks cool, but runs slow

You can use the default Windows Mobile image gallery if you really wanted to, but you’d be better off pretending that the Sony Ericsson one is the only one available. It is available from the Slide View menu.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
The image gallery

You use sweeps to navigate around the images. If you tap on screen you also get zooming and slideshow controls. You can only zoom using the virtual zoom keys – double-tapping and other zooming methods are not supported. The gallery is not very fast, but it’s fairly responsive.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
Rotating, browsing and zooming into images

A basic music player

You can find the embedded music player into the media menu and it's very similar to the Walkman player in the Sony Ericsson's feature phones and can handle playlists, filter your tracks by albums, authors, etc. Album art is supported, but unfortunately there are no equalizer presets, stereo enhancements or visualizations.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
The music player

Its design matches the whole Slide View menu and looks good, but this beauty doesn't completely disguise the rather basic functionality. While there’s a song playing, a small note icon appears at the bottom of the screen – tapping it pulls out a panel with the music player controls.

While this is good, it’s only visible in the Slide View menu – so, you can’t control the music player from the homescreen or other menus.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
The music control panel

The sound coming out of the loudspeaker on the Sony Ericsson Aspen is pretty loud and doesn’t get muffled even on even surfaces.

FM radio works just fine

The Sony Ericsson Aspen comes with an FM radio receiver and a relevant app. The UI is simple and easy to work with and it has a slide-out panel like the music player.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
The FM radio has a slide-up control panel too

The TrackID app will help you find info about the song they’re playing at the cafe', for example. It just needs to sample a few seconds of the song and consult with the TrackID servers.

Sony Ericsson Aspen
TrackID is on board

Video player supports DivX/XviD, low-res videos only

The Video section of the Slide View menu offers good support for video codecs – it played our test DivX/XviD and MP4 videos. However, the hardware wasn’t quite up to the task – anything over QVGA resolution suffered dropped frames.

Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen Sony Ericsson Aspen
The video player

Not that there’s a point to play videos with larger than QVGA resolution on a 2.4” QVGA screen, but it still means you have to re-encode your videos to watch on the Sony Ericsson Aspen. Sony Ericsson Media Go will probably help in this respect.

Audio quality is decent, but the volume is low

The area where we didn't really expect the Aspen to impress was audio quality. However the smartphone surprised us by providing nice clean output, which considering that it hasn't hit the shelves yet might improve even further.

Of course it's not all roses as the Aspen is the quietest handset we have seen so far and the extreme bass frequencies have been cut-off but that's about all the things that are wrong with it. The rest of the scores are decent and should suffice to satisfy the eventual customers' needs. Frankly, we just can't see many audiophiles going for the WM-powered device.

Cutting to the point - here go the results so you can see for yourselves.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Sony Ericsson Aspen+0.12, -1.11-79.582.50.0250.082 -79.8
Nokia E72+0.05, -0.26-88.388.20.0120.024 -88.8
Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro+0.37, -1.91-88.087.40.0099 0.129-88.7
BlackBerry Bold 9700+0.25, -3.62-89.887.80.0140.023 -88.6
Nokia E75+0.11, -0.91-91.691.40.0120.462-73.3
Sony Ericsson W980+0.31, -1.25-86.089.40.037 0.828-86.3

Sony Ericsson Aspen vs Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro
Sony Ericsson Aspen vs Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro frequency response graphs

You can find more info about the testing process here.

Next Page » 6. Camera, connectivity, web browser, organizer
5. Multimedia: gallery, music and video, audio quality
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. 360-degree spin, design and construction
  3. 3. User interface, XPERIA panels
  4. 4. Phonebook, telephony, messaging
  5. 5. Multimedia: gallery, music and video, audio quality
  6. 6. Camera, connectivity, web browser, organizer
  7. 7. Applications, GPS software
  8. 8. Conclusion
  9.  
  10. Sony Ericsson Aspen specification
  11. User opinions and reviews
  12. Review comments (54)

Reviews Sony Ericsson Aspen reviewPage 5
  • Comments (54)
  • User reviews
  • Aspen

Phone finder

  • Samsung
  • Apple
  • Huawei
  • Nokia
  • Sony
  • LG
  • HTC
  • Motorola
  • Lenovo
  • Xiaomi
  • Google
  • Honor
  • Oppo
  • Realme
  • OnePlus
  • vivo
  • Meizu
  • BlackBerry
  • Asus
  • Alcatel
  • ZTE
  • Microsoft
  • Vodafone
  • Energizer
  • Cat
  • Sharp
  • Micromax
  • Infinix
  • Ulefone
  • Tecno
  • Doogee
  • Blackview
  • Cubot
  • Oukitel
  • Itel
  • TCL

All brands Rumor mill

ADVERTISEMENT

Related articles

  • Flashback: Sony Ericsson P910 used an odd flavor of touch Symbian and wanted to do it all
  • Flashback video: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and how it bet on the wrong OS
  • Flashback: Sony Ericsson Satio and a look at how far camera phones have come in the last decade
  • Flashback: the Sony Ericsson K800 was as versatile as James Bond and the first Cyber-shot phone
ADVERTISEMENT

Popular reviews

Samsung Galaxy A54 long-term review
Samsung Galaxy A54 long-term review
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review
Poco F5 / Redmi Note 12 Turbo long-term review
Poco F5 / Redmi Note 12 Turbo long-term review

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

BYD takes on Tesla in North America with Seal electric sedan BYD takes on Tesla in North America with Seal electric sedan Kia EV9 gets free charging from Electrify AmericaVolkswagen finalizes $700 million investment in XPeng Motors
ADVERTISEMENT

Home News Reviews Compare Coverage Glossary FAQ RSS feed Youtube Facebook Twitter Instagram

© 2000-2023 GSMArena.com Mobile version Android app Tools Contact us Merch store Privacy Terms of use Change Ad Consent Do not sell my data