Buying Guide to Sony Ericsson Z520a

The first thing that impressed me when I got my new Sony Ericsson Z520a in March 2006 was its tremendous sound quality. Using Bluetooth(TM), my friend sent me the unedited version of his favorite country song. Once it was downloaded, we took a walk and listened to music; the new phone made a fair substitute for a boom-box. If the phone had more storage space for music files (the phone has 16 MB of memory), you could definitely make use of the Polyphonic sound to play all your favorite music.

The Z520a is a comfortable size to carry in your pocket or purse. At 3.3 ounces, it is light enough to take with you anywhere. It has an interesting little hook at the top; to me, it has provided merely artistic interest, but someone with a bit more creativity might be able to string a belt - or perhaps a necklace? - through it to make it easier to tote the phone around.

You can have a lot of fun with the video/camera capacity of the Z520a. The picture quality is moderate; the inner screen is a 65,536 color TFT; the outer screen has a lower quality, an LCD, 4,096 color STN. There are a variety of settings for picture-taking, as well as various fun frames and editing options that might appeal to children (or to the kid in all of us!)

The most annoying feature about this phone is the small photo-shooting button on the outside of the phone. The button is supposed to make it easy to take a self-portrait, so you can see yourself on the phone's outer screen while taking the picture. However, the quality of photos taken in this mode is extremely low. And you will find yourself constantly taking pictures by accident. I've probably deleted several dozen random shots of ceilings, work papers and the inside of my purse.