The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was conceptualized as a cellphone gaming device. It comes with latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, Snapdragon 1GHz processor, Bluetooth, four-inch display, usual Wi-Fi and five-megapixel camera. The button layout resembles that of a regular PlayStation controller with PlayStation controls on the right and directional pad on the left. It also features the right and left shoulder buttons on the sides, which take the place of two touch sensitive circles and dual analog joysticks. Overall it delivers excellent gameplay, but is not good enough to appeal to gaming enthusiasts.

Like all Android smartphones, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play comes with a four-inch large capacitive touchscreen with piano black shiny finish, which is prone to collecting fingerprints. It has a blocky body with slight curves, making it comfortable to hold. The Xperia Play measures 4.68 inches tall, 0.63 inch thick, 2.44 inches wide and weighs 6.17 ounces. One of the unique features found in this model is the full slideout gaming pad, which is hidden beneath the smartphone’s exterior. The pad is matte silver with triangle, square, circle and cross buttons on the right hand side and a D-pad on the left. The Start and Select buttons are located on the lower right, while the right and left shoulder buttons on the right edge. You will find the menu button is on the lower left.

The high resolution capacitive touchscreen display of Sony Ericsson Xperia Play boasts 854 x 480 pixel resolution wit 16 million colors, which result in crisp text, deep blacks and sharp graphics. The succulent screen brings videos, graphic intensive applications and games to life. It feels quite responsive and smooth as well. You will find the proximity sensor, which shuts the display off automatically, and you can adjust the backlight time and brightness. Under the screen, you will find four different Android keys for Search, Back, Menu and Home functions. On the top of the device, there is a small LED and a power button for notifications; on the other hand, the micro-USB port, right and left shoulder buttons, 3.5mm headphone jack and volume rocker button are located on the left.

The front facing VGA camera is above the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play’s display, while the large megapixel camera with LED flash is at the back. The Android 2.3 offers user interface improvements including faster keyboard, download management, better paste and copy and internet calling. It comes preloaded with Crash Bandicoot, Madden NFL 11, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Star Battalion, The Sims 3 and Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior. Apart from gaming aspect, the Xperia Play also provides standard phone and Android features, which include integration with various social networking sites such as WebKit browser, Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, multimedia and text messaging, search, Gmail, voice navigation and Google Maps 5.0.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play’s five-megapixel camera takes good images; on the other hand, the camera can record video as well. The estimated battery life is 16.9 days in standby mode and 7 hours in 40 minutes in talktime mode. Overall, it is an excellent choice for those who are serious mobile gamers.

Sony Ericsson W595i is still pretty decent with a good layout of the keys. It is easier to type text messages on other phones but practice of about one week will make things alright. My biggest complaint here is that there is no 3.5 mm headphones jack and this is really disappointing since this is a music centric phone.

If you have the W580i, I won’t recommend upgrading as the extra money is not really worth it. You will have to use a clunky plastic adapter for the headphones. The battery cover too takes a bit time to get in place and this annoyed me especially with the tiny and easily breakable plastic clips.

The screen of the Sony Ericsson W595i is really good, it is 2.2 inches big with resolution of 240×320 pixels which is plenty of real estate in a phone like this. The pictures look really crisp and tiny text too is easy to read.

One upgrade on the Sony Ericsson W595i is the better camera. The sensor is upgraded from two mega pixels to 3.2 mega pixels. There is still no flash for the camera and hence photos taken in poor light conditions will look awful. If you are really enthusiastic about photos, I would recommend you the Nokia N82. The manufacturer has bundled a Sony Memory Stick Micro card inside the box for storing your music, data files, photos, and videos on the phone. The card slot supports up to eight GB cards.

My Sony Ericsson K770i review model came from 3 and it had purple striking color scheme which is not available on other carriers. However, this handset looks really good even without the purple color. Metallic strip keypad on the device gives it a business look and the device feels well proportioned in the hand.

Sony Ericsson K770i is a cyber shot phone and you’d expect the camera to be better than what you’d find on other phones. In my tests, it didn’t disappoint all. The 3.2 megapixel shooter is activated when you slide open the cover on the phone’s rear. There is also a shutter button on the phone’s right edge for starting the camera.

Sony Ericsson K770i camera is equipped with LED flash and there is micro mirror for self portrait images. The quality of the photos are quite good but they aren’t as good as that of the K850i. that said, most of the people will be happy with the prints. I also liked the application of ‘Photo fix’, you can give touch ups to the photos on the phone directly.

Sony Ericsson K770i is a good music phone too. The music player is quite similar to what you get on Walkman phones and the sound quality is really good. The player is very easy to use too and you will easily get along with it even if you haven’t seen one before. I had a great time with the thunderous bass, crisp high frequencies, and pleasing mid range.

The reception and the call quality of the Sony Ericsson K770i live up to my expectations and the battery life too is good. You can get around ten hours of battery talk time and the standby time is about 16 days.

The quality of the camera is good but the manufacturer could have put in Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens that is found on the higher end phones like K850i. The bundled headphones of the Sony Ericsson K770i sound decent but again they aren’t as good as the sound isolating ones that you get on Walkman phones.

Sony Ericsson K330 has a VGA camera built in which lets the users take pictures. This camera can also record videos and there is something called Video Clip tool with which you can cut the videos according to your preferences.

Sony Ericsson K330 comes with a music player and this phone will certainly save you the money of buying a standalone MP3 player. There is FM and AM radio along with RDS which lets you listen to your favorite radio stations and the DJ’s whilst you are viewing all the information. The ringtone too can be personalized and customized according to preferences. Both polyphonic and MP3 ringtones are supported. For storing all this, there is mere 10 MB internal memory.

Sony Ericsson K330 has WAP browser along with XHTML which provides Internet for surfing the Web. Users can get fast data transfers and the Web connection too is speedy. There is also GPRS with Bluetooth for connecting this phone with other compatible devices. K300 operates on Dual-band network and it covers GSM900/1800 for roaming capabilities.

Sony Ericsson K330 has support for MMS, SMS and for typing, there is Predictive text input. Sending messages is a great way to stay in touch with your family and friends. Also, you can send an SMS if you are too busy to call up the person. There are Java games onboard for entertainment purposes and it will easily liven up any boring and dull journey. You can download more games if you want but you will have to pay a fee for it.

The design team of the Sony Ericsson W715 have made the phone look elegant with the same brushed angular aluminum gorgeousness which we first saw on the W890i and W880i. The chassis has been slimmed down with the slider design. The main attraction on Sony Ericsson W715 phone is not its looks though. I was pleased to see the latest version of Walkman software inside with features like Wi-Fi, HSPA 3G high-speed mobile upload and download capability, and four gigabytes memory card bundled. Apart from that, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera behind, a front facing close to the screen, and lots of other multimedia features.

Sony Ericsson W715 phone is available in the UK exclusively with Vodafone and this will be a problem for people who liked the W705 and want GPS too. I loved the look of this phone, it is easy to handle and easily fits in to the tightest of pants pocket. The Sony Ericsson W715 is 14.3mm deep, 48mm wide, 95mm high and weighs 98 grams. It is substantial but not really chunky. There is a 2.4 inches QVGA display with support for 262k colors. The aluminum brushed casing on the phone is offset neatly with gold trim around the edges and controls. The back panel has rubber feel which gives a good grip on the phone. Also the slider mechanism is robust and really smooth.

This phone’s control array is made up of a circular navigation pad and there are music control symbols surrounding it along with satellite icon. The arrangement is made in circular pattern along with traditional Sony Ericsson navigation keys, Vodafone live! Programmed softbutton, end and call keys, Activity Menu and clear buttons. They are contoured very cleverly for making the operation easy.

On the Sony Ericsson W715 top, there is a tiny Walkman button which starts the music player with a single press. This also activates the phone’s Shake Control technology and you can even control the volume through.

On the back, the Sony Ericsson G700 has a ribbed pattern casing which feels quite nice to touch. This might be just for aesthetic reasons but at least it doesn’t attract a lot of fingerprints like the display. Also, the phone has onboard speakers, a three megapixel camera and LED photolights. Sony Ericsson G700 phone has a proprietary connector on the left side close to the memory card slot. There is an LED light indicator which lights when you charging the phone and green when you get an incoming message.

The manufacturer has put in a dedicated keylock button on the sides and this was the most frequently used button by me on the phone. The stylus compartment is located on the upper left corner and the stylus is metallic with a translucent tip. However, I found that the stylus was too short for my tastes. The ergonomics on Sony Ericsson G700 is excellent though. This is a touch screen phone but you can even use the phone without the touch screen technology. The phone has right and left soft buttons which is great for people like me who don’t like touch screen phones much. The traditional physical buttons have that tactility which I prefer more to the touch screen interface.

Sony Ericsson G700 is lot like a smartphone; it runs on Symbian UIQ platform and has 128 MB RAM. This makes it as good as W960i Walkman and P1i but the design is much sexier here. I would recommend this to any one who is looking for a cool looking smartphone or to any businessmen who want a smartphone that doesn’t have those traditional boring business looks.

On the bottom edge of the home screen, there is a touch menu row. These buttons are large enough to be pressed by the fingers it self. Swiping it right or left will scroll to the next option. There are just 4 shortcuts to the applications which are commonly used but you can add more from the settings later.

When you hold it horizontally, the Sony Ericsson R306 looks like a radio. The speakers on right and left side are divided by silver panel which incorporates monochrome screen. The screen shows clock, radio stations, and incoming calls. Below this, there are preset buttons which give you quick access to the stations and there are up/down buttons for channel scroll.

Flicking the Sony Ericsson R306 open is a bit arduous owing to the lid’s weight. There is more grey and silver on the keypad. Circular number buttons are spaced quite well and there are silver raised ridges which makes it easy for distinguishing between the buttons by feel. The other buttons are less user-friendly, I didn’t like the selection button located in the center of menu nav key. It has a very small size and it is also flush with surfaces which surround it. Also, there are two keys which hide below the send/end buttons. It is hard to distinguish them in spite of the tiny symbols.

Sony Ericsson R306 is an entry level phone and hence the feature set is not really huge. There is just 5 MB of internal memory which can barely hold a song. The manufacturer hasn’t put in an expansion slot either for adding more memory so for the music, you just get the radio.

Other features that are worth mentioning here are Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, and voice recorder. The camera doesn’t have flash and it can record videos. You get Sony Ericsson‘s TrackID music identification service for times with you want to know the song name but can not Google the lyrics.

I don’t have big expectations about the radio reception on cell phones; it is usually static-strewn and mixed affair. AM makes things fuzzier. For testing the radio, I put the handset in my pants pocket and walked around a crowded footpath. The static was apparent when I was passing through areas with densely packed skyscrapers but the reception was better in open areas like parks. AM reception is far worse than FM.

While testing for call quality, the Sony Ericsson R306 turned out to be loud and clear. There weren’t any problems on the either side while talking on the phone.

Sony Ericsson W760a is 0.6 inch deep, 1.9 inches wide, 4.1 inches tall and weighs about 3.5 ounces. It is compact, lightweight and feels comfortably solid in the hand. I must appreciate the sturdy slider mechanism; you can easily open/close the phone with just one hand. On the either end, it gives a satisfying click. The display is 2.25 inches big and it has everything you’d want in such a screen. There is support for 262,144 colors with vibrant and bright intense color resolution. It is easy to get around the menu for photos and other files. The brightness is adjustable and the there is a good collection of menu styles to choose from.

The 2 soft buttons come with tactile edges and I was glad to see that the company has moved away from the traditional Send/End keys. These controls are intuitive and they are surrounded by tiny speakers for the phone’s music player. My only gripe about the design is that the secondary shortcut button and the Clear key is placed too close to each other. I often ended up pressing the wrong button.

Sony Ericsson W760a has phone book can hold 1,000 entries and a single entry stores multiple phone number, Web address, company name, job title, e-mail, notes, birthday, work address, and company name. The contacts can be saved to groups and there are 42 polyphonic ringtones to choose from. Basic features on the phone include speakerphone, timer, notepad, task list, calendar, alarm clock, multimedia and text messaging, voice memo recorder, vibrate mode, calculator, and stopwatch.

Sony Ericsson W350 has a 1.9 inch display with resolution of 176×220 pixels. It has support for 262k colors and the picture quality screams that this is not an entry level phone. However, looking at the contrast of the display, I can best say that it is average. On the bright side, the screen is still usable and everything on the display is readable.

Above the display, there is the speaker and below it, you have the light sensor along with music control buttons. They aren’t electronic and just press the buttons from the numeric keypad located beneath. The controls for music playback are pretty easy to operate and there is vibration feedback which confirms the action.

Sony Ericsson W350’s flip mechanism is quite stable and I could open and close the lid very easily. The microphone is not located on the lid, instead it is underneath the numeric keypad. You won’t be able to accept any incoming calls because when the phone is closed but you can silence or reject them through the music control button.

Lift the lid and you will see standard keys navigational and numeric. They are pretty easy to distinguish and are very easy to press too. The ‘up’ button on the directional pad is located a bit too close to the edge but it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.

On the left side of Sony Ericsson W350, there is the charger slot and Walkman button. The music control buttons are located on the right. There is just the slider on the surface which locks the front lid buttons. The camera and loudspeaker are located on the phone’s back. The memory card slot too is put here but you need to remove the battery lid to access it. It was very easy to replace the card. Software on this phone is pretty similar to its predecessors like W380 and W880. There is nothing on the home screen that will puzzle you because you have already seen it all on the earlier SE phones.

Sony Ericsson W980 has a button on the spine which can rotate the player between radio, music mode, and standard mode. There are touch sensitive buttons underneath the screen for music player control. Open the phone and you will a nice design touch on the top of the lid. It is a ‘lip’ just like the ones found on LCD TVs these days and it makes the phone look pretty.

On the back, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera without flash or self portrait mirror which gives you two quality settings and four sizes to choose from. There are other options including brightness and white balance adjustments, night mode, 3 color effects, 16 frames, digital zoom(which can be used for VGA resolution only), 4 shutter sounds along silent option and 16 frames.

Sony Ericsson W980 phone has the walkman player, shake control, and all other goodies that previous Walkman phones are known to have. If you press down the Walkman button and flick your hand, the shuffle feature will be activated.

The phone book of this phone can store 1000 entries and a single entry can take multiple phone numbers, Web address, e-mail, company name, job title, birthday, two postal address, notes and birthday. There are 39 ringtones to choose from and you can make groups of your friends. The SIM card lets you store 250 additional contacts but I don’t think that’s really necessary. 1,000 entry limit is more than enough. You can choose the music files inside the player as ringtones.

Basic features on the Sony Ericsson W980 include vibrate mode, multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone, alarm clock, notepad, task list, stopwatch, timer, unit converter, calculator, two world clocks and tip calculator. There are some high end features too like file manager, voice recorder, USB mass storage, POP3 e-mail, PC syncing, full Bluetooth along with stereo profile integrated GPS, and code memo which stores sensitive information.