Sony Ericsson R306a Review
Back in 2003, Sony collaborated with Ericsson, a fusion of Japanese marketing tactics and Swedish technological expertise, to give Sony Ericsson. This company specializes in combining a walkman/mp3 player, with a number pad, giving rise to a Walkman Phone. These phones have been endorsed by several notable celebrities, most of them from the music industry. The newest endorsee in a long list is pop star Christina Aguilera.
On January 24th 2008, the latest creation of Sony Ericsson was unveiled to the world. The Sony Ericsson R306 Radio along with its twin the R300. The R306 is designed to capture and emulate the look and feel of a radio, and Sony Ericsson might be able to call it a safe bet. The radio series is targeted at countries like India, where radio channels are plenty.
For die-hard fans of Sony Ericsson this phone will be a blessing, while for those switching from other manufacturers like Nokia, well, practice makes one perfect. Among the several accessories that can be purchased for this phone the external speakers stand out. The MPS-70 is manufactured to provide excellent sound quality, a trademark of every Sony Ericsson phone. The speakers also have an inbuilt FM radio reception through inclusion of an antenna.
Along with the radio feature a set of standard features for any mobile are available, the 1.4 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth, video recording and loud speakers. These features are on every standard phone churned out by even the third rate companies all around the world. So what’s the magic ingredient in the Sony Ericsson R306a?
The phone is modeled on a radio, so they call it a true radio design with dedicated radio speakers and preset channel buttons. The loudspeakers provide sound with a good quality, though there is slight distortion. Regarding the sound again, options such as 3D sound enhancement is available with a volume boost, meant for use in noisy environments. Then there is the recording part, the user can record audio bits directly from his favorite channel, and using the playback option, can hear it over and over again.
A standard numeric keypad is present, accompanied by a 120 x 160 pixel display. Here’s the irony, there is no mp3 player on R306a although it plays mp3 songs. And there is no expandable memory. Battery life is said to last 9 hrs for talk time, and an estimated 27 hours for radio playback. Guess we will never get to taste the cherry and the cake together after all, will we?
The phone weighs approx 93 gm, a good 20 gm more than its twin the R300. The display mode is 65536 colors per inch, while the internal memory is only 5 MB. You start wondering, what’s the point of a LCD display when there is no memory, internal or external? External speakers are provided, to bring out the radio-like feel in it.
Probably the saving grace for this phone is the TrackID technology of Sony Ericsson. This technology allows the phone to identify the song that is being played on air at the moment, and that is just about it. The phone is not as sophisticated as its predecessors, nor is it of prehistoric quality. It may click in the markets of India, where a competitive pricing would give it a good EDGE over most other phones.
The phone comes with an internal antenna, and plays FM/AM radio with good audio quality. Along with radio recording, there is a voice recording option available. The phone operates through GSM Quadband 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, while the General Packet Radio Service or GPRS is Class 10. The workstation is Java 2.0, and the phone supports a 2.0 WAP browser.
Th colors available for this phone are, Coffee Black and Champagne White. It gives a good change for the brand which prefers black over any other color for its phones.
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