The Sony Ericsson G700 is what the maker is going to cater to these needs with. An adequately price touchscreen device, that is more of a feature phone, which will allow attracting the conservative part of the audience. But hiding behind its not-so-smart face is a true UIQ-smartphone, meaning techi won’t come out with their hands empty either, should they pick the G700.
Sony Ericsson-branded smartphones have long been associated with the plethora of pricey phones not-for-all – top-of-the-line solutions, that grab a lot of eyes, but never become widely adopted. While the maker was one of the pioneers in this device class, throwing in touch-sensitive displays for good measure, they couldn’t take its success one step further.
And what does the average Joe crave for these days? What state of the art technologies does he know about? The answer doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out – touch-sensitive displays, which are so hot thanks to the Apple iPhone these days, and the impending release of S60 Touch, as well as HTC’s recent activities, and partly LG’s advance in Europe. And if there is gesture-based navigation that requires no stylus whatsoever – all the better.
Also, the handset should be smart. Interestingly, is no universal way to determine what phone is smart, and what’s not – some put camera and megapixel-count above everything else; some suppose a device gets smart as soon as it becomes capable of playing music and videos. To each his own. But, the important thing is that on paper, people are ready to shell out for these feats, while in practice, they show much more expertise and caution, preferring to go for versatile solutions.

Key Features

2.4 Inch 262k TFT Touch Screen (240 x 320 Pixels)
Symbian™ OS
3G Technology
Bluetooth® Technology
3.2 Megapixel Camera with 3 x Digital Zoom & Photo Light
Media Player
FM Radio RDS

We liked :

Touch Screen
Camera

We disliked

Design
Keypad

Design

The phone has the typical Sony Ericsson candybar look and dimensions of 4.2 x 1.9 x 0.5 inches (106 x 49 x 13 mm) and weighs 3.5 oz (99 g). In contrast to its older brother G900, the device has more of a fashion design. All edges are rounded and the back lid is ribbed, which adds a pleasant stability feeling while using it. We liked the colors used as well – the one seen here is in dark and light brown. We liked this one more than the official silk bronze and we wonder why it has not been announced.

The Touchscreen is 2.4” TFT and it has a 240 x 320 pixels resolution, supporting up to 262k colors. On its right side is a scroll symbol, but specific hardware for that function is missing (as in the Dash for example), so you have to use the touch-display instead. Besides the touch-input, it also has all necessary hardware navigation buttons (including soft keys), which allows it to be used just as a standard phone. The buttons and the D-pad are standard in design, except for the two small round shortcuts to notes and messaging. The same goes for the numeric keypad, which is divided in three columns far from each other.

The entire body is encircled by a light brown line, on which are located the camera and the volume buttons (on the right), power button and the stylus holder (on top). The keyboard/display lock button and the M2 Memory Card slot and charger input are on the left.

A 3.2-megapixel with fixed focus and a flash camera is located on the back. We think that because the phone is intended for the mid-level consumer, the camera quality is good enough.

The Sony Ericsson G700 is what the maker is going to cater to these needs with. An adequately price touchscreen device, that is more of a feature phone, which will allow attracting the conservative part of the audience. But hiding behind its not-so-smart face is a true UIQ-smartphone, meaning techi won’t come out with their hands empty either, should they pick the G700.

Screen

The G700 packs in a 2.4-inch display sporting a resolution of 240×320 pixels, and showing up to 262 K colors (TFT). Its specs are pretty much par for the course, as far as today’s phones are concerned, but it boasts one distinctive forte – it is touch-sensitive. The screen is covered by a special abuse-resistant plastic layer, similar to what they used in the Sony Ericsson W960i. In view of the G700’s touch-based navigation, this is a nice thing to have, plus with this protective screen installed, you can expect the display to be less of a fingerprint-magnet – smudges and dirt from hands aren’t all that discernible on the handset’s display .
The G700’s picture quality is nothing we would complain about – adequately bright and contrast, no faded colors whatsoever. The display can accommodate up to 14 text and 3 service lines, fonts are adjustable. It doesn’t lose much of its readability while in the sun.

Features

Interface:

Still, there is something similar between the G-classes of Sony Ericsson and Mercedes – they cannot be inspected in one aspect only. The automobiles of the German giant are luxurious means of transportation off-road and on the highway, and the phones are a hybrid between a quality candybar and touchscreen handset.

G700 performed very well as a regular phone - easy access to all options via the keyboard and the D-pad. The menu interface is similar to the one used in the new SE models (K660, K850, W890 and others) and has large beautiful icons.
However, the use of Symbian UIQ is notable not only because of the slight lag felt when opening the separate applications. The big innovation is the presence of the standby applications on the start screen. They are fully customizable and by default are: my shortcuts, favorite contacts, appointments, new messages and main menu, but you can easily add many more – alarm, bookmarks, music. There even are two presets for the icon appearance (default and business).

We are already familiar with the media menu from the latest SE models. In other words, in one place (with flash-based interface) we have the photo gallery (with tagging options, slideshow), the multifunctional music and video players.
The fact that you may never experience the need to use the touchscreen does not mean that it is not manufactured properly. On the contrary, everything related to it is fine-crafted, beautifully calibrated with the comfortable stylus, and for text input there is software keyboard (one version only) and handwriting recognition. Via the small icon next to the signal strength, you will have access to all frequently used functions, even with the standby applications turned off.

Messaging
All incoming messages, saving for e-mails, are stored in one folder – Inbox. This also goes for the files, received through Bluetooth (the device supports all formats, even those it can’t recognize). The data, located in Inbox can be saved later on in any other folder – the handset ensures unlimited access to the file system (except for the system folders). In return, the user is at liberty to create their own folders and sort messages in them. When entering the Messaging menu, by default you’re shown the general folder, by using horizontal scrolling you will switch between files, and pressing OK key selects a particular folder and allows viewing the message list.
The root of the Messaging menu features the list of all mail accounts separately under the Inbox folder – e.g. if you have three of these, they will be displayed in order of appearance.
Inbox folder also offers each message type (SMS, MMS, Beam) – you see a respective image next to each item.
You can also call up creation of a new message option practically from any menu, which features a phone number –just choose the needed type (SMS/MMS) and start texting. Though under the name of SMS you will surprisingly discover EMS messages as well. As a matter of fact, the user is isolated from deciding which message type in particular he creates – if you type only text, the device will take this message for an SMS, and EMS is used in cases when you use not only smiles, but ring tones, images and formatted text (this doesn’t relate to Zoom function). This standard is fully supported in the handset, just like we have come to expect from it.

To-Do list

All entries in the Organizer and To-Do list are inter-transferable within the bounds of these two sections. Much like the Organizer, the user can create a backup copy of the To-Do list on the external memory card. You can create any number of categories, which are used to sort entries with. The priority may vary from 1 to 3 (low, normal, high), and you can also set start and end dates, and the alarm tone (tone choice is user defined).
You can sort the general list by categories, completion status (list of completed tasks may be hidden), due date and priority. The To-Do list supports SyncML amd synchronizes with MS Outlook without any hardships. The user can also send particular entries to any device using Bluetooth, as well as a standard message’s body.

Office applications

This section holds all the office applications; by default there are four of them (except for the organizer, which is a standard program). The first item on the menu is Notes, which can be either text (typed using the user’s method of choice; txt extension is also supported) or scribbled.
QuickOffice – another third-party application, which was selected by UIQ as a default app for the third edition and comes as part of the standard package (there is a version for the previous editions of UIQ, which sells for 50 USD). The program itself is an editor, which recognizes and is capable of opening and editing MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
We won’t dwell on QuickOffice, though we will make a short note that the resources of any mobile device are strictly limited. Complicated types of formatting, used by desktop computers, are frequently not saved in files edited on smartphones (this goes not only for QuickOffice, but all devices powered by Windows Mobile as well).

Picture gallery

this application displays thumbnails of pictures with the ability to quickly switch to full-screen mode. No visible changes have occurred in this program, though now you can send a MMS-message containing the currently viewed image.
Picture editor

a simple editor, which allows performing basic operations with images.
MusicDJ : a default application for Sony Ericsson has finally made its way to the smartphones – this app lets you mix a number of tracks
Stopwatch : self-explanatory application.
Countdown : time is set in hours and minutes, and upon reaching the set time, the devices triggers a sound alarm

File manager : allows viewing folders on the handset. It supports multi-selection of files or folders as well as deletion and copying; you can also send a number of files to other devices via Bluetooth. The file manager’s capabilities are quite conventional and there really isn’t anything that stands out here.
RSS Feeds : It’s an RSS reader, which successfully copes with its main function. You may add any feeds of your own, and update all feeds with one touch. Everything is plain and straightforward here – those who haven’t used this technology before will become fond of it through this handset.

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