27 Feb 2009
A member of Sony Ericsson's R-range that includes the Sony Ericsson R306i, the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio is a delight to music-loving mobile phone users. Compact in its solid bar style, the Sony Ericsson R300 is a lightweight handset that tips the scale at 75 grams and measures 101 x 46 x 12 millimetres, including its fitted battery. It is clad in a casing that is available in colours of antique cooper and black or light cooper and black combinations with a shade of silver. Users may select from a host of ringtones in polyphonic, MP3 and AAC audio formats.

The Sony Ericsson R300 Radio displays a 45.72-millimetre TFT display screen that shows roughly 65,000 colours that radiate in a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. Its TFT colour screen displays functionality options, mobile phone icons, picture wallpapers and wallpaper animation on high quality.

The Sony Ericsson R300 Radio works over triband technology that covers the GSM networks of GSM 900, 1800 and1900. Connecting to the Internet using the handset is possible with its built-in WAP version 2.0 XHTML Web browser. Users of the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio will find data sharing and file transferring with other compatible devices like laptops, printers and personal computers quick and hassle-free, thanks to the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio's support for wireless Bluetooth and USB technologies.

As its standard features, the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio offers the messaging services of text and SMS long that work on Predictive Text Input, as well as multimedia messaging or MMS. The handset also functions as a sound recorder.

True to its name, the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio comes with both FM and AM radio complete with RDS, allowing users to listen to their favourite tunes and radio programs, with access to information and news coming from radios stations. The handset also features easy-to-use radio keys and radio controls situated on its front and back portions. Users can also get the best sound quality from their favourite radio stations using the audio enhanced button of the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio.

For that ultimate radio experience, the Sony Ericsson R300 is equipped with high-quality loud speaker for crystal clear audio listening. The loud speaker is located at the back of the handset, which also provides enhancement to its overall look. For private listening, Sony Ericsson R300 Radio may utilise the stereo headset that comes with the mobile phone kit. In addition, the Sony Ericsson R300 has been integrated with the TrackID music recognition feature that displays song titles of music being played. Other bonus features of the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio include a radio alarm, recording and RDS.

To the delight of users who prefer to snap random pictures, the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio comes with a 3-Megapixel VGA camera with dedicated camera keys and menus. The handset comes with a Picture Editor feature that allows tweaking of photos to result in virtually any desired effect. Photos may be viewed at the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio's built-in picture viewer. Users who enjoy playing games on their mobile phone will enjoy the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio's selection of pre-installed games in Java format. The handset also supports downloading of games from the Web.

In addition, the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio is capable of being a portable organiser with its virtual tools for scheduling, keeping track of time and storing contact details. The organize tools include a phone book, an alarm clock complete with radio, a calculator, notes and tasks option, a stopwatch, a timer and a vibrating alert option. The handset's speakerphone feature also makes calls hassle-free even during those busy moments.

The Sony Ericsson R300 Radio has 8 Megabytes of internal memory for storage of photos, contacts, music files and other data. It offers users nine hours of talk time, and stays on standby mode for 410 hours on full battery.

Observers of the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio have criticised the handset for its limited colours, as well as a bulky and complicated file manager. However, some users are impressed by the handset's compact design, high quality audio despite its small size, and its easy-to-operate Walkman interface. Users attest that the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio oozes in interesting style and highlights quality radio and audio features.

Find out more about the Sony Ericsson R300 Radio at sonyericsson.com
Read other reviews at ecoustics.com