3 Jul 2008
Announced on January 2008, the Z555i flaunts its clamshell construction coupled with a fashionable design. Its top half is covered in glossy diamond-like patterns and the rest in matte finish. This good-looking phone shows off in colours of either diamond black or pale pink. Its overall appearance simply gives an impression that it attracts fashion conscious people.

Measuring 95mm in height, 49mm in width and 17mm in thickness, the Z555i is a well balanced handset that offers comfort to its users. It may look and feel solid but it only weighs 95 grams which makes it handy to use.

Its unusual form comes with a 262k colour TFT screen that offers a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. Its display type is OLED monochrome that carries 128 x 36 pixels. This shows a cool reflection effect. The OLED screen displays an incoming call, text, alarm, reminder and current time when activated. The handset has a large keypad that is easy to use. Its buttons are large enough to easily navigate, making it almost impossible for errors to occur. It seems that Z555i really made the most out of its space. However, it does not have external keys for quick access of the music player and camera.

The Z555i carries features that are almost identical to that with the W380. Located on its glossy surface is the camera lens which has 1.3 megapixel resolution. As a handset that provides a gesture control feature, it also has a tiny camera LED for movement detection in dark places. Camera functions include a 4x digital zoom, photo settings and viewfinder display. It also features Picture Blogging wherein it allows users to upload photos or images into a Blogger.

The handset is also equipped with a media player. However, it does not have features of the Walkman range. Z555i’s music player still carries the same functionality in terms of sorting tracks and running in background. It does not have any visual effects or MegaBass presets like the Walkman line of music phones. In addition, Z555i has an integrated FM radio with RDS support and 20 preset stations. Users can also opt to use the Bluetooth stereo with A2DP for a cable-free music experience.

On the back side of the handset, is a Li-Ion Battery which lasts up to 9 hours of talk time and 360 hours of standby time. Its battery life is said to be twenty percent more than W380. Aside from its 12MB internal memory, it also offers a Micro “M2” Memory Card Slot for memory expansion.

An interesting feature of Z555i is its Flash light theme support. With this feature the user can see changes in its animated standard theme. Its color and shades will change depending on the time of day. Furthermore, it also offers a file manager which allows image filtering. Like the W380, it carries a Timeline view which sorts photos based on the date they where taken.

The mobile phone also comes with two preinstalled features namely AccuWeather and Audible, but both needs internet access in order to function. The AccuWeather is an application used for accessing the weather service, while the Audible is an application which allows Podcast and audio show downloads.

Net surfing is for Z555i is supported with EDGE technology which provides high speed data transfer rates. It also comes with Bluetooth wireless technology and USB support for connectivity options. Unfortunately, it does not have an Infrared.

Other functions include an alarm clock, calculator, calendar, notes, stopwatch, tasks, and timer. It also provides a speakerphone for a handsfree experience. There is also a Flight mode feature which allows users to access their phones in a restricted area such as inside an airplane.

For an entry-level mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson Z555i has an average performance. Although is presents simple features, it is still notable for its fashionable looks. Its built-in memory is a bit low. Fortunately, it has an expandable memory card slot which can carry a size of up to 4GB. Its sound and audio quality are pretty good. Its camera isn’t so bad for this price range.

The Sony Ericsson Z555i pretty much carries similar features with that of the W380. This handset may be a good deal for anyone looking for an inexpensive clamshell phone with great looks.

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