The Sony Ericsson G900 smartphone it is named one of the key novelties of this year which, undoubtedly, will add one of the history pages of Sony Ericsson. This is a quite deserved recognition and a long-awaited result as during last three years the Swed-Japanese developer had certain complexities with the P series promotion.
The matter is that new modules of Sony Ericsson should be coordinated, in particular, with Samsung, Motorola and Nokia, the UIQ owners (Symbian branch). Due to Sony Ericsson’s controlling set of shares, it was possible to redeem the rights on UIQ from other owners, therefore almost 90 % of actions have passed to Sony Ericsson. However, one year ago over the market dominated the Nokia S60 smartphones, that’s why the swed-japanese company had to mobilize all the efforts to create an as much as possible functional and competitive product.
This year became significant for Sony Ericsson and, it is connected first of all with the release of the G700 analogue – the Sony Ericsson G900 smartphone with a 5 Mp digital camera and the Wi-Fi-module. Up to the end of this year, on the market will appear some more such kind of devices from Sony Ericsson which will be presented in various form-factors. In 2009, the series formation will end (by that moment it will include about 10 models). Sony Ericsson G900 represents a product focused on the mass market, therefore doubts in its popularity and demand did not arise even from the start.
The Design
Before we pass directly to the smartphone’s design, it would be desirable to pay attention to its original packing. Many users have already got used to the fact that the prototypes are delivered in standard white boxes filled with accessories. The Sony Ericsson G900 box is stylish enough – a dark flat package with cardboard door and, inside the package, is found only the "drowned" smartphone.
Sony Ericsson G900 is executed in the bar form-factor, it weighs 99 gram has the sizes 106.7х50х13.8 mm. Metal inserts on the case are absent, and the case edges are rounded, which visually reduces the smartphone’s dimensions even more. By appearance and sizes Sony Ericsson G900 and resembles with the model of the same company K770i which has been released last year.
The front panel is executed from a dense glossy film: in the middle we have the speaker opening, and to the left of it - the CIF camera for videocalls. Below we find the 2.4” TFT-screen with the declared 262000 colors. Brightness is quite sufficient, however, to Sony Ericsson UIQ smartphones "minuses" we can add the low image contrast, which is observed at the G900 too. The view angle is 150 degrees - already traditional for the Sony Ericsson devices. Above the screen’s glass it is located the touch film - a little bit dulling clearness, but simultaneously reducing to minimum the granularity. The touch film in many aspects defines the screen’s behavior in the sun: the information, certainly, is visible, but with some pressure as the picture fades and darkens.
Directly under the screen there are located three white points, lower is the navigating block which reminds the one of K800i: the “Back” and “Remove” keys, a round navigating key with a silvery fringing and the centered confirmation button of an enough small diameter. The place habitually reserved for the contextual soft keys is taken by the shortcuts for messages and notes. The keyboard in the Sony Ericsson style represents vertical rows of inclined, conveniently shaped keys, allowing typing the text "blindly".
The Sony Ericsson G900’s case is presented in two color variants: dark red and dark brown though dark brown looks almost as black. On the phone’s sides passes a silvery strip with a strongly pronounced pattern of a grid. On the right side is located the volume regulator, the block key and the one for digital camera. At the bottom end of the device we have the microphone aperture which is also used for sound record and video sound; on the top – the on/off button. At the top end edge we also find the stylus, however, the truth is it’s too short, that causes inconvenience in use. On the back surface there is the digital camera module and the diode flash. The battery cover can be opened by dragging it in your direction and demands some efforts.
The Functionality
The Sony Ericsson G900 technical specifications are similar with the ones of W960: the built in memory is 256 Mb with 160 Mb available for the user and 128 Mb of operative memory (89 Mb available after loading). The smartphone it is equipped with a 950 mAh battery: time in conversation mode - 12 h, in stand-by mode - 380 hours. If to calculate one hour of conversation per day, 2 hours of music listening via the mp3-player, 30 minutes of work with the digital camera, occasional e-mail checking and rare data transfers via Bluetooth, then the fully charged battery should hold for 2 days. When using all the smartphone’s features, the charge will not suffice even one day, though the majority of users, for sure, will limit themselves to the set of above mentioned functions.
As it has already been told, the model Sony Ericsson G900 is equipped with a 5 MP digital camera with auto focus and diode flash. The PhotoFix function allows automatic selection of parameters for the already made pictures. There is the possibility of focusing on the screen, there are present the Black&White, Sepia, Solarization and Negativ effects, a choice of normal or serial shooting, white balance adjustment, however, the quality of pictures remains not at the highest level.
Music is one of the device’s functions, therefore will not especially focus on this aspect. The audio supported formats are: MP3, AAC, AAC +, E-AAC +, WAV and m4a. To use the FM-radio it is needed to connect the headset - by the way, in the Sony Ericsson phones, radio it is considered one of the best on sensitivity.
The Interface
The turning on process of Sony Ericsson G900 is accompanied by the traditional for UIQ 3.0 Sony Ericsson smartphones’ animated intro. The standard stand-by structure: five icons and the desktop, however, up to 11 shortcuts can be added. The central icon in the form of four circles is main menu entrance. The standard set of active windows consists of 4 shortcuts: shortcuts for various applications, the list of the selected contacts, the organizer window with date and the window for viewing SMS-messages. To optional windows to add is the alarm clock, the musical player, the list of the WEB-browser bookmarks and RSS-channels of news, the digital clock, viewing photos from the album and the tasks list.
In the selected contacts we have the possibility to set not only type of a call, but also the type of message and the quick message on the specified number. In the panels connected with dates, it is contained all the information about tasks or meetings for the specified day. The phonebook has unlimited numbers of records. The Sony Ericsson G900 organizer includes a calendar, Quick Office for viewing Word, Excel and Power Point 97-2003 files, means of viewing the RSS-news lines and others.
Conclusion
The general conclusion: Sony Ericsson G900 is a long-awaited product from the Swed-Japanese company in which was possible to combine various technological features with a good design. A potential audience for Sony Ericsson G900 are the business men preferring such models of phones as Sony Ericsson K790i and K800i.
