Walkman phones have always been targeted at the youthful generation, seeing as there are the one who can’t seem to get enough of modern music. Yes, I’m guilty as charged, but that not the point. What important is that the Zylo is a Walkman 4.0 phone and looks kind of ‘Stylo-Milo’ too.
It didn’t feel like the 115g it’s supposed to weigh but that’s probably because I’ve grown used to bulky phones. The Zylo, on the other hand, is a pretty slim slider. The screen is a mediocre 2.6 inches across at 240 x 320 pixels. The best part of that is it is scratch-resistant; which really makes me a more relaxed user. I didn’t have to constantly fear accidentally putting a scratch on it.
One thing that I really did not like about the design is its keypad. It seemed way too plasticky for my liking and I sort of hated the sound of it being pressed. But the thing that truly annoyed me about the Zylo was the fact that it did not have a 3.5mm port. In my book, that is the worst crime a music-centric phone can commit.
This phone was launch at the same time as the SE Spiro and that model has a 3.5mm port, so what gives? The Spiro does not have the features as good as the Zylo, so why on earth would Sony Ericsson put a 3.5mm port there instead of the Zylo? Anyway, back to its design, on the right side is the volume toggle and camera button. Sliding the Zylo up and down was not a problem and it certainly feels solid enough.
Knowing that you have to get an adapter just to use your favorite pair of cans kind of spoils it a little, eh? Plus, it’s mean of Sony Ericsson not to include a pair of headsets which at least has a 3.5mm adapter. Nevertheless, this a phone for audiophiles. The icing on the cake is the support for the HD FLAC audio format, which is very high quality lossless audio codec. The audio compression used with the FLAC format doesn’t reduce the audio quality of files the way MP3 or AAC does, and so it delivers a supreme music experience, used with the proprietary Clear Audio technology.
Another good detail is that you can play music during a call so the other person can listen to a specific song or your whole playlist. Their by-now-familiar and popular Shake Control and Track ID features are also found on the Zylo.
The camera found on the Zylo is neither fantastic nor terrible. A 3.2 megapixel shooter is just about as basic as it gets these days. Pictures in daylight turned out beautifully but night time shot were quite terrible, even more so due to the absence of a flash. For best results, keep your hand steady because it isn’t that fast altogether. Its video player is about as basic as the camera too.
It’s a pity it has no Wi-Fi since everyone loves going on to Facebook and Twitter. But there’s always 3G for that. As with most SE phones these days, you can snap pics and post on Picasa and Flickr, plus, watching Youtube videos on its 2.6 inch screen isn’t a bad idea too.
Battery life is nothing to shout about. I managed two days under full usage. This slider comes in three interestingly named colors, namely Jazz Black, Chacha Silver and Swing Pink. Connectivity wise, everything is there, save the pre-mentioned Wi-Fi. Internal memory in this phone is at 260MB but it is expandable up to 16GB with a microSD card slot.
Overall, there a few nice features on this phone, but some spoilers just ruin the whole magic of it. If you are looking for a new phone with good music features and decent in day-to-day usage, then you should check out the Zylo.
Pros : Audio qulity, MicroSD up to 16GB, Human curvature design
Cons : Lacks 3.5mm jack, Lousy keypad
Sony Ericsson Zylo Specifications :
Size : 103 x 52 x 11.5 mm
Weight : 115g
Display : Scratch resistant 2.6 inch TFT screen
Input : Keypad
Camera : 3.2 Megapixel / No Flash
Connectivity : HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS/Bluetooth/USB/MicroSD
Popularity: 11% [?]
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