A WAP, Web and E-mail Phone

The Sony CMD-Z5 (I'll shorten this to Z5 from now on), is a very compact GSM dual-band telephone. It offers a host of features, some of which are great, and some of which could do with improvements.

Generalities

The Z5 is very compact. If you don't include the aerial, it's the surface area of a credit card, and a bit slimmer than a pack of cigarettes. It weighs nothing¹, and is a sort of neat polished aluminium-coloured finish, which is supposed to be scratch-proof to some extent, according to the manufacturer.

The phone is operated mostly by means of this sort of wheely thingy in the top left-hand corner, a bit like the purpleish notebooks made by the same manufacturer. On the Z5, the wheel turns, can be pressed in to confirm an action, and it also tilts to the rear or front of the phone, to go back to the previous menu, for instance. I know it sounds confusing, but you get the hang of it really quickly.

All in all, its looks attract a little more attention than might be considered acceptable, which is why it's nice that the thing can fit in your jeans pocket without causing a hernia.

"Cut to the Chase," I hear you cry.

Okay, I was asked to write this mostly to talk about how the Z5 relates to h2g2 On The Move, so I'll get on with it. I'll put the other bits and pieces further down.

WAP

The Z5's WAP browser, and indeed the whole suite of built-in Internet software, is Microsoft's Mobile Explorer microbrowser. It handles regular WML without a hitch, and the pages seem to load and render a little quicker than on the Nokia 7110, which I had before so I know what I'm talking about.

The phone can store up to 5 different ISP/WAP provider settings, each with their own home page, gateway, phone number and so on and so forth. Changing from one to the other provider is accomplished by dint of fiddling with the wheely thing, and takes about 5 seconds.

The Display

This is definitely worth a mention. The Z5's display is surprisingly large for such a small phone, and does grayscale. Most WAP sites today use only black/white WBMP images, but the display makes a difference when looking at regular HTML pages. Also, all built-in menus make use of the higher display quality.

HTML

Looking at regular HTML pages on such a small display is, of course, not at all comparable to a handheld, such as a Palm or a Psion. What I find amazing is that the thing gets the job done at all. Okay, there's no JavaScript support, and you can forget about frames. However, it will render tables, by displaying the cells underneath each other if there's not enough room², and it will show graphics. Sadly, if the graphic is larger than the screen (very likely), you can scroll up and down with the wheely thingy, but not sideways.

E-Mail

The Z5 includes a POP3/SMTP client, so you can download and send your mail without going through a cumbersone WAP Gateway. The software isn't as good as it could be, since it runs in the Mobile Explorer, a little like a local webmail-on-the-phone. And it won't accept messages larger than about 6 or 7 KB, which is obviously a misfeature - it should truncate them or something.

On the other hand, when you're on the move, you probably don't want to read all that rubbish if it's larger than 2 or 3 KB. Not at current airtime prices anyway...

Other Features

Some of the other features of the phone include:

• A phonebook with the ability to store up to 3 different numbers, and two text entries, per contact. Each of these entries can have a little icon associated with it, so you can tell at a glance if it's home, work, E-mail, whatever.
• Caller Groups. Again, these have icons that you can assign per group, as well as specific ring tones.
• A calendar, with reminders, recurring events etc.
• Voice memo recording function. You can capture up to 20sec of conversation during a call, or record sound even when you're not on a call. Very handy when you need to jot something down but don't have a pen.
• Calculator with currency converter.
• Clock with Alarm, Countdown Timer, graphical World Clock etc.
• T9 text entry. This means that you don't have to press each key n times to get the letter you want - the phone matches what you type to its internal (and expandable) dictionary.
• A multi-entry clipboard type thing, where you can store often-used phrases (e.g. Your h2g2 researcher number or whatever), and insert these anywhere where the phone accepts text input. You can also do this with Phonebook entries, Templates, etc. This is incredibly convenient!
• Tons more stuff, but then I'm not redoing the product brochure here...

Sub-optimal...

Nobody's perfect, and this applies to the Z5. The keys are a little too tough, and the keypress beep is way too loud. I had to turn it off, otherwise everyone within a 20-metre radius thinks you've got a new Gameboy.

The alarm reminder goes on for too long. Fully three minutes of beeping and vibrating when I couldn't get to it to shut it off, and it gets louder and louder. Believe me, this phone is LOUD. Do not set the ringer volume to maximum, you'll deafen yourself if it ever goes off near your ear.

You can't switch dictionary languages during text composition, as you can on the Nokia phones. You have to switch the whole phone. Luckily, this is very easy: you don't have to go through the whole Menu/Settings/Language rigmarole, you just type *#countrycode# at the main screen (e.g. *#00359# to switch everything to Bulgarian).

Caveat: there is a call time counter in the Settings menu, that lists last call, total calls, incoming, outgoing, etc. However, and this is a critical oversight, it does not show Net time! So when you're h2g2ing around, you'll be eating those minutes of airtime like mad. The little cartoon about not having to worry, as long as you contribute, does not apply in the case of this release of the Z5.

Hey Sony! You listening?

Conclusion

All in all, it's a neat gizmo. The screen is easy to read, it packs a lot of text, and the phone works generally well, and fast. I suspect Sony will improve the software in time, and since it's flashable, getting an upgrade shouldn't be too difficult. I've used A Nokia 7110, an 8210/Psion 5mx combo, and now this. I must say that this is the best compromise, because it lets me do the bare minimum when I'm on the move, and everything else can wait until I'm home.

Definitely worth a look, if you can afford it - it's not exactly cheap (CHF 800 without subscription, in Switzerland).

P.S.

This is my first review on here. Please comment, and I'll revise it as necessary. Thanks!