C702 by Sony Ericsson

The Sony Ericsson C702 is the new junior Cyber-shot phone, featuring a decent 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus and face detection, as well as a revamped user interface compared to the K550, which seems to be its predecessor. When announced, the C702 was officially the first GPS-enabled phone by Sony Ericsson, adding the ability to geo-tag your photos, when connected to GPS satelites. To further enhance the C702�s camera abilities, Sony Ericsson got the C702 IP54-certified, meaning it is more or less dust proof and splash resistant from all angles. This will enable photography enthusiasts to take photos in more extreme conditions than previously possible.

The C702 is available on most markets in Cyan Blue and Speed Black colour trimmings. Both designs are quite different from what we�ve seen by Sony Ericsson in the past, but to tell you the truth, I actually do like the design of the C702 quite a lot. The materials used are rather nice, and especially the textured back feels nice to touch. It�s impossible to put fingerprints on the blue and grey casing, and only the area around the display can be smudged with your busy fingers. The backside cover is held in place by a rather annoying lock near the bottom. Although it does its job very well, it�s extremely hard - if not impossible - to open it without the use of a screwdriver, credit card or alike. Just below the battery cover, hides a standard BST-33 (950 mAh Li-Pol) battery, which seems like a decent performing battery, giving you about 3-4 days of use.
In the other end, we�ll find the camera and a very nice camera lens cover, that nicely slides down and back up again, ended with a lovely click-sound. Above the lens cover is a dual LED, that doubles as a flash light, when not used by the camera.

When held in hand, the C702 feels a lot lighter than it looks, weighing in at 105 grams, and I�m actually very impressed by the build quality. Absolutely nothing creaks, or fells misfitting - that�s the way, it�s supposed to be! C702 measures 106 x 48 x 15.5 millimetres, and even though 15.5 millimetres doesn�t look like much, it feels a bit thicker in real life, especially as it�s laying on my desk right now with the thin G700 and G900 smart phones just inches from it. The keypad is nicely backlit with a rather interesting-looking blue colour, which looks cool in the evening. Speaking of the keypad, it provides average tactile feedback. The alphanumeric keypad is a bit too soft for my liking, and you�ll sometimes question whether you actually hit the key or not. The soft keys, however, provide a very nice tactile feedback, with only the navigation d-pad being a little awkward to use.

The 2.2 inch TFT display located on the upper front is well saturated, and photos look bright and colour on it. While it works very well indoors, it�s not the best outdoors. I had a hard time navigating the dark theme I had set. If you�re worried about the display�s legibility while using it as a navigational unit or for your sports tracking, don�t worry. Both applications are very bright, and they can be viewed without any problems even in direct sunlight.