Aug 10, 2005 08:03 PM
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(Updated Aug 10, 2005 08:03 PM)
Since the title of my review explicitly says that Sony Ericsson is bad........lemme start off with the few positives of this phone:
Nokia is the best but doesnt give all features in one phone like Engage doesnt have camera, even the latest 3230 has mono sound on recorded video (awful). SE gives reasonably ok features at a decent price.
Good looks.....SE stands tall on this front. it's phones look good, style is something that SE has internalised pretty well so u r sure to get an attention grabber.
Pretty good sound quality (i don't mean reception, I mean of ringtones). Polyphonics sound very good........better than Nokia, trust me on that one.
About Z200, even though the screen is only 4096 colors, u can't make that out. The colors are really very good & this model optimisess the LCD effect to maximum. Compare this to the pathetic display of Samsung & LG clamshells & u'll understand what i'm talking about.
The problem is that SE positives end about here. Now is the time for negatives that have been bothering me for a year now (yes, it's been a year since i've been using SE-Z200). I bought it with bill for Rs.7400 in Sep2004 from Lucknow.
The problem started this May when the phone began to get on & off on it's own free will. I took it to the service centre & they made me wait for an hour while they examined my phone. Then they returned it to me saying that the problem was rectified.
I was in Lko at that time and I had a train 4 delhi that night itself. en route to Delhi, in the train itself, the phone's mysterious problem re-appeared. Next day I went to SE Service Centre in Delhi. The said that i'll have to leave the phone with them & told me to check back after 4-5 days.
Whenever I used to call them, they put me on hold for 10-15 mins each time & ultimately I had to disconnect the calls. In short, nobody responded. After about a week, I went to the service centre & then after making me wait for 2 hrs, they gave the phone to me saying it was repaired. Even I inserted my sim card in it, the phone kept on displaying the message, ''Insert Sim Card''. I pointed this out to them & they made me wait for another hour. After that they told me that the phone had completely conked off & it's circuit would be changed, so I should get back to them after a week.
i kept calling them & they kept on telling me that the procedure was on. This went on for 15 days after which they gave me another set (same model) with a different IMEI number. This set functioned ok for a fortnight but after that this too started behaving mysteriously.
Incidentally I was in Lko again, & one fine morning while I was surfing GPRS, a horizontal black line appeared on the LCD screen. I was amazed........but I was yet to overcome the shock when I saw another similar line starting to stretch from 1 end of the screen to the other. Then I shut down the phone & took it to the service center.
Now the Lko center has a tradition of prompt delivery so they made me wait for an hour & then returned my set. The lines were gone but the screen had blackish hue emanating from all the 4 corners. When I pointed this out to them they said, complaint was ''lines on display'', they are gone now, phone is ok. After haggling a lot, they said that i'll have to leave the phone with them.
Again 5 days passed & then I got the phone. This time the blackish hue was also gone. I was starting to thank my stars when I closed the phone (this is clamshell, u see) & to my horror, the external display was almost invisible (this phone displays a small clock on the outside in beautiful yellow tone). When I pointed out this problem, they told me that the complaint was of ''blackish hue'' & that has been rectified. Now I was rude enough to inform them that rectifying one complaint DOES NOT mean creating new troubles with the set.
As a result, I had to leave the phone again with them for 5 days. Thankfully it looked ok now, only had a few scratches to show for it's adventures at various service centres.
Now again, the phone is giving me trouble. Charging is pathetic, it shows or doesn't charging (on it's own whims & fancies) but doesnt stay charged for long. Calls get dropped because of poor battery, but i'm very reluctant to take it to the service centre, because a bad phone is better than no phone at all (mind u, SE does not provide any stand-by sets, a la Nokia).
Conclusion: DO NOT PURCHASE Sony Ericsson Phone, EVER!!.......even if God tells u to, Don't !!
