Incorporating environmental elements into the design of mobile phones are not unheard of. Nokia's up-market Siroccos are fine testaments, but for Sony Ericsson the same inspiration takes the form of unique themes within that offer users refreshing experiences between day and night and the different seasons.

Design

Usually, when we first pick up a phone from its box, the first impression sticks. But a review goes beyond what's on the surface. In the case of this Sony Ericsson, its beauty lies beneath.

Out of the box, the S500i comes with three themes available to the user: Clarity, Day and Night and Everchanging. True to its name, the Everchanging theme is the one that makes this Sony Ericsson stand out from its competition with a myriad of animated wallpapers and illuminated color menus that change with the time and seasons.


In the day, the LCD shows a floral wallpaper lit by yellow rays with colored butterflies appearing at random. At night, the scene is illuminated by a distant blue light with fireflies flying randomly in the foreground. That's not all. The wallpaper changes every month to match the seasons with different color themes. So it's like using a new phone each month. Maybe we're exaggerating, but that's the general idea.

Taking the user experience one step further are illuminated strips on the sides when we slide up the phone. Again, this is more of a gimmick than something that is actually useful. The impression is that Sony Ericsson is trying to create an emotional bond between the handset and the user, but we're not sure how strong this bond will be especially when mobile phones users aren't exactly the most loyal bunch of consumers.

According to Sony Ericsson, these themes are specific to the S500i, so users of other phone models won't be able to download them separately for use. We tried to Bluetooth it to a K810i and a W660i. The theme showed up on the phones, but it was just an empty shell. No butterflies and fireflies or any of the fancy lighting we see on the S500i.

The S500i is a typical slider phone which tapers down at an angle at the bottom edge and closely resembles the W580i. Like the rest of the Sony Ericsson phones, there are no Call/End keys. So for first-timers, that's something to get used to.

It comes in two flavors: Mysterious Green and Spring Yellow. Our review unit came in the jade-green shade, but technically it is black. The only things that are green are the center ring on the directional control (Xbox 360 style), the number keypad and the back of the top slider. Even though the buttons appear to be small, it was still reasonably comfortable to type with our thumbs.

Features

Because it's not part of the Walkman or the Cyber-shot series, the S500i's multimedia features are rather Spartan. The onboard music player allows sorting of music by artists, tracks or playlist and comes with some preset equalizers and stereo-widening features. It doesn't have album art or other nifty features found on the Walkman phones. Connection to the PC and portable charger is via a proprietary port on the right edge of the phone and we could drag-and-drop files from our PC to the handset, and vice versa. Supported audio formats include MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA and m4a.

There's a 2-megapixel camera behind the top lid on the S500i. Again, you won't find fancy features like built-in flash, self-portrait mirror or even a dedicated shutter button. Maximum resolution is 1,600 x 1,200 pixels and you cannot zoom at this setting. The camera's auto white balance faltered under tungsten lights, which is a common issue even for digital cameras. Colors looked nicely saturated for our snaps in the day and the highlights were rather nicely controlled for a basic camera. When viewing up close, there's a bit of watercolor effect due to lack of details, but we don't see a big issue if it's for Web purposes or printing in 4R.

The S500i comes with a quadband GSM radio with support for Bluetooth stereo. An internal memory of approximately 12MB available to the user is supplemented by a Memory Stick Micro card slot. There's also an Access NetFront Web Browser with RSS feeds, onboard apps for quick correction of images and putting together short video clips, voice recorder and Bluetooth remote control facilities.

Performance

The S500i is rated for up to 9 hours of talktime and 15.4 days on standby. On moderate usage of making calls, sending text messages and listening to music, the 930mAh Lithium-polymer battery lasted about 2.5 days. Audio quality was decent, likewise when we channeled it through the onboard speakers.