Phones can either be packed with features or have enough gloss you can use them as your mirror. Unfortunately you cannot have both. The phone either looks good or works hard.

In response to the needs of the average masses, mobile phones do manufacture handsets from time to time that will fit their needs. Budget mobile phones are everywhere but they don't exactly look good.

Fortunately Sony Ericsson realized that not everyone can afford a Motorola but still want a decent looking phone. The result is Sony Ericsson Z710.

Features

The phone is a twin of Sony Ericsson W710. The major differences would be fitness applications, motion sensor and a 512 MB memory card included in the package (in Sony Ericsson Z710 it's only 64 MB).

It comes in two colors black and silver. The construction is solid. It's generally made out of plastic but the silver accents on the black one make it a pretty phone. It is a bit boxy compared to other models but much shorter. The keypads are comfortable to use and slightly elevated. It has dedicated music keys on the side of the external display which is convenient when playing your Mp3s.

The internal screen display has 176 X 222 pixels. The display is bright and works well even under daylight conditions. The interface is easy to navigate and attractive. You can use animations as your wallpaper. You can now customized message alerts which are not available on previous budget phone models such the K700i.

It's a quad-band phone with GPRS and EDGE. Key features are a microSD memory card slot, bluetooth with A2DP, infrared port and USB. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS and an RSS reader.

Call management, messaging and phonebook are superb. The phone has enough memory that you can store many cell phone numbers in the phonebook. You have the option to answer a call by just opening your phone.

Cons

The camera does not have autofocus and flash. The external screen is big at 128 x 128 pixels but rendered useless because its monochrome. It does not have stereo speakers. The phone is boxy.

Overall it is a superb budget mobile phone. It delivers a lot as much as budget phones can go. For the practical consumers it is a good purchase.