Review: Sony Ericsson V630i

The new, exclusive Vodafone live! Sony Ericsson V630i UMTS phone actually looks very much like a portable music player. It comes in an unostentatious candybar design with the main music player functions on the front. There are start, stop, pause and skip buttons for convenient MP3 player operation. The Sony Ericsson V630i is also a stylish accessory. It comes in ‘vibrant black’ with eye-catching orange MP3 player buttons at the front and speakers at the back.The entire music programme can be started at the touch of a button and Vodafone Music Downloads are a big hit with users. One of the practical features is that the integrated MP3 player in the Sony Ericsson V630i can be operated independently of the other phone functions.

It’s easy to text messages, surf on the Vodafone live! portal and listen to music at the same time on most flights because you can switch off the phone’s mobile reception while you’re in the air. The UMTS phone comes with a stereo headset and a 256 MB memory card so that users can listen to an extensive collection of songs or add to the existing collection from Vodafone MusicDownloads while they’re out and about.

The Sony Ericsson V630i music phone is now available from the Vodafone shops and via the Internet. Without a contract, the phone costs EUR 449.50.

Buying and listening to music with mobile phones is now one of the most popular multimedia applications, and exclusive music phones are in big demand. The new Sony Ericsson V630i music phone incorporates a first-rate MP3 player for excellent quality playback. Not only does the candybar Sony Ericsson V630i incorporate music technology, it also has a 2 megapixel camera and many other attractive UMTS-based services.

All your multimedia content will be stored on Sony Ericsson’s answer to the TransFlash card, the MemoryStick Micro M2. A 256MB card is supplied, enough to stockpile around 60 songs encoded in AAC format at 128Kbps, and assuming you don’t stock up on other multimedia content. However, Sony Ericsson has 1GB capacity M2 cards available should 256MB be insufficient.

The V630i has two cameras onboard: a front-loaded VGA for video calls and a two-megapixel lens for still images. Having made a video call to the LG U400, we were quite impressed with the mugshot quality. Sure, digital noise did occur, but in the main the moving images were relatively clear. The audio also sounded loud over the built-in speakers and in a quiet environment, you won’t need to use headphones to hear the conversation.

Compared to the photos delivered by its fellow 2 megapixel camphones like the K750i, W810i and W900i, the V630i suffers a little in quality. Picture resolution is 1600×1200 pixels, compared with the 1632×1224 of its aforementioned compadres, and tricks like autofocus and macro are missing. Alongside identical photos taken by a W810i, those by the V630i look washed out and display a greenish tint. It won’t spoil your enjoyment too much but that little extra capability does make a difference. Also integrated with the camera is the eBlogger service, which lets you automatically send in and post your photos online to your blog.