Well… if it was green and red then it'll look more like Christmas, then perhaps I might consider (?) Probably not…

So I opt for the lime green gold-ish colour with silver keypads combination instead.

The feeling and the slightly rougher surface at the back encourages grip, especially a clumsy person like me who has butterfingers (oops). The slide is firm yet smooth. The keypads are rather small for a guy to type, even for me (who has been too used to flip phones with larger keypads) so it takes a while to get used to it. Those who have never used Sony Ericsson phones before (like me) would take a while to learn the navigations because they are small and some are very thin buttons.

One thing good about it is Sony Ericsson must have learned from its consumers that when you offer MP3 songs as ring-tones you do not need to offer them too many built-ins (just in case those who know nothing about Bluetooth or synchronising with a PC); though some of the little list of songs are quite catchy and nice to listen.

Unfortunately, they have a melody mixer but not a melody composer.

The menu navigation is pretty cool and it is fast, although I personally didn't quite like the minor vibrate whenever you navigate around - Not very sure whether it can be turned off or not.

Customised ring tones are only available when the numbers are saved on the phone. This is BAD if ever your phone has a problem. But Sony Ericsson has cleverly inserted the feature "Backup to MC" (Memory Card) that allows you to backup your contacts. The only thing to remember is you need to backup them up whenever you have new changes to your contact list.

I am not very sure Copy To SIM is copying all contacts to SIM or just selected contact. I will try to check it out and update here later.

Those who are familiar with the Windows keyboard input for other languages besides English will find it familiar when you use the T9 feature. The suggested menus will pup out like a scroll down menu for you to key in the right words and so far it learns pretty quickly and remembers most of the words you have previously keyed in. This feature is also available when you type extra notes in your Contacts.

Remember: the responses are quick because the S500i learning dictionary isn't filled with junks yet, neither is your phone memory.

Behold! This is the first time I actually have a phone that can synchronises with my Outlook. It's a nifty feature when you don't have too many contact ways from your phone to your PC, or else when you either combine the contacts or overwriting each other (between PC and phone) you will get the messiest list in your phone.

You can actually group your contacts for bulk messaging; unfortunately, it doesn't have group ring tones so you still have to set each contact the ring tone you desire.

I have not tried synchronising with photos yet but it's pretty simple to copy a song to the phone. But bare in mind that only MIDI and MP3 formats are readable by the S500i. Another problem is the songs are set based on the Album and Artist, unless you preferred that, or else you will need to manually move the file to the ring-tone folders later. There is another faster way to extract the photos, which uses the File Manager feature.

The decoding of WAP browsers are fairly fast, but when you come to a site that has a longer response from the server you will need to wait. I am currently using only GPRS and I have not tried using EDGE to play around with emailing and browsing.

The MMS is fairly easy to set up, especially when your own telco provider has the features available. Thankfully that Sony Ericsson is in favour of my own service provider and without even doing it yourself it is all set up and ready to run. MMS downloads are quick and the displays of images are crisp clear.

The calendar features can be quite nice, but it looses that little adorable part when there isn't any special icons for categories… heck, there isn't any categories. You just need to key in yourself.

Another sad side (for me) is my all time favourite "Lady Calendar" which I used to have in my inno 30 phone was unavailable, which is very useful for ladies and family planning for married couples. Perhaps Sony didn't think that it is needed as the design may have been targeted for young teenagers first. Think again Sony!

I just realised that there isn't a flash for the camera. That is a bummer, and one mistake I didn't double check. Probably it is not the model catered for camera shooting.

The images taken looked good on the screen, except when you have up close shots, as it doesn't support macro. It's just a basic snap and save and if you need something more than that you'd probably prefer a real camera (not a camera phone). Overall you can take in different modes like:

Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to allow zooming so you will have to see my later updated posts.

Taken using the S500i in 1MP low light

Close ups
(I think I also have shaky hands)

Taken using night mode

Then again, it's only a 2MP camera embedded inside so don't put too much high hopes to get crisp clear images, especially with shaky hands!

That's about it for now, and when I get to know more things about this nifty little phone I will continue to update this post or at the blog posts that links to this page.