The Z310a is targeting the US market and the Z310i the rest of the world.

Dec 9, 2006 11:48 GMT  ·  By

Wondering why the picture shows three phones and the title says "twins"? Because the photo pictures the available colors of the Z310 handset from Sony Ericsson, launched a few days ago (the handset, not Sony Ericsson :P). The twins I'm talking about are exactly the same on the outside, as they should be to get the "twins" label.

The difference is on their inside: The Z310a is a quad-band handset that will be available for the guys living in one of the 51 states of USA and the Z310i is a tri-band phone going to the rest of the world. The rest of their spec sheet is identical so the rest of the article will contain information related to both of them.

The handsets, with a design inspired by the Z610 phone released by Sony Ericsson at the end of this year's August, have a pretty much basic specification sheet so they won't be a viable choice for the ones that want a high tech mobile phone.

On a closer look at the devices, the users will find an internal 65k colors STN 128x160 resolution display, that as the manufacturer says, will offer a low power consumption, a 96x64 pixel monochrome screen on the exterior and a 0.3 megapixel VGA digital camera. Wonder why I mentioned about the low power consumption? Because, as Sony Ericsson declared, you will have the chance to talk up to 7 hours, continuously, if you will decide to buy it!

That is pretty much the sum of all the features offered by the Z310 twins and this means you won't get any type of memory card slot to expand the phone's 15 MB internal memory, a good decision if you consider the fact that you will also not have the opportunity to toy around with an MP3 player. In this case, who should need more storage? And for what?

There is a catch though, and this catch is the thing that Sony Ericsson counts on for its cellphone's mobile market success. The Z310 will surely catch your attention due to its astounding design. What am I talking about? On the front face, there is a semi-transparent reflective surface that hides a few indicator icons that light up instantly whenever an event takes place.

Trust me, the overall effect of this feature will astonish you for sure, not to mention the fact that you can customize the color of the icons for different caller IDs and you can upload the snapshots taken with the handset's camera directly to a blog website of your choice.

In conclusion, the two versions of the Z310 Sony Ericsson cellphone will unquestionably catch your attention with their stylish design and sleek colorful looks, but you can be sure you don't want to get one of them if you are a more high tech kind of customer.

These handsets are meant for the ones of us that love a good looking basic phone and we are the guys that should get it, not a tech geek with no taste for style whatsoever. When are they going to be available on the mobile market? As their manufacturer has announced, sometime during the first quarter of 2007.