Girlie Cellular Phone: the Sony Ericsson Z520I

Call us easy to please, but the Sony Ericsson Z520i has found a permanent place in our bags (right next to our iPod nano, Palm Z22, Bobbi Brown Bronzer compact and M.A. Clip glass). Hey, it even matches our white iBook G4! But don’t get us wrong — there’s more to this Sony Ericsson Z520i gizmo than just good looks.

For starters, the Sony Ericsson Z520i resembles a make-up compact. In tech speak, that would make it a clamshell phone — meaning its LCD won’t get scratched when it’s jostled around in your bag or purse as you make a dash for your yoga class. Flipped open, it nestles comfortably in the middle of a tiny palm, with a keypad soft yet uber responsive to the SMS maneuvers of just-French-manicured nails.

We have to admit that while the VGA quality camera is a bit pedestrian, its image quality is satisfactory, particularly when viewed on the bright 128×160 pixe LCD. The Sony Ericsson Z520i also has a function that lets you “frame” your friends. You can shoot self-portraits with the flip closed, using the external LCD as a viewfinder, or, in a pinch, as a mirror. The Sony Ericsson Z520i also comes with a game called New York Nights. Think Tamagotchi, except that instead of a pet, you help a girl survive in New York City. How? You help get a job, make friends, and get a social life. It’s tougher than it sounds.

The Sony Ericsson Z520i also plays back MP3s with decent sound quality, and you can assign your fave song as a ringtone. Choose wisely, because the phone comes with only 12MB of fixed memory — not a lot, especially when you get trigger happy with the camera. File management with our iBook was easy enough thanks to Bluetooth, so the limited memory isn’t that big a problem. And finally, because the Sony Ericsson Z520i is a quad-band phone, you can take it anywhere your wanderlust takes you.

At an attractive price, the Z520i is pretty sweet as far as mid-range phones go. While it may not have sweep-you-off-your-feet features, it does get things done with style — quality which make the Sony Ericsson Z520i a keeper.