Sony Ericsson C702 Review
Phone rating: 
In a nutshell: The Sony Ericsson C702 is a mid-range 3G phone that offers a lot for your money. Its star feature is GPS satellite positioning, combined with Google Maps. It's built for the outdoors, being splashproof and dust resistant. In addition it's equipped with an excellent 3.2 megapixel camera, a music player, an FM radio and high-speed 3G internet (HSDPA). Battery life is excellent too, but the keypad and joystick are slightly fiddly. But this phone is so feature-packed, we're willing to overlook this one flaw. Available in Cool Cyan or Speed Black.
Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Dialaphone (Black) or free from Vodafone.
The C702 is the second release in Sony Ericsson's new "C" for Cyber-Shot™ range (the first was the flagship C902.) The C702 is not as expensive as the C902, but it isn't simply a budget version of the C902. Instead, the C702 is a new kind of phone from Sony Ericsson - it's a rugged outdoor kind of phone, designed to be splashproof and dust-resistant, and equipped with Assisted GPS satellite positioning.
The phone feels rugged enough. We didn't test it by dropping it in the bath or burying it in the sand, so we can't vouch for how rugged it really is, but Sony Ericsson say that it complies with the IP54 (Ingress Protection) standard, and it's clearly been designed to be tougher than normal phones. The phone is a good size and weight (not too big or too small), and has a good-sized screen. However, we don't like the joystick / navigation key, and the buttons are quite small too.
This is a Cyber-Shot phone, so we're expecting a good camera. At 3.2 megapixels, it isn't up there with the 5 megapixels of the C902, but it compares well with previous camera phones such as the K800i. The camera is equipped with face-detection autofocus, a digital zoom and an LED flash. It's as good as anything currently available in the mid-range of phones.
The star feature of the C702 is the Assisted GPS. This will find your location and show you where you are on Google Maps™. This isn't a system that will replace the satnav in your car, but is ideal for personal use. This is definitely a great feature for any outdoor activity, and will be useful for anyone wanting to find their way around the city too. Previously GPS has only been available in top-of-the-range phones such as the Nokia N95, so it's great to see this technology starting to filter down into mid-priced phones. The GPS includes a geo-tagging feature, so it records the location of where each photo was taken. Personally, I have no trouble remembering where I took a photo ("This is me at the beach", etc) , but this feature may be helpful for some.
The phone is fully equipped with all of life's essentials for the 21st century. Music-wise it may not be a Walkman phone, but it has a fully-featured music player and FM radio (with RDS). You can listen to music with conventional headphones or an optional Bluetooth wireless stereo headset. We're delighted to see a full 150 Mbytes of internal memory, which is very generous, and is enough to store around 40 songs. You can add a Memory Stick Micro or Memory Stick PRO to increase storage to 4 GB. Fast "always-on" internet access is available via 3G HSDPA. Battery life seems to be good too.
The C702 is an impressive phone. Of course it doesn't have all the features of the high-end phones, but when you consider the price of the phone, it compares very favourably with other mid-range phones. We considered deducting one star because of the keypad/joystick, but have decided on balance to award the full 5 stars, as it excels in every other respect.
