Design and Looks
Sony Ericsson R306 has been designed as a clamshell with the front sporting special keys to access Radio. When closed and held horizontally the phone resembles a radio. The speakers are present on the left and right and divided by a silver panel that incorporates a monochrome display. The LCD displays incoming calls, radio stations and the clock. The body is overall made of plastic. The keypad is flat with adequate space between keys. The D-pad is large enough but the selection key is troublesome considering its size.
Being an entry level phone the, R306 is a bit low on features. The handset comes along with 5MB of internal memory and not expansion card. The phone sports a 65K-color TFT unit with a resolution of 128x160 pixels. The low resolution takes its toll on the appearance of the user interface.
The left hand side of the phone comes with a volume rocker, a dedicated Radio Key and regular Sony Ericsson Fast Port. The integrated FM/AM radio tuner of Sony Ericsson R306 Radio has memory for 20 stations and supports RDS too. But this information is not displayed on the external screen which comes with 96x32 pixel monochrome.
The radio sound through the phones external speakers sounds a lot better and gives a nice effect. It also gives a volume boost option when using the external speakers. The handset comes along with a 1.3 megapixel camera, the phone is able to shoot pictures at a resolution of 1280x1024. It does not support any flash or any auto focus feature.
The handset is a tri-band GSM/GPRS phone. For close transfer, the phone features a Bluetooth with its object push feature. It also comes with a built in WAP browser, the HTML pages can be viewed on the phone but not many complex pages can be digested by the phone.
The standard application included on the phone includes Calendar, Alarms, Tasks, Notes, Timer, Stopwatch, and Calculator.
Overall the phone is low end but considering the market there will always be a space for a budget handset. The handset is easy to use but a little troublesome with the navigation key and also its low resolution on the display. Scarce internal memory and no expansion card tend to limit it in many ways. The highlight of the phone is its sixties radio looks that give it a distinct personality.
Features
- SMS , MMS , EMAIL
- WAP 2.0/xHTML
- Stereo AM/FM radio with RDS ; broadcast recording
- Availabel in Coffee Black , Champagne White
- TrackID
- MP3/AAC player
- T9
- Picture Editor
- Voice Memo
- Organizer
- Stopwatch
- Timer
