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The C702's got a large-ish 240 x 320-pixel screen capable of displaying 262,000 colours. Below that sits a compact keypad. When we say compact, the keys are, in fact, tiny. Our man-thumbs struggled at first, but with a little perseverance, we realised that it's actually well designed, with nicely raised and separated keys that are surprisingly easy to press, though we did find that we needed to use our thumbnails a lot.

Assisted GPS is fast becoming standard on Sony Ericsson's mid-range and up phones, and it's an impressively easy-to-use system. As with the C902, we had no trouble getting a signal in North London and it pinpointed our position using Google Maps, which also lets you see aerial pictures of where you are and where you're going. This isn't particularly useful when you're looking for somewhere, unless you happen to be in a helicopter, but like Google Earth, it's addictive fun.

Sony Ericsson C702

The non-slip plastic casing is reinforced with metal and rubber

There's a location-based sports application called Tracker that measures the distance you've jogged or strolled, depending on how energetic you're feeling. It seemed to be reasonably accurate, consistently cajoling us to go faster when our pace slipped below the level we'd optimistically set ourselves.

The C702 isn't ideal for motoring unless you've got particularly good eyesight, but there is the option of voice-assisted directions with Wayfinder Navigator - it comes with a 30-day free trial, but after that you'll have to shell out.

There's traffic info too, though this didn't seem to be particularly comprehensive because there's none available in our part of the world, apparently. The AGPS is also used to geo-tag your pics – handy for sharing info when you upload shots to your blog - taking advantage of Sony Ericsson's deal with Blogger - or a pic-sharing site like Flickr.

Latest Comments

Colour and GPS...

Mine is a nice black, so I hope to avoid being hit on by the wrong crowd.

(The right crowd never hits on me, either, but that's another matter)

The digital zoom is...

Not something that can be used if you take pictures at the highest resolution.

I'd like to have a shortcut for switching on the LED-light that was easier to access than the function hidden deep in the options menu in camera mode.

The GPS...

If you try to use it 'non-assisted' it'll take absolutely ages to lock on.

Also, I have yet to find a simple 'tracklog' function in the GPS-software included. Sure, you can use Google and Wayfinder to navigate the streets of a city, but I also go 'off the beaten path', and head into the mountains. Google doesn't have many mountain trails in their maps...

(There is a log, but it just logs the Co-ords every minute, and that's a 'little bit' too coarse. never mind that you can''t see it graphically.)

There IS a free download in SE's 'Fun and Downloads' section called GPS Navigation, but I have yet to be able to download it. I always get an 'Invalid Program' message.

I guess my old Magellan eXplorist 100 GPS will still be the preferred tool when hiking.

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"It's not as rugged as it looks"

That's funny, because it *looks* about as rugged as a crystal vase full of pretty lilacs.

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It's rugged credentials...

ain't the only thing that's a bit 'suspect', given, what could only kindly be called, that 'metro sexual' colour scheme. Bleuch!

More Andy Pandy than Andy McNab I say.

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Very assisted GPS ?

Pretty amazing that you managed to get a good GPS signal with the C902 ... perhaps you should put the tinfoil hats back on.

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