Sony Ericsson Jalou review

Sony Ericsson's Jalou is a quirky compact clamshell phone, which is primarily targeted at fashion conscious female mobile phone buyers. It comes with an angular, cut jewel-referencing design.

With its glammed up bodywork and petite dimensions, the Sony Ericsson Jalou is shipped in either Deep Amethyst, Aquamarine Blue or Onyx Black - although there's also a more blinged-up (and expensive) limited edition Dolce & Gabbana version with 24-carat gold plating.

Sony Ericsson drops in some software feminine appeal too, lacing the homescreen with an astrological zodiac-based theme, a mirror display option for makeup maintenance and apps like a Walk Mate step counter that also calculates BMI. Right up some fashionistas' catwalks, perhaps.

The Sony Ericsson Jalou has more than solely its looks to sell itself though. Getting under the skin, it is an HSDPA 3G-enabled handset with a typically competent set of essential contemporary mobile features, including a music player and FM radio, 3.2-megapixel camera and video player options, plus online-based apps for Google Maps for location finding, plus embedded apps/inks for YouTube and FaceBook. It has 100MB of onboard storage, but this can be boosted using MicroSD cards.

The tiny dimensions of the Sony Ericsson Jalou - 73(h) x 45(w) x 18.2(d)mm closed, and weighing 84g - are matchbox-like, and make it suitable for the smallest pocket or bag. It does feel budget quality and plasticky, though, and the brash gloss finish and angled design is one of those love it or hate it jobs. Sony Ericsson reworks the trick of having a hidden LCD panel running sideways along the front of the flip.

This mono 1.3-inch display glows bright through the casing when the phone is activated, showing date and status info on standby, providing incoming caller or text message details, alarm alerts and so on.  The camera lens is also on the shell front, embedded in a tiny raised bolt-shaped unit. There's no secondary video calling under the flip - though, let's face it, that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker.

Pop the flip open and the inside keypad is again all angular shapes - a chrome-trimmed hexagonal navigation D-pad standing out, plus number keys marked by chrome diamonds. Tacky or trendy, gaudy or glam? It's not exactly understated.

The matt finished one piece numberpad is a bit creaky-plastic but is fine for text typing. The D-pad though can be awkward. It's almost flat and is flush against adjacent keys, which can lead to occasional mis-pressing at the edges if fingers go slightly astray – particularly annoying if you accidentally hit the Call End button mid-function rather than the right select key and end up back in the standby screen. Longs nails may help.

The otherwise standard Sony Ericsson set up sees the D-pad offering shortcuts from standby - including camera activation - and an Activity Menu button for zipping quickly into key feature shortcut and info menus. These are user configurable.

The display itself is a small 2-inch QVGA (240x320 pixels), 262,144-colour TFT. It's clear and bright, and an accelerometer is built in to auto-rotate the screen between portrait and landscape if you change orientation in certain functions; however, with this amount of screen real estate, the viewing experience is limited.

The laughable so-called 'mirror screen' function is a barely worth mentioning - press the Clear button in standby and it simply blanks the screen, allowing you to see your reflection in the blackness - just like with many other handsets.

The Jalou's user interface is similar to Sony Ericsson's mid-tier models so has an icon-grid main menu and tabbed sub menus - all quite conventionally arranged and easy to navigate. Similarly, its features and apps are familiar Sony Ericsson fare.

The media player neatly compiles music, videos, photos, games and web feeds into accessible folders, updating automatically when new content is loaded up or slipped in on a memory card. There's no USB cable supplied in-box, so using an optional card or Bluetooth are the easiest way of sideloading content.

The music player user interface is tried and trusted Sony Ericsson. It works effectively with intuitive controls, and tracks are neatly organised into familiar music player category slots and playlists, and there are headings for podcasts and audiobooks too, should you wish to load any of those. The earphones provided are standard issue earbuds offering average sound quality - acceptable for a mobile, with a competent if unexceptional performance with some bass underpinning it.

Sony Ericsson has again used its own chunky multi-connector plug on the side of the phone, which is a tad tangle-prone and awkward in the pocket or handbag; there's no 3.5mm headphone socket or adapter supplied with the Jalou.

An FM radio can be brought into play with the earphones in - a serviceable player that's efficient and straightforward to use. Sony Ericsson's clever TrackID song identification software is one of the radio options, and is available too as an app for tracks you hear around you.

Video playback looks smooth on the display, and can play full screen, but the screen space is restrictive if you're thinking of this as a video player main act.

The Jalou's camera is a fairly run-of-the-mill fixed focus shooter. It fires up in a couple of seconds from a D-pad shortcut, and the viewfinder default is set up for portrait holding and shooting using the navigation select pad to fire away. That doesn't allow for a large view of your subject, but it's acceptable for a down-range point and shoot snapper.

There are the usual kind of mid-level cameraphone setiings adjustment options, including white balance, mult-shot and colour effects, plus you can geotag shots with approximate location data. And once you've taken them, you can upload them straight to Facebook or other web services - settings are installed for MySpace, Picasa and Blogger, though others can be added.

With no flash or autofocus, the camera's versatility is limited; it won't take exceptional shots  but it takes an acceptable snap and is decent enough for this grade of cameraphone. Colours look well balanced and crisp, and image white balance and exposure are well regulated by the auto metering gadgetry onboard. Shots in dark places though are pretty disposable.

Video capture quality is constrained too, grabbing footage at 15 frames per second in QVGA resolution. Quality is mediocre at best, though the low-grade clips recorded on the Jalou can also be uploaded directly to web services.

Sony Ericsson's regulation NetFront browser is quite usable for a budget device, and is fairly nippy on HSDPA mobile networks, rendering pages sufficiently quickly and hassle free. It's not as intuitive as recent touchscreen efforts but it does the job reasonably well. Webpage text on the small screen can look tiny, however, although holding the phone sideways helps, and you can zoom with a couple of keystrokes. RSS feed are supported too, plus as usual for Sony Ericsson the Jalou has Google search pre-set to the web browser homescreen.

Email is easy to set up and use on the Jalou, with the Sony Ericsson email wizard requiring just your email address  password and for automated set-up of email for regular web-based email accounts and ISP services over the air.

Google Maps is another app that's standard on Sony Ericssons. Though there's no built-in GPS to give you pin-point location mapping, the Jalou uses cellsite triangulation to provide approximate positions on maps downloaded almost instantly over the air. This very handy app provides route planning and local search options too, and supports Google's Street View plus Latitude real-time position-sharing service options.

Additional features include a toolbox of familiar organiser functions - calendar, tasks, notes, timer, stopwatch, calculator and code memo apps - plus a voice recorder. A number of d applications fro online services are included too, such as Accuweather weather forecasting, plus Facebook and YouTube. Facebook is manageable with the Jalou and straightforward to operate, if not as slick as on some smartphones, while YouTube videos, streamed over HSDPA, look decent enough quality on the display.

Other apps include the motion-sensor operated Walk Mate, which tracks the steps you've taken throughout the day and calculates your Body Mass Index - something that may appeal to certain members of its target audience.

Doing the calling basics, the Sony Ericsson Jalou is certainly up to scratch, with a clear, good quality performance. Battery life is also decent for such a small phone; on 3G networks, Sony Ericsson reckons on up to 250 hours standby or 4.5 hours talktime (or 350 hours standby and 7 hours talk in GSM-only coverage). In test, we managed a comfortable 3 days and more between charges with regular amounts of use.

If you like a touch of bling with your ring-ring, the Sony Ericsson Jalou delivers a low-cost glammed up fashion phone. Of course, its brash, bright and angular design is aimed at a specific audience, so its appeal is limited. Under the bonnet though, it has a steady set of features and functions that you'd expect on a lower mid-level Sony Ericsson. Its plasticky feel and creaky keypad feel cheap, and we'd have liked a bigger display, but the Jalou offers a reasonable, if not exceptional, feature package and decent all-round performance for the price.