Sony Ericsson S312 review

Mobile phones, particularly mass market ones, usually come in a variety of dull flavors – there's never too much style and everything is done to save on costs, which in turn are passed onto the consumer.

The Sony Ericsson S312, however, has aspirations above and beyond this. In short, the S312 wants to stand out from the crowd and in some ways it does.

That said, we're not entirely convinced that the S312 will be to everyone's tastes. As there are, for instance, some very strange design choices present on the S312, which don't particularly do it any favors.

In form, the phone is utterly conventional – not in a bad way either, being reasonably slim and very pocket-friendly. Unfortunately, it skips off the comfort of the well-trodden path with the gold rings that encircle the main select button and the camera lens on the back.

Sadly, they look rather tacky and cheap rather than bringing the intended luxury element to the S312. If you’re not averse to the shade used in the blue version of the S312, we’d suggest picking that version up since it exchanges the gold for a shade of easier that’s easier on the eye.

Next comes the strange, mirrored effect on the screen. This makes it look like the top half of the phone is one single, metallic blob when there’s nothing on the screen. Although not as universally offensive as the gold rings, this also seems to make the screen look more washed out than it might otherwise be.

The display itself isn’t terrible, being a lot easier on the eye than some even lower-end Sony Ericsson handsets, but the 176x220 pixel resolution doesn’t make text look particularly sharp, as you can easily see individual pixels.

While the S312 isn’t all that good at ‘fancy’, it’s a lot better at being what it is behind all the faulty pizzazz – a basic, budget phone.

Although the keypad is arranged into rows, rather than having individual buttons, there’s a reassuring click to their motion that makes texting with the S312 a breeze. Granted, the keypad is still quite small, but it still does at least extend to the edge of the phone’s width.

The interface is pure bog-standard Sony Ericsson, using the proprietary OS that’s been used in virtually every Sony Ericsson since time immemorial – based around a 3x4 grid of icons that makes up the phone’s menu. One element that’s occasionally left out of these phones is the FM radio, which is thankfully included here. Predictably, there’s no 3.5mm jack on the S312 – you’ll have to use a proprietary connector.

By today’s standards, the camera on the S312 is very low-tech. It’s only got two megapixels to its name, and the lack of autofocus really doesn’t help matters.

That said, it’s an improvement on the 2-megapixel Sony Ericsson phones of 2007, back when a pair of megapixels wasn’t sniffed at in the same way it is today. If the S312’s sensor decides to focus on the right part of the frame, the detail isn’t all that bad.

We wouldn’t suggest printing out anything the S312 produces, but with good lighting conditions, it’ll do as a casual web snapper. There’s no 3G though – and obviously no Wi-Fi – so you’d be better off transferring any photos over Bluetooth rather than going online.

There’s an M2 memory card slot under the battery that’ll let you top up the S312’s pretty meagre internal storage. Sadly though, there’s no card included in the price, meaning you’ll have to indulge in some extra spending to make good use of the camera and music features.

Dodgy style choices aside, the Sony Ericsson S312 is at its core an inoffensive, very easy-to-use phone. The problem is that there’s an excess of competition in this sector, and not just from rival manufacturers either.

Older Sony Ericsson phones, boasting less budget-ridden styling and better screens, are available for a similar price on prepay deals. We can’t help but suggest that you consider one of those rather than the rather uninspiring S312.