Is Sony Ericsson Zylo a Good Music Phone?

While Sony Ericsson is busy updating its Android line of smartphones in the upper segment, the more affordable Walkman phones did not get much updates for quite a long time. And then the Zylo came along and we set our expectations high as we thought the huge time gap from the time we saw the last Walkman would be good enough for Sony Ericsson to bring some interesting change in the Walkman family. And now, the Zylo has arrived and let's take a closer look on what this long-waited Walkman has on offer.

Zylo has a slider form factor with a good build that fits into palm or in pockets nicely. The phone sports a 2.6-inch TFT QVGA display with 65k color support. The phone comes in three different colors ( Jazz Black, Chacha Silver and Swing Pink). The phone has an internal memory of 260MB and its supports up to 16GB of microSD support.

Apart from our much-loved FLAC playback feature, Zylo will also play all your standard MP3, AAC and WAV. It comes with TrackID feature and Media Go app will let you sync your media files. There is also built-in accelerometer sensor for automatic screen orientation. FM radio with RDS support is also present. One disappointing feature for the Zylo is its lack of 3.5mm standard audio jack which on our book is one crucial feature a music phone ( we must say every phone) should come with.
For other multimedia feature, there is a 3MP camera with fixed focus ( no auto focus) which is a little disappointing for the price ( Rs 8,500) you pay. Its ability to record VGA at 24fps is one improvement that Sony Ericsson has made though . as previous Walkman phones did not seem to let go the ancient QVGA resolution. The phone plays MP4 vidoes.

Zylo does not offer GPS but comes with Google Maps. It also has Netfront web browser with Flash support. Connectivity feature is decent with EDGE, 3G support but with no Wi-Fi.

As a music phone , the most disappointing feature is the absence of a 3.5mm headphones jack and a decent pair of headset like what we saw with the Xperia X10 mini. The rest is a decent pack of features and a nice design. Our complete review will be up  soon and expect to see how the Zylo stands against the other music phone in this price range.