Sony Ericsson Z750a

Like many Sony Ericsson phones, the Z750a comes in multiple colors phantom gray and rose pink. The pink version, which we examined, isn't as garish as the pink model of the Z310a, but it's still bright and shiny. It shows your reflection, albeit a rose tinted one, and like any mirror, it attracts fingerprints. We weren't crazy about it, to be frank, but it's certainly eye catching. As stated above, the Z750a is a tad bulky, but not excessively so.

It measures 3.8 inches by 1.9 inches by 0.8 inch and weighs 3.9 ounces. It fits in comfortably, but the outer plastic casing felt a bit flimsy. The Z750a's external display is similar to the Z310a's. Though it's invisible when the back lighting is off, a quick flick of the left spine volume rocker makes it appear in the center of the front face. It's a unique touch, particularly since the display has a vertical orientation, but we didn't love it.

Though the display shows the time, battery life, signal strength, and number caller ID, it's rather small when compared with the phone's overall size. That means that the text is also small and that the screen won't show photo caller ID or work as a viewfinder for the camera lens.

Also, the display is difficult to see in direct light. Like most Sony Ericsson phones, the Z750a has an excellent internal display that measures 2.25 inches (240x320 pixels) and supports 262,144 colors.

Colors were vibrant and images were crisp, though the display can be difficult to see in direct light. You can change the brightness and the clock size, but none of the other options are customizable. The navigation array on the Z750a is quite well designed.

The four way toggle is large and very tactile, so we had no problems zipping though the user friendly menus. It's also surrounded by a pink ring and it's brightly backlit, so we had no problem finding it in dim environments.

The central OK button opens the menu when the phone is in standby mode, while the "up" direction of the toggle acts as a camera shortcut. The other three directions can be programmed to give one-touch access to three user defined functions while a second shortcut buttons opens a customizable menu of oft used functions. Other navigation controls include a Web browser shortcut, two soft keys and a clear control.

And in an uncharacteristic Sony Ericsson move, the Z750a has dedicated Talk and End keys. We also approved of the Z750a's backlit keypad buttons. They're large and tactile, which makes it easy to text quickly and dial by feel. Our only complaint was that the keys felt a bit cheap, but it wasn't a big deal. The dedicated power button is located below the keypad in a convenient location.