Sony Ericsson F305 Review

Do you often travel or happen to hang about, waiting for a friend? We do. What´s even worse, we need to find what to do during the long daily commutes from point A to point B. Well, so how about some music or watching a blockbuster movie instead? Why not, actually? There are many phones out there with screens large enough to provide decent cinematic experience. But, there is another way to kill time and it´s to play games! The Sony Ericsson F305 is one of the few cell phones that are being advertised as a gaming device, so let´s take a closer look.

What´s in the box?

Design:

The device, white-colored in our case, features a cool, youthful overall design! The Sony Ericsson F305 sports a small, 2-inch display with low resolution that still delivers decent image quality. There are two round buttons right above it with the letters “O” and “X” neatly engraved on them. Hm, this kind of rings a bell with us. Where have we seen these before? Well, on the Playstation´s gamepad of course, where they help you control your character or steer a fancy car and that is exactly what you get to do with these two. Press the special button on the left of the D-Pad and a list of all available games pops up on screen that also causes the backlighting of the gaming buttons to turn on. This makes them really easy to spot in the dark, but even if they weren´t lit, they are prominent and discernible enough to feel with your fingers. We encountered absolutely no issues with all other buttons placed on the phone and the keypad itself, despite being really sleek, is extremely comfy to use.



You can compare the Sony Ericsson F305 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Do you remember the movie “Face off” where John Travolta put on Nicholas Cage´s face to manage to get to some information on the location of a bomb? You can go John Travolta on your Sony Ericsson F305 as well, although the reason is just to lend some color to its design when you get tired of it. Removing the stock panel is easier than it looks, thanks to the tiny rabbet under the D-Pad, but you need to be extremely careful not to break the fragile catches that fix it into place. Actually, you can choose between a wide range of panels on the Sony Ericsson´s website.

Aside from the standard, white battery cover, you will also get a nicely looking spare one that comes in the box and has a cool pattern. Well, since we are speaking of the back of the phone, we might as well exhaust the topic by telling you the two loudspeakers are also there. The phone needs to deliver stereo sounds, since that´s integral when it comes to proper gaming experience.

Games, multimedia and camera:
   
Like we said, the Sony Ericsson F305 has been designed with gamers in mind. That´s why we better buckled down to testing every single game that came preloaded on the phone as soon as we got it, which turned out to be quite an exhausting, neck-breaking job, but someone had to take on that anyway. So after we had a cup of coffee, we dived deeply into the game world.

The F305 comes preloaded with 11 titles plus you´ve got another 50 on the M2 card. Some of them are really fascinating, others not, but at least you have games of all genre varieties. We have to admit that gaming in horizontal view makes for a lot of fun, although only one of the preinstalled games allowed us to. Now this is what we call odd, since the very idea of the phone is playing in horizontal view mode. Fortunately, among the additional titles there are several games that let you make good use of the two extra buttons and the landscape view mode making the phone look like a gaming console even more. You will be able to take the role of a racer struggling to get to his destination despite all the odds, bad weather and heavy traffic, of a fighter that stalks in maze-like castle passageways and using his sword to battle hordes of undead etc. Aside from the special buttons, the F305 has a built-in motion sensor, although it´s only usable in three games – Jockey, Bowling and Bass Fishing. Well, honestly, we felt it amusing to use in the latter game, while trying to cope with it playing Bowling feels like a middle ages torture. You need to do the same motion you get to when playing bowling, i.e. throw the ball as if the phone itself was the ball you´re holding. The thing is you can´t exactly see the display and how you´re faring when trying to give your best shot, so you have almost no control over directing your motion. We are finishing this pretty important section of the review by saying that the Sony Ericsson F305 has a lot to offer no matter what kind of games you are into. It doesn´t deliver the stunning graphics of the N-Gage nor the game variety of the iPhone, but most of the titles are really funny and pleasing and are definitely up to the task of helping you waste several hours. Plus, if you feel bored with what´s available on the phone, you can always get other interesting titles.



Bear in mind that even if gaming is the most important function of this phone, doing it while walking around or crossing the street might be pretty dangerous. If this is the case, the only amusing option you have , besides your friends,is listening to some music. The audio player features cool interface that is easy to use and delivers a decent number of options. Come to audio, we the phone caught us off guard. We were amazed to find out how loud and clear sound through the loudspeakers was. Trebles and middles are awesome and the only thing we miss is more clearly audible bass. We were not really impressed by the sound quality through the pair of earphones that came in the box. While we can´t say sound wasn´t crisp and clear, the basses were missing and the loudness was not enough to drown out the hustle and bustle of the city. 

The 2-megapixel camera sports interface that looks cool and is easy to use, although it deliver only the basic necessities and is a far cry from the rich functionality of any Cyber-shot device. Picture quality is passable with outdoor ones having slightly unrealistic colors. Several of the pictures had massive blue fringing and almost all of them lacked enough details. Situation with indoor shots is pretty much the same, the only difference being you have a lot of image noise on top of the other issues.

Performance:

The Sony Ericson F305 may be a gaming device, but we shouldn´t forget that above all, it´s a cell phone and as such, it fails to perform really well. There were lots of crackling noises on our end and sound sharpness was excessive when at full blast. People we spoke to said they were able to hear us loud and clear, so no in-call issues were apparent on the other end of the line. The manufacturer claims battery provides up to 8 hours of continuous talk time and the stunning 17 days in standby mode.

Conclusion:

If you are a game buff, the Sony Ericsson F305 will definitely be to your liking with its 61 game titles, special buttons and stereo loudspeakers. There are games of all major genres and the phone will certainly keep you entertained. The cool overall design also helps the device to effectively target the young, so we do consider it a great present for your kid. Or, why not even for you?