Sony Ericsson S312 Snapshot deals & review

Pitched to a wider market that can get instant photos and video clips on the fly with a basic telecommunication tool on the road, the affordable Sony Ericsson S312 is a conventional but elegantly styled handset with the candybar form that measure 100 x 46 x 12.5 millimeters with lightweight 80g.

Considered a successor to the previous S302 model known as the Sony Ericsson Athena, the Sony Ericsson S312 Snapshot comes in a two color choices of dawn blue and honey silver 

Basic Phone Features

This is a basic dual band GSM on 2G with class 10 GPRS/EDGE data speeds for up to 236.8 Kbps on the 2G network. Don’t expect 3G or WiFi but you get data connectivity options for wired data transfers using miniUSB or go wireless using its Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.

Internal memory is just 15 MB with up to 1,000 contact entries on its phonebook but memory is expandable though not with the industry standard microSD. Instead, you get the typical Sony Ericsson memory stick micro M2 card slot expansion support for up to 4 GB.

It gets a standard lithium-ion battery rated at 930 mAh that provides up to 8 hours of talk time on 2G and up to 400 hours in standby when fully charged. It’s preloaded with a WAP2.0 HTML browser as well as MMS and Email client support.

The package even comes with Clip-on Bluetooth Handsfree VH300 that allows one-touch call handling as well as volume control and a discreet clip-on that’s reversible. There’s also a digital composer for making your own polyphonic ringtones. 

Games can be downloaded from the Sony Ericsson site and other online stores that support the model. It is SAR EU rated at 0.73 watts per kilogram.

Multimedia Features

The Snapshot is so named for its excellent imaging quality for an affordable candybar handset. Like many imaging phones costing higher, the Snapshot gets a dedicated video camera key with illuminated imaging shortcuts to make its 2 megapixel fixed focus camera with LED flash and basic but competent video recording capability a joy to use.

Your images get displayed nicely on its brilliant though smallish 2-inch TFT LCD display with QCIF resolution and 256k color depth which is covered with a scratch-resistant glass.

Mobile entertainment gets a monaural FM radio with RDS and the usual complement of media players supporting the MP3/AAC audio file format and the MP4 video content codec.

Its music playback gets TrackID music recognition feature ad you can use MP3 and AAC audio files for your ringtones. There’s a speakerphone but there’s no industry standard 3.5mm headphone jack which leaves you with using the supplied stereo earphones using proprietary USB connection for wired stereo listening. Or you can go wireless with its A2DP profile support over Bluetooth.