Entertainment

Aside from wallpapers, screensavers, and ringtones, Sony Ericsson has been known go one step further to provide true customizability. With themes, users can change many settings in the Z500a including colors, images, startup and shutdown screensavers, menus, and ringtones and alerts. The Z500a comes with a number of preloaded themes and pictures, and more can be downloaded and exchanged. Additional themes can be downloaded from Sony Ericsson. 3rd party software is available for consumers to create their own themes.

For gaming, the Z500a is built upon the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME). Now seen as a standard feature among cell phones, J2ME allows users to download and install new games and applications. As the most popular platform for mobile devices, many J2ME games and applications are available for download; some for free, some for a fee.

Additionally, enhancements such as force feedback provide a much richer gaming experience. The Java 3D gaming software included introduces and supports 3D graphics. With operator support, there is the possibility for multiplayer games to play against friends.

Streaming media is available through the Media Player. Video and music codec support of MPEG-4, H.263, AMR, MP3, and 3GP allow users to stream a variety of media information including music, news, videos, radio broadcasts, and live traffic information.

For applications, SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), an advanced XML-based protocol, allows users to create and transmit PowerPoint-style presentations on mobile devices. By using a media editor, users can incorporate text, audio, images, and video clips to assemble full multimedia presentations on the display.

Internet

The WAP 2.0 browser supports WML, xHTML Mobile and Basic, and CSS. It also offers GPRS Class 10 (4+2) for increased bandwidth capabilities over standard CSD networks. But for truly fast connections speeds, the Z500a supports EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) for enhanced GPRS by providing significantly higher data rates.

The migration of GSM to EDGE results in less strain on current voice traffic bandwidth and allows for higher transfer rates when downloading multimedia or browsing the web. Building on existing technology, EDGE allows for more than double existing GPRS rates. While theoretically the Z500a could transfer at burst speeds of up to 200 kbps, average rates will be more like 70 - 135 kbps.

Storage

The Z500a's phonebook capacity is 510 entries, while 6 MB of internal memory is on par with the market average. Wallpapers, ringtones, emails, messages, and applications are all shared and dynamically allocated among the remaining memory. However, features such as the MP3 player or video recorder are memory intensive. And unfortunately an expansion card slot is not present.

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