Messaging

As messaging continues to become a growing part of a cell phone's use, the Z525a offers the latest in messaging options including SMS (Short Messaging Service), EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service), and MMS (Multimedia Message Service). These options allow users to go beyond simple text messaging as they can send pictures, animations, and sounds.

The Z525a uses T9 predictive text which can save time as the phone uses a dictionary of words and phrases to anticipate what the user is typing and save keystrokes.

Using Sony Ericsson's My friends application, the phone is connected to popular IM programs such as AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN. The My friends application combines the Phonebook and messaging functionalities and with a click it allows access to the list of contacts, and with another click users can choose how they want to communicate with them - via SMS, MMS, email or chat. Meeting and conference services with shared content may also be accessible depending on the carrier.

The Z525a's strength is keeping people in touch and it handles all of the user's messaging needs. With T9 text and sufficiently large and well-lit keys it presents a high level of ease of use.

Entertainment

In addition to the Music DJ, PhotoDJ, and VideoDJ software that were already mentioned, the Z525a includes all of the traditional PIM (Personal Information Management) applications including calculator, calendar/tasks/organizer, notes, remote control, memo recorder, and timer/stopwatch. It also allows access to user email accounts through POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols.

The Z525a also offers SMIL (pronounced "smile") which stands for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. It is an advanced XML-based protocol that allows the user to create and transmit PowerPoint-style presentations on the phone. Using a media editor, users can incorporate text, audio, images, video clips and animations to assemble full multimedia presentations and determine order the image and text will be displayed.

SMIL provides video and codec support for several media types - MPEG-4, H.263, AMR, MP3, and 3GP - which permits users to stream a variety of media including the latest news, music, sports, videos, radio broadcasts, and traffic information.

With gaming now a standard feature in mobile phones, Sony Ericsson looked to improve the gaming experience on the Z525a by increasing the download capability on the network and improving its Java implementation. More processing power has been dedicated to the games and it offers more sophisticated graphics with Java 3D and the Mascot API. The result of these changes is improved graphics that react faster to user commands.

If the user tires of the pre-installed trial versions Tetris, NY Nights (similar to The Sims), Asphalt: Urban GT (race car game), and Yahtzee, the Z525a supports J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), the most popular platform for mobile devices. This allows for a wide variety of options to upgrade the game gallery and install work-supportive programs.

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