Road Warrior Winner of 2005 CES: S710a by Sony Ericsson

The Road Warrior category at the 2005 CES Awards can be anything from portable systems and mobile wireless devices, including Smart Phones, handheld GPS devices, handheld computers, wireless add-ons, 3G handsets, and other portable data devices. And when the Road Warrior goes into battle, the cell phone is the primary weapon of choice. And like every other year at CES, there were phones aplenty with radical, sometimes ridiculous, designs that will never see the light of day in North America.  Form has to meet function for the road warrior and that's what the Sony Ericsson S710a does.  Head-turning good looks, features, and function all in one package.  And it'll be available in a few weeks.

Fashion Tech

Style starts with an awesome 2.3 inch display with 262,000 eye-popping colors laid in an onyx-black body.  From the opposite side, the S710a looks exactly like a digital camera complete with lens cover and flash.  Sony Ericsson even mimics the same interface from Sony's digital camera line to tweak settings from resolution to white balance.  At 1.3 megapixels, it's not groundbreaking resolution, but more than most camera phones currently on the market.

To dial numbers not in your contact list or to text message, rotate the screen to unveil the keypad.  For incoming calls or dialing from your contact list, the S710a acts just like a candy bar phone, so there's no need to open it.  In most cases, the S710a seems to stay closed.

Of course, the S710a sports MPEG4 recording, MP3 playback, the latest data networks (EDGE), and works anywhere GSM (850/1800/1900 MHz) is found.  If the 32 MB of internal memory isn't enough, expand with a Memory Stick Duo (32 MB included).  And let's not forget the killer 7 hours of talk time or 300 hours of standby.

A Tough Decision

The Samsung A800 with its 2 megapixel camera, slide design, speech-to-text message engine, and ability to capture contact information from a snapshot of a business card provided tough competition.  Yes, the A800 is definitely a strong contender.

But ultimately, the ability to synchronize contact and calendar information out-of-the-box proved the more valuable feature to the judges.  You'll need a Bluetooth-enabled computer, but the software sets up and synchronizes with nary a hiccup.  For Mac OS X users, the S710a works with iSync.

The Sony Ericsson S710a will be available in Q1 of 2005 for around $399 depending on carrier agreements.