Likeits eco-friendly predecessors the Elm and Hazel, the Sony Ericsson Cedar formspart of the company's environmentally conscious GreenHeart range. Constructedfrom -- and packaged in -- predominantly recycled materials, the Cedar is theperfect handset for mobile users with lofty morals.
Sony Ericsson Cedar
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Cedar is available for free on a £15 per monthcontract. Alternatively, you can pick it up for about £60 on pay as you go, oraround £150 SIM-free and unlocked.
Heart of green
Although Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart proposal does tend tocome across as a little disingenuous -- especially when you consider the vastquantity of mobile phones that end up as nothing more than landfill -- it's certainlya step in the right direction. The Elm and Hazel marked the opening shots ofthis righteous eco-warrior campaign, and impressed us with their functionalityand range of features.
The Sony Ericsson Cedar continues the good work achieved by itsforebears, and proves that being sympathetic to Mother Nature doesn't have tomean being saddled with an ugly phone. The Cedar is arguably one of SonyEricsson's more attractive offerings of late, combining a two-tone colour schemewith smooth lines and a visually pleasing, ridged keypad.
Curvesin all the wrong places
The phone isn't especially small, but it is light. Atjust 84g, it certainly won't add a significant bulk to your pocket. Theonly real complaint we have about the design of the Cedar is the ergonomics. The back of the phone curves at both ends, which can make gripping it somewhatdifficult. The weight of the phone is focused in the middle, which causes it totip out of your paw should you grip it too tightly at the base.
With 280MB of on-board storage available, the Cedar has anunusually generous amount of room for photos, videos and music. Thankfully,it's also possible to boost this total with a microSD card of up to 16GB incapacity, which can be inserted in the card slot located rather cunningly underone side of the battery cover. Sadly, a microSD card is not included, so if you do intend to loadup the Cedar with your tunes and snaps, you'll need to purchase one separately.
The Cedar's multimedia aspirations are enhanced furtherby the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which allows you to use your ownpersonal set of cans to listen to music. The on-board media-playback softwareis based on Sony Ericsson's Walkman program, and offers an above-average rangeof options and customisation.
Shootme now
A 2-megapixel camera can be found on the back of theCedar, which takes decent shots and is able to shoot low-quality video clips.Sadly, it lacks an LED flash, so low-light images look predictably muddy andill-defined.
Finally, it's worth noting that unlike the Elm, the Cedaruses an industry-standard micro-USB connection for both charging and data transfer.No USB cable is included in the box, but the standardised nature of thisparticular interface means you're bound to have a compatible one lyingaround somewhere in your house.
It could be argued that the Cedar occupies a shrinkingportion of the mobile phone market devoted to mid-range 'dumb phones'. As cheapsmart phones like the HTC Wildfire and Huawei Ideos encroach ever further intothis territory, manufacturers are being forced to get creative with theirproducts.
In the case of the Cedar, you have limited connectivity toFacebook, MySpace and Twitter, thanks to a suite of smart-phone-style widgets, which can be docked on the main home screen for easy access. Another advancedfeature is the ability to upload photos to popular sites such as Blogger,Picasa and Flickr.
The phone's 3G connection makes accessing these servicesquicker than it would be using bog-standard GPRS, but some elements of thesoftware -- the Twitter widget especially -- are incredibly flaky. Loading dataseems to take forever, and we were unable to refresh our personal Twittertimeline, despite being logged in and connected.
Yourface, my book
The Facebook client works much better, and is evenintegrated in the phone's operating system. For example, in the standardmessaging menu, there's a shortcut link that takes you directly to yourFacebook inbox. Unfortunately, the Cedar's level of net connectivity isn'talways convincing -- the Access NetFront Web browser struggles to cramimage-heavy pages into the phone's 2.2-inch, 240x320-pixel screen, for example.
A curious inclusion in the Cedar's software armoury isvideo calling, perhaps influenced by the recent hype surrounding the iPhone 4'sFaceTime feature. The Cedar lacks a front-facing camera, so usersare expected to shoot a still image of themselves and present it to the othercaller for the duration of the conversation. It's a neat bonus, but we can'timagine many people will actually bother to use it.
On the whole, the Cedar's user interface and selection ofsoftware makes a pleasing impression. The operating system has remained essentiallyunchanged for years, but Sony Ericsson has slowly been adding in more modernfeatures.
For example, there are plenty of smooth transitionanimations to liven things up. Even something as simple as receiving a textmessage results in a little animated sequence in the top-left corner of thedisplay, as the message envelope pushes it way past other, less important icons.These are minor things, but they go a long way in enriching the userexperience.
Conclusion
As a continuation of the GreenHeart brand, it's hard tosee the Cedar as anything but a success. It boasts a better design, improvedfunctionality and a generally pleasing interface -- although the poor camera andoften sluggish widgets do diminish the impact slightly.
The phone's biggest challenge is finding an audience. Itcould be argued that the sector of the market it seeks to conquer is rapidlyfalling to budget smart phones, against which the Cedar looks technologically anaemic. If you're looking for a device with impressive features but don't wanta confusing selection of PC-like options to contend with, we recommend it. Who knows -- its environmentally focused manufacturing ethos mayeven make you feel good about yourself.
Edited by Emma Bayly