Sony Ericsson Announces Cedar - Official Discussion

On 2010-06-16 11:59:48, Rookwise wrote:
Its a lower spec'd Elm except for 3.5mm jack and micro USB port. At a guess this should be one of the budget sub £100 phones.

On 2010-06-16 12:06:58, xell wrote:
Pretty good guess, rrp in Germany is 89€ = 74 quid.

On 2010-06-20 17:20:04, tonton wrote:
I'll have to be the minority here and say the Cedar looks better than the Elm. Especially in red! If it had the features and specs of the Elm, I'd buy it to replace my brand new Elm, just because of the way it looks. I'm thinking about buying one for my daughter, but then I'll just envy her!

On 2010-07-11 03:37:42, tonton wrote:
Seriously, I don't see what's ugly bout it at all, compared to the Elm. The back is completely smooth, which looks much more elegant and minimalist than the Elm. The micro-USB port also leaves a much less-cluttered design than the fast port, and I like the rounded square nav pad. Otherwise, the designs are very similar. I think some people are just protective of their beloved Elms and Hazels. I love my Elm, and wouldn't choose a Cedar over it, because of features, but I'm honest enough to say that the Cedar looks better.

On 2011-03-15 15:18:23, Oogamous wrote:
Bought a Cedar about a month Ago.

Just wanted to share my opinion in case anyone is interested in this phone.

Pros:
1) Excellent Value for money. Priced at 4500/- Indian rupees (Just under 100$)
2) Has fast 3G
3) Has social networking widgets of facebook, twitter, myscape which can be placed on the homescreen and updates automatically -- Kind of a primitive timescape.
4) Decent screen resolution
5) No Lag
6) Has Google maps, you tube apps preinstalled
7) Opera mini can be installed, so can Snaptu - Both run fast
Multiple applications can be run in the background by minimizing them - no noticeable lag
9) Decent music player, good sound through headphones, FM Radio also included - Has 3.5 mm jack!!
10) Supports push e-mail
11) Has Track id and Play now - with acess to many java games and applications.
12) Greenheart phone - minimal packaging, gives what is only needed
13) 2 GB card included, along with in-ear headphones.
14) Micro-Usb Charging- so charger can be used with all new xperia phones
15) Loud Call volume
16) Latest firmware update has made UI faster

Cons:
1) 2 Mp camera: Decent photos in bright daylight. Sad photos indoors and dimlight
2) No Wi-fi
3) Slanting keys which can at times be difficult to press - but nothing that cannot be gotten used to (coming from 3 xperia phones with no physical keys)
4) Speaker music player volume slightly low.


Summary:
A sexy under 100$ phone with great features with excellent value for money, with user friendly Sony ericsson UI, with 3G and social networking connectivity with a green heart. Beats even my Xperia in certain respects. A nice secondary phone to have. Go for it if photography and a large touch screen not required.

On 2011-05-12 17:18:42, c_vignesh wrote:


I would go for the Cedar since you can mod it to suit your needs. Just a thought...

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Posted by se4evr
and one good thing about the cedar, it is capable of multitasking and of course the 280mb built in internal memory. re the low volume of the speaker, just use any 3.5mm earphone.

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Posted by c_vignesh
Thanks for all the help ....

Some feature phones i've used tends to get slower as it ages ...the most irritating thing being the call / answer button which takes time to respond ...have these faults been rectified in Cedar...

Can Cedar accept flash menu themes ??

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Posted by Oogamous
@ vignesh.... The build so far is pretty solid... responsiveness of the keys Hasn't slowed for me... I recommend the cedar as its great value for money...

The only thing is that initially typing on the angulated keys may seem awkward but eventually your fingers get used to it.

3G is pretty impressive with its speeds and can be easily used as a bluetooth modem with a laptop... and yes, if u mean animated menu themes, it does support animated themes and wallpapers... Playnow too is there to suggest some games and applications to download

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Posted by se4evr
@vig
try emobilez.com for cedar themes. kindly choose sony ericsson 4.8 or 4.9 themes for cedar. hope this helps.

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Posted by c_vignesh
thanks for all the comments and tips

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Posted by sverrips
Why doesn't youtube work on the Cedar phone ? I received a error message (java applet).

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Posted by c_vignesh
Is there a official white color in cedar available

bcos india website doesn't say so .... but there are images on the net and flipkart is selling it so can anyone clarify

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Posted by zolo
guys just get the white silver color. . Its a beauty to look. . The black color sucks really. . Also the white one makes it look like a high end phone. . Build quality is awsome. . Too. . Flipkart india sells white. . I bought mine from there

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Posted by c_vignesh
I am really confused between Nokia C2-01 and Cedar

whether to go for the safe option in nokia or take a risk and buy the cedar

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Posted by n.hiranya
How to install new firmware to Cedar?? My phone doesnt have the Facebook, Twitter widgets in the widget manager. What to do??

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Posted by luluxiu
If this pattern as the pattern of T700, which will have a non-auto focus mobile phone, it still needs quite a good picture. In addition, this may be only in the price range of environment-friendly mobile phone. Tera Gold This planet needs all the help it can get.

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Posted by Oogamous
There is a new Firmware update available for Cedar.

Current Version: R7EA011

Can't see any noticeable difference though... maybe a tad faster...

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Posted by vlotnet
I might as well put my thoughts here too.


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Dislikes
* Media Playback: you can't browse your MicroSD card to create selective playlists on the phone. You can't switch to Elapsed Time (Remaining Time is the default). You can't Repeat one song or video. Yes, seriously. You can't get it to Repeat just the one track (either a single video or audio file). There has to be someone in SE fearful of these things replacing Sony's Walkmans, I reckon, because this makes no sense whatsoever! I was really shocked to find out. Also, the time when playing media is Remaining Time. You cannot switch it to Elapsed Time. There is no option to change it. You will know how much time left your song or video has, but will not know how much time has passed on the video or audio you're listening to. There are also no options to speed up or slow down playback. Otherwise, media playback is good; I like that it remembers where you were on a previous video even when jumping back and forth between videos. I like that Resume works very well in general. I like that it can handle basic MP4 out-of-the-box.
* Playlists: totally illogical. You can't browse to your own card when trying to create your own Playlist. Music > Playlists > New Playlist won't let you browse to your MicroSD card! Unbelievable. If you decide to play a song from your MicroSD card and go Options > Save Playlist, it prompts you for a playlist name and then goes ahead and saves ALL media from your card to the Playlist. Absolute nonsense! There is no sane way to choose your own tracks from MicroSD to create a playlist! Again, probably on purpose 'cause it's "not a Walkman..."??
* Screen cannot be seen in the sun (but expected at this price)
* Timer only rings once, doesn't repeat.
* Calendar events are not searchable. There is absolutely no way to search through past events.
* The version of firmware on my device came with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and Google Maps integrated. I dislike all this integration. I was able to get rid of Twitter and Facebook after debranding my phone, but not YouTube or Google Maps and other rubbish.
* Silver paint on the battery cover will scratch easily on that rounded back. Far better to use uncoated plastics. Same thing would apply to the red metallic cover. I'm still surprised at all this fake metal look people seemingly find impressive. Give me uncoated plastics any day, in any colour but silver and please just use the real colour of the plastic. I don't want thin coats of paint on my plastics; they always wear with enough use and look very ugly, which is probably why they do it: gives another reason to buy another and makes it look old.
* Volume keys are too small, especially with raised back cover sitting right next to it, making them hard to locate by feel. They need more surface area, though I suppose you can get used to this eventually, it doesn't feel the most ergonomic.
* Speakerphone could be louder (but is probably passable).
* Flight Mode cannot be switched on or off on-the-fly without a phone reboot. You can set the phone to prompt you for Flight Mode when the phone is started but there's no easy way to switch to Flight Mode under Profiles, or from Flight Mode once you're in it. Highly annoying to anyone who expects to switch to/from Flight Mode at night or when wanting to save battery or if wanting to just use it just as a Walkman-type device.
* Radio cannot be played in flight mode, so forget networkless low-power use while listening to radio. Green heart?
* Icons are a bit bland compared to what I'm used to.
* Automatic Keylock: it's either on or off; you can't adjust the time for Automatic Keylock.
* I actually expected the interface to return back to portrait mode after watching a video in Landscape mode (returning you back to Portrait). But it appears that if you watch a video in Landscape, the media browsing interface changes to Landscape until you switch it back to portrait. I would prefer if just the video played in Landscape when you choose, and the GUI remains in Portrait. Setting it back to Portrait again is a chore. Portrait is more efficient for browsing.
* camera / video isn't great, but absolutely fine for the price (I paid $29)
* Icon-wise, I've seen better default themes in other SE models, so it's a bit bland but OK.
* 3.5mm port and MicroUSB port are totally bare and unprotected from the elements (dust, moisture). A rubber cover would have been sensible for far greater longevity and less chance of damage.
* When connecting the phone to the computer, you can't control whether it charges or not. It's always charging when connected to the computer. You may not always want that.
* Social networking sites really need to be eliminated entirely (YouTube included). It's a shame I can't completely get rid of Google Maps and YouTube. Google is everywhere and I don't want them on my phone, particularly a basic phone like this without wi-fi.
* The text that appears on top of the screen when playing music is a tad low-quality, probably due to resolution limitations at the small size of the text (press Down to expand the text with larger text).
* My phone came with no MicroSD card nor cable. Not a big deal since I have these and is to be expected at the budget end I guess.
* battery cover and sides should be ridged and more grippy, ideally. Or simply made with more grippy materials. It's a bit too smooth and slippery for a small phone like this.
* battery cover should be flush with the sides of the device instead of being raised above it, I reckon. It would make it easier to hold.
* Ringtones / alarms: phone should come with more of them and far less careless ones. And some are truly head-scratchingly dumb compared to past SE phones I've had. I normally wouldn't complain here but...
* The SE Cedar box mine came in shows a Wi-Fi Certified logo on the box! Very deceptive for those who don't know it comes with no wi-fi.
* Still can't believe that single tracks / videos cannot be repeated! It's worth mentioning more than once.
* Greenheart branding is for people that think that mostly superficial recyclable efforts are more important than not buying a new phone every year. It's not in the interests of companies to keep a phone for longer and get lots of utility and usability from it. The continual use of cheap silver paint and omissions here and there show there is a constant need for them to milk the re-sale market. 1.6 billion (yes, billion) phones were sold in 2010. Puts these minimal green efforts in perspective. It's great that it doesn't come with needless plastic or uses water-based paints or whatever, but they aren't necessary to start with, and what about that hardly-durable ungreen pouch it comes with. Sure it's recyclable, but that offsets any plastic it didn't come with, I'd argue. My point: longevity and utility is the best 'green' effort you can make. Keeping your phone for longer is the best 'green' thing you can do, not buying a new phone with laughably minimal green efforts (recyclable plastic, water-based paint...blah. No small plastic is included for the charger and battery, but all that is offset by a large 'recycle your phone' bag and phone pouch that won't last. Stupid priorities...really stupid. Mostly a marketing effort to cash in on concern for the environment, not that other companies are doing any better. It's all superficial garbage to benefit their bottom-line. They are marketing efforts rather than something hugely different to what they are already doing in the rest of their line-up. Knock yourself out if you think you are making a difference here. I don't.


The likes
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* I like the raised keypad very much.
* The phone has good reception and phone voice quality. Headphone audio quality is good too.
* Supplied headset does the job but better earphones are obviously better than what you get included.
* bluetooth worked flawlessly.
* larger WAV files play flawlessly.
* Main navigation key is made of actual metal (!) and has good surface area on the central button. Up and down could use a little more surface area, though (navkey is slightly wider than it is higher). More vertical space should have been used for the button, but it's good. Time will tell how long the paint lasts here.
* 360p H264/AVC MP4 videos generally play OK, though with some occasional lost frames / stuttering. Generally good. Probably will struggle with anything higher though.
* GUI is generally very easy to use and logical (to me) aside from small oddities here and there where you wonder what were they thinking (some of them mentioned above). Over-all it is quite impressive and well-designed to me.
* 3.5mm port and MicroUSB are preferable, though I still miss the "stick it in without looking" aspect of a regular 2.5mm Nokia charging plug or whatever; I don't have to make sure which way it is in, which is far better usability and convenience. MicroUSB must be carefully plugged in to charge. Less convenient. The advantage is of course using cheaper standard MicroUSB cables for computer connectivity and charging, but no data cable is included here. It would make sense for them to make the one on the charger removable - like so many cheap Chinese chargers you can buy online - but probably cost them precious additional cents. Another area where Greenheart is not. A removable cable would be easier to replace instead of tossing the whole unit because of a non-removable cable if it gets damaged, as well as doing double duty with computer (when connected to computer the charger is obviously not being used, so the cable should be a standard removable USB-to-MicroUSB cable).
* Great size / weight.
* Screen resolution very usable for its size.
* music can be minimised and played in the background. Music resumes with a nice fade-in after using camera or phone or whatever where it has to disable the music.
* Activity Key is very handy.
* phone body is not glossy which is preferable to me.
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Over-all this is a very good phone for the price, with some crazy omissions in media playback and calendar searching and some poorer Timer and Speakerphone performance than what I am used to. Flight Mode implementation is also nonsense in my opinion.

It's a shame to see silver paint still used on any phones, let alone SE ones, in my opinion. It's good to see a better-than-average emphasis on reception / voice quality in this price and it's fantastic to see MicroSD card support. Playlists and general standard media playback features being ignored, though...because otherwise everything else here is done with a high degree of polish and thought.

My personal belief is Sony doesn't want this becoming a cheap Walkman, which was also one of my main attractions to it

Still, a good choice for a budget phone with excellent (IMO) keypad. Especially good if found for a cheaper price now that it's been out for over a year. If you despise social networks like me, you'll want to debrand it with firmware that doesn't include these.

Over-all, a solid choice, despite some disappointments!

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Posted by Pradhika
Cedar looks good. Has its internal built memory. Nice battery backup too. It can be a heavy duty phone. I use it since long. One of those praiseable SE phones for the price it comes.

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