Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo: Contacts and calling

Accessing the contacts is, as previously stated, easily done through the floating dock, which sits on every Home screen. They're, naturally, presented in the usual list, with a nice dash of social networking integration.

Syncing with your Twitter, Facebook and Google accounts will automatically populate your handset with imagery and the latest status update from whichever network your contacts happen to be connected to - a simple edit will also allow you to join Facebook, Twitter and Exchange contacts either manually or automatically if the names are similar.

Tapping a contact's name will bring up their profile page, displaying all their latest status updates, email addresses, and of course, phone number. From here you can make them a favourite, edit their info or shortcut to various messaging types (SMS, email, social networks etc).

However, if you want to skip all that, simply tap the image to the side of the name in the list view and up pops a handy row of shortcuts, including phone dialler, email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter.

You have to be quite precise in your tapping, however, because the list view keeps each contact defined to a thin strip, so there's a lot of room for error and might get irritating if you're larger of finger.

Adding a contact is dead easy. Long-tap an incoming number, or just dive into the contacts list, and tap 'create new contact', or the + icon that sits at the top of the screen.

Calling-wise, the connection tends to be good and doesn't often drop, but one bugbear is the lack of smart dialling. Finding a number means either dipping into the contacts or going through the call log. All well and good, but it's nice to have that short cut of being able to tap in representative numbers and be presented with matching names.

The handset sits comfortably against the ear thanks to the curved form, and call quality is loud and clear.

Knocking the volume up and down while talking can be a little difficult, since the volume rocker sits too close to the camera button to be able to feel the difference while talking. However, it's a minor fault. Having the call on speaker gives a decently loud sound.