Sony Ericsson MMV-100 Bluetooth picture viewer review

24 March 2004 23:52 GMT / By Stuart Miles

With the advent of the camera phone, more and more of us have images on our handsets. Sony Ericsson is hoping that if that phone offers Bluetooth connectivity you'll need its new Bluetooth picture viewer. A device that uses the Scart socket on the back of your television allows you to view images and play MP3s from your phone. Even better, its not just dedicated to Sony Ericsson phones.

The small silver unit the width of a Scart adapter has its own power supply which doubles up as a standard Sony Ericsson charger. Given that its Bluetooth Car was capable of charging an in built battery it's a strange omission to leave one out of this unit. That said, most of the time this unit will be tucked out of sight behind the back of your TV. Tuning in your television to the desired channel is all that it takes to get everything working. Once set up (this took approximately 10 seconds) you or anyone else in your living room can start beaming images or MP3s via Bluetooth connectivity. Images are displayed full screen however there are no options to rotate or edit your pictures.

While on the whole the idea seems sound, its not until you start enlarging images to fit on your widescreen TV that you realise how much worse those images get, and the law of the mega pixel amount-to-blowup-quality ratio rears its ugly head. To ease the pain you can opt for them to be cycled as a slideshow but with current phone camera quality don't expect too much. It's a shame because the MMV-100's is just the messenger who doesn't deserve to be shot.

Verdict

As a concept and finished article this is a great little device. It'll allow you to share your pictures on a large television screen with the minimum of fuss as long as you have a Bluetooth-enabled device. The downside is that current phone technology isn't there yet. Give this 6 months, and phones will have caught up and we'll be sitting around the television this Christmas not watching the Queen's speech or Only Fools and Horse's but our antics a couple of hours earlier down the pub. This product is too far ahead of its time but look on the bright side. By the time it becomes truly useful to you, it'll be cheaper.

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Review Recap

Made by: Sony
Price as reviewed: £100
The good: Share your phone pictures elsewhere
The bad: Some pics will look like Legoland on a TV
Quick verdict: When camera technology increases in Megapixel counts, this device will catch on. Right now, the pioneer’s ahead of its time.
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