The Sony Ericsson G502 is a lightweight 3.5G candy bar phone, launched in a blizzard of confusion about the handset's GPS capabilities.

Although some of Sony Ericsson's specification sheets say that the G502 has aGPS (Advanced GPS), it does not. GPS capabilities can be added through the GPS Enabler HGE-100 accessory, but this is not included in the box. And since the HGE-100 works with a wide variety of Sony Ericsson devices, the G502 is really no different from a normal midrange SE device, except that it comes with a Google Maps application preloaded.

What you do get with the G502 is a lightweight 3.5G phone that can support HSDPA downloads. The 2" 240 x 320 pixel display and basic 2 megapixel camera are adequate for most users. Media capabilties are pretty good, with support for stereo Bluetooth and an FM radio built in, in addition to the usual Sony Ericsson media player. An email client, RSS reader, web browser and a set of PIM functions make up the software, and the G502 also supports push email from Microsoft Exchange. Unlike most other 3G phones, the G502 does not support video calling.

On GSM, talktime is up to 9 hours, and on 3G it is a maximum of 4.5 hours. It's a pretty lightweight device at 83.5 grams and 109 x 46 x 13.5 mm in size. The memory is expandable using Memory Stick Micro cards.

The "G" series designation is confusing. The only two previous models in this range are touchscreen smartphones, so presumably "G" is being used for "General". It's pretty similar in specification to the K660i, so perhaps the G502 can be considered a replacement. No price was given, but we expect it to be around €230 or £180 before tax and subsidy. Sony Ericsson say that the Z780 should be available during Q2 2008.