Overall Review Of Sony Ericsson K850i
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
It’s been like everlastingly that we’ve been waiting for the K850i. Other manufacturers make known - and delivered - their 5MP camera phone editions. SE was late with the statement to begin with, and it was much later than the rivalry that the phone was released. It’s now therefore a matter of regaining territory; can the K850i do it?
The bundle seemed a bit insufficient, especially with a missing M2 card adaptor as compared to the M2 USB drive adaptor that comes with the W910i kit. In addition, the provided charger is a three-pin, making it pretty much essential to buy a two-pin travel charger.
Specifications
Weight: 118 gm
Screen: 2.2-inch 256K TFT (240 x 320)
Battery: 930 mAh (talktime: 9 hours)
Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Dimensions: 102 x 48 x 17 mm
Build and Design
Here’s one loveliness of a phone; it look like a camera even more when it’s held like one. The build is plastic, with an overall gloss finish and dull finishing running around it. A thin metal strip runs right through the center of the sides; this is either glowing green / blue and is very appealing. The back of the phone attracts fingerprints because of the gloss finish - a major turnoff. The left of the phone is devoid of controls, while the right features a new camera On/Off button beside the shutter button. The camera has an auto lens cover. The power button on the top doubles as a quick profile changer.
The face of the phone is what we found really innovative: a large 2.2-inch screen is made possible by placing the D-pad within the alphanumeric keypad. Three soft-touch buttons put back the standard buttons, which makes maximum practice of the provided space. It does take some time getting used to, because the D-Pad is only directional, and the choose is the center soft-touch. This means discomfort: menu navigation time’s increase. Moreover, the new keys used for the alphanumeric keypad are pretty non-ergonomic. Quick texting is not actually possible - you could find yourself often hitting two keys at the same time. People with large thumbs have been warned!
The fast port is, once again, at the bottom. The battery section is very much like that of a dig cam. It’s a first-of-its-kind; the same section also houses the hot-swap SIM slot and the M2/microSD dual memory slot.
The Camera
Like we noted, this model might be called more of a camera and less of a phone; indeed, the camera is the best thing about the K850i. Its brilliant - the best of the many 5MP cameras on phones, in most modes.
The K850i features the new camera interface, with icons and mini-photos depicting the various functions.
The standard shortcut keys and the switch between camera, video, and gallery make the K850i feel quite like a dig cam. Max image imprison resolution is 2592? 1944; there’s auto-focus and a Xenon flash. Here’s more about the modes.
Auto Mode
Images captured in the auto mode are good, though there is some slight smudging. In broad daylight, the images are warm, and color reproduction is better than on any of the 5MP camera phones I’ve tested.
Night Mode
Some disappointment here; even with the assistance of the Xenon flash, the images were darker than normal. I should point out that this could have resulted from an attempt to reduce battery consumption, but in the larger picture does not do justice to the Cyber-Shot branded camera.
Video
The camera offers QVGA at 30 fps, that is, 320 x 240. Video quality is pretty good; the recoding format is MP4, and the audio density is AAC. This leads to lesser space consumption.
Interface
You’ll find here the same new interface seen on the W910i. It’s pretty smooth and user-friendly but not to the old Sony Ericsson user. The position of the operation has switched; the right soft key “More” has now moved to the left soft key as “Options”. The dedicated Calling Keys are a great addition.
The K850i features a motion sensor and auto-rotates video and images according to compass reading. Also featured are the new Media Gallery and the Music Player v3.0. The former sorts photos, music, and videos. The sorting of images is by Latest, Camera, Photo tags, and Pictures. The Camera option further sorts the images in agreement with the month in they was captured - so searching for images is easier. The Video option has a condition for podcasts; you can subscribe to them and they’ll get updated whenever accessed - similar to RSS feeds.
The phone offers 1,000 contacts with 20 fields each (and a photo as well). Messages have sorting (Business, Fun, etc.) and there’s the option to save messages on phone memory or the memory card for easy backup. Java MIDP 2.0 support increases the list of supported applications. Pre-installed applications are Track ID for in receipt of track details off the air, as well as PhotoDj, MusicDj, and VideoDj, which are picture, music, and video editing apps. Games include Minigolf and Marble Madness 3D; the latter works on the Motion Sensor.
Multimedia
Another strong department for the phone: sound quality is good, and a sharp 2.2-inch display makes watching videos a pleasure. The music quality is much like that on the Walkman series, but only when used with quality headphones - the standard headset is just adequate for someone who doesn’t demand too much in terms of audio quality. The music player even features Sony’s well-known MegaBass equalizer option, which delivers great bass. The FM tuner provides decent reception in most areas with signal.
Connectivity
Now, the K850i is a step behind when it comes to connectivity options. For a phone in its price range, you wouldn’t expect the Wi-Fi module to be missing, but it is. It has GPRS and EDGE, both Class 10; it’s 3G-ready with HSDPA 3.6 Mbps. The Bluetooth module is v2.0 and supports A2DP profile. The fastport USB cable is a 2.0, and provides reasonable data transfer speeds, since the M2 adaptor is missing, this is the only way to quickly back up images. When you connect the USB cable, you get three options: for use as a modem, media mode to sync media with Windows Media Player, and data transfer.
Battery Details
The battery is 930 mAh, and the specified talktime is 9 hours. The phone is a shooter, and with a 2.2-inch screen and a battery-draining Xenon flash, we must say it does pretty well, staying alive for two days with ease - these two days consisted of many phone calls (3 to 4 hours) and 30 to 40 pictures clicked. Even if you add 2 to 3 hours of music or FM, the phone should still manage to last you 2 days - pretty good.
Lastly, The Sony Ericsson K850i sells for around Rs 19,000, and comes with a one-year warranty. The late release has by now spelt doom for its sales; even if you consider it the best 5MP camera phone out there, it doesn’t offer anything substantial over the others. Nokia has already released an updated version of the N95 - an 8 GB - which is slightly better than the previous one, and the N82 is better than those two. Samsung is a cheap 5MP camera phone alternative; also, you have the LG Viewty, which is priced on par with the K850i, but it features a full touch interface - quite impressive.
The K850i isn’t all that great a phone usability-wise with orientation to the keypad. This leaves it right at the tail-end of phones in its category. We even doubt that a Sony Ericsson stalwart would opt for the K850i. Right now, if you’re thinking of slapping money on the counter,
