Sony Ericsson K850i Review
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Sony Ericsson launched it's first 5 megapixel Cybershot phone,the
new K850i is the successor of the Sony Ericsson K800i.Even thought
the K850i has a 5 megapixel camera it's still pretty small ,managing
to be even shorter than the K800i.The dimensions of the phone are
102x48x17 mm and it weights 118 grams, for comparison, the Sony
Ericsson K800i measures up at 106x47x18 mm, weight 115 grams.The
main rival for this phone is the Nokia N95 ,a handset that also
has a 5 megapixel camera. Functionality-wise the Nokia N95 is far
more powerful than the Sony Ericsson K850i, and on top of that it
has been around for a long while.
The handset's design doesn't follow up the company's trademark
style, having no rounded edge and thus looking more rectangular and
somewhat sharp.The K850i comes in a choice of two colors - Luminous
Green and Velvet Blue, and in both cases the plastic the front face
is coated in is black, while the navigation key's rim and the side-mounted
inset vary in color
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The quality of the plastic used is good and there's nothing that
we would complain about,but unfortunately regardless of color, the front
face, finished in glossy plastic, easily picks up fingerprints and grease.Only
the blue-painted edition features silver spines, and in its turn the rear
is, so to say, clad in transparent plastic, which is uncommon for phones,
although the same bottom layer is employed in some Sony's digital cameras.
The keypad layout is also a departure from previous Cybershots, sporting
tiny square keys that first appeared in the upcoming designer candy bar
phone, the T650.The keypad is lit in white, which is well-visible in various
environments. The keypad also enjoys some light effects, when backlighting
color for every row is keyed to some rhythm, which is fetching and adds
a stylish touch to the phone.
The phone comes with a retail package containing :
• Handset
• Charger,
• Battery
• Wired stereo-headset (non Walkman-branded)
• USB data cable
• M2 memory card
• User Guide
The display has three touch-sensitive zones beneath it where you will
find context-sensitive buttons. With this solution, they have shaved off
one row of buttons, so that now OK and two soft-keys are touch-sensitive,
you will face no problems with managing them, and moreover, like in all
previous models, the actions they perform depend on the menu you are in.
An interesting approach that will leave a lot of leftover space on handsets
in future and make for bigger numeric keys. The bottom edge of the screen
features three white dots, which are in fact the touch-sensitive areas
- when pushing them your finger occupies most of the surface and touches
these sensors anyway, that's the way it works.At first the touch-sensitive
pads don't feel conventional, but then you get used to them, and everything
gets back to normal.All in all we can say that you need a couple of days
to get used to the K850i's keypad. The handset comes equipped with a motion
sensor, but unlike the previous offerings (W710i, W580i) it is used not
as a pedometer, but rather for determining display layout - while viewing
photos or videos in the Gallery, turning the handset sideways automatically
switches the screen into landscape mode
The battery found in the K850i is a new type of battery that has
a 930 mAh capacity and it's a Li-Pol unit. The manufacturer rates battery
life for 400 hours in standby and 9 hours of talk time. It takes the K850i
about 2,5 hours to charge from empty to full, on top of that it gains
90 percent in 2 hours or so.The back cover cannot be removed, but at the
bottom there is a flap and beneath it we can see the standard Fast Port
and the battery, under this cover are the SIM-card bed, and the microSD/M2
memory expansion slot.
The display measures 2,2 inches and is much brighter and more detailed
than the one found in the K810i and this was because the actual screen
was closer to the glass front. The screen has a QVGA (240x320 pixels)
resolution.The display can accommodate up to 8 text and 3 service lines,
but with smaller fonts you can squeeze more lines into it. This screen
displays up to 262 000 colors (TFT) and has a mirror layer, which does
help it get along with direct sunlight and increases viewing angles.
Sony Ericsson K850i has 40-50 MB of available memory plus the memory
card that comes with the retail packege.Here all data (photos, videos,
applications) can be stored. The remaining memory is occupied by preinstalled
applications, which cannot be wiped. Part of memory is dedicated to phonebook,
call lists, etc. It is the first time when the company offers a choice
between M2 cards or the microSD units.Of course the memory slot has the
hot-swap feature so we can change the card when ever you want.The phone
has a basic file manager, with its help files can be sorted by various
folders, custom directories can be created in phone's memory, files can
be moved there as well. With or without cable the phone can become a perfect
storage, there are no problems with recording your own files, even if
they cannot be opened by the phone. Traditional file sorting includes
the following options: date, type and size.
As for the connectivity part we can say that the phone has USB 2.0
and if want you can turn your K850i into a modem. A new mode has been
introduced, where you can access the network set up on your PC from
the phone, which does come in handy, for example when using ActiveSync.
Another supported protocol is MTP, which allows you to transfer music
onto the device directly from Windows Media Player. The handset comes
with EDR-enabled Bluetooth 2.0,and the handset supports all profiles
including A2DP.This phone is one of the first Sony Ericsson phones that
supports GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA and the only drawback is the lack of IRDA.
The main menu is similar to any Sony Ericsson handset and
it's a grid consisting of 12 icons.A new change is the fact that there
are three soft-keys, which can't be reassigned in standby mode, just like
in Nokia's phones.Apart from traditional vertically arranged sub-menus,
the maker has provided subject-based horizontal tabs.Activity Menu is
standard Sony Ericsson fare.The first three tabs display various events,
like missed calls, memos, messages - actually all this can be found in
the first tab. One can disable Activity Menu for these events as well
- in this case pop up windows, reminding of a certain event type will
appear on the screen. The third tab features the shortcuts, which you
should set up yourself. And the added fourth one contains links to the
most frequently used applications and resources - and the top of this
list is claimed by Google search.
The device fully supports flash-wallpapers and themes and comes with
five preinstalled themes,but they only affect the color-scheme and the
layout.
One of the major novelties coming along with the K850i is Media section,
which is some sort of a gallery comprising different types of multimedia
content.Actually, the resemblance between Sony Ericsson- and Nokia-branded
solutions is now so striking, while cross-adoption has become so obvious,
that it can make people start wondering. With its S60 Nokia has also come
up with a stand-alone section sporting unique design for accessing all
core features (available only in the Nokia N95 these days). And now Sony
Ericsson makes its move, focusing on multimedia features alone.
This section provides access to:
• Photos and images;
• All music files;
• Video;
• TV shows for models equipped with DVB-H receiver;
The K850i locates all files and directories on the memory card and
obtains necessary info from ID3-tags. Supported audio formats - MP3, AAC,
AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA and m4a. No bitrate limitations for MP3-files,
also, you can upload VBR tracks. However the maker himself recommends
using tracks at 192 Kbit/s.
The video app in the K850i is almost no different from the previous versions
,progressive fast forward is still at your disposal, as well as full-screen
mode, and snapshots. The new amenities, though, include slow-motion playback,
when video is played frame-by-frame.
Camera
As you already read in our review the new Sony Ericsson
has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and xenon flash. One of the greatest
features of this phone is the automatic lens cover,instead of the classic
shutter found on the K800i.The company has dropped the entire mechanical
lens cover, replacing it with an automatic one. Unlike the K810i and K800i
where by sliding down the lens cover camera is active on the new K850i
Sony Ericsson has chosen a dedicated button(ON/OFF) for this function.
There are a few shooting modes available: Normal (set by default),
BestPic (Sony's trademark technology), Panorama (stitches a batch of three
photos together, no top resolution available), Frames (select various
frames right on the screen).
The available resolutions are :
• 5MP (2592x1944 pixels)
• 3MP (2048x1536 pixels)
• 1MP (1280x960 pixels)
• VGA (640x480 pixels)
As for the video the phone records at a 240x320-pixel resolution
at 30 FPS for 2 hours straight with sound enabled.The file is saved in
3Gp format.
Below you have two photos taken with the K850i :
(click on a image to enlarge)
Conclusions
Sony Ericsson K850i will start shipping in October at a price tag of 450
Euro. This a justified price for a flagship and it is quite adequate ,Nokia
N95 has a price tag of 550-600 Euro so it's a really hard decision to
make. The reception quality is really good like in any Sony Ericsson phone
and the camera takes good quality pictures.The keypad is a little unusual
but after a few days you'll adjust with it.
All in all we think that the Sony Ericsson K850i is a great handset and
you should definitely take a look at it if you want a new phone.
Below you can watch some videos about the new Sony Ericsson K850i
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Source: www.mobile-review.com
