Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Wed 6th Feb 2008 12:12 UTC
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless A few weeks ago PureMobile sent us in the Sony Ericsson K850i, one of the most high-end non-smartphones in the market today. The device sports a 5MP camera and triband 3G, features that are highly admirable for the price. Read on for more.
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Comment by moleskine
by moleskine (4.28) on Wed 6th Feb 2008 12:51 UTC
moleskine
Member since:
2005-11-05
Fans: 5

Thanks for this review. There's no substitute for going along to a store and testing things out in your hands, imho. I was tempted by another phone in the range using the same form factor and key arrangement. A few goes with it soon showed me that these tiny keys and my fingers don't make a happy match. Too bad, as there's a lot else to like here.

Does this phone come with software for your PC or Mac? I don't think you mention this. But I like to back-up the stuff in my phone on a regular basis and a good PC suite is important for this. Nokia's is pretty naff-looking imho, but at least it works OK. Still doesn't come across as much more than a token effort, though. I don't like their rudeness in dropping a hook into your Windows startup ini. Good programs should always ask before doing this, and give users the choice of having a program always on or run and closed when it suits.

RE: Comment by moleskine
by jaylaa (4.48) on Wed 6th Feb 2008 13:13 UTC in reply to "Comment by moleskine"
jaylaa Member since:
2006-01-17
Fans: 1


Does this phone come with software for your PC or Mac?

I have the predecessor to this, the k800i. Plug it in through USB and it shows up as removable storage. I've loaded photos and a couple of GB of music by drag and drop. A ringtone can be any audio file you put on it.

But if you want to do more sophisticated syncing of stuff I guess you have to use the software that comes with it. I've never tried it, but there's nothing on the packaging about supporting Macs. Maybe the k850 does though.

RE: Comment by moleskine
by mike_a (1.56) on Wed 6th Feb 2008 14:05 UTC in reply to "Comment by moleskine"
mike_a Member since:
2005-07-06
Fans: 0

The manual only mentions Windows XP and Vista. So no Mac OS support for the synchronization. But you can use the Mass Storage function.

I just got this phone and so far I really like it. The resolution is beautiful and the camera functions are brilliant. I did BTW got it to record of the videocall cam though, I did it while trying to make a video call, which didn't work and I was asked if I wanted to record a video message. This clip then showed up in my Media folder.

I really like the motion sensor in the phone, when you're in Media mode and flip the phone it changes the view! There is even a weird kind of ball game in there which uses the sensor to roll the ball.

The touch keys do need a little getting used to but when you got the hang of it it's really weird to use a phone where you really have to push the buttons. Some people using the phone think the whole screen is touchscreen because they have to touch the softkeys, which is a bit confusing at first.

The phone feels solid and looks tough, perfect for me, I don't like those slimline-superthin phones.

It's an almost perfect phone and I would give it a 9/10, being a SE it already scores 7/10 in my opinion and the Media and Camera functions make it a 9.

Comment by Laurence
by Laurence (3.8) on Wed 6th Feb 2008 14:45 UTC
Laurence
Member since:
2007-03-26
Fans: 3

I'm a big fan of the K-series SE phones however I do have a couple of niggles I wish they'd address:
* The PC sync has got progressively worse (both the Windows software and the way the the phone can't recieve calls / texts while plugged into the PC)
* The camera picture quality is poor (yes I know it's a phone and not a digital camera, but I'd much rather have a 2 mega-pixel camera with a sharp clear image quality than a 5mpx camera that's grainy
* The camera image capture is impracticably slow. Again I'd happily settle for a lower mpx camera if the capture speed was quicker.

These are only relatively minor points for what is an excelent series of phones so there's a likely chance my next upgrade (due in a couple of months) will this phone.

pictures
by netpython (2.84) on Wed 6th Feb 2008 15:21 UTC
netpython
Member since:
2005-07-06
Fans: 6

For some nice pictures of the device:

http://www.mobilecowboys.nl/toestellen/5055/fromfeed

volume
by kadams (1.83) on Thu 7th Feb 2008 03:45 UTC
kadams
Member since:
2007-08-31
Fans: 0

How was the actual volume on the phone? Maybe i'm going deaf young, but my last few phones seem to be way too quiet.

RE: volume
by Eugenia (Staff) on Thu 7th Feb 2008 04:25 UTC in reply to "volume"
Eugenia Member since:
2005-06-28
Fans: 15

It was good for my ears. ;)

Picture quality
by Manuel FLURY (1.56) on Fri 8th Feb 2008 09:56 UTC
Manuel FLURY
Member since:
2005-07-05
Fans: 1

Hi,

Nice phone, but the photo quality seems bad to me, the noise is less important that on my k750i by far, but it's like if the picture had an 'impressionist' filter applied on it., For instance the face of Kojak is not smooth.

They've just replaced one problem with another.

Of course, this is not really important with a phone, other functions are really great.

RE: Picture quality
by Auzy (3.07) on Fri 8th Feb 2008 09:59 UTC in reply to "Picture quality"
Auzy Member since:
2008-01-20
Fans: 0

At least theres no joystick anymore. All the K750's joysticks break in the first 1 or 2 years.

RE[2]: Picture quality
by Soulbender (3.36) on Fri 8th Feb 2008 10:02 UTC in reply to "RE: Picture quality"
Soulbender Member since:
2005-08-18
Fans: 15

Oh God, the joysticks. Who the hell thought that was a good design?

RE[3]: Picture quality
by Manuel FLURY (1.56) on Fri 8th Feb 2008 11:14 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Picture quality"
Manuel FLURY Member since:
2005-07-05
Fans: 1

Oups, mine is still in a correct state.

According to my current luck, I guess it should break within a few weeks