Sony Ericsson K850i

WRITTEN FOR COMPUTER ACTIVE INDIA

The K850i Cyber-shot is one of the best camera-phones available right now, but does it delivery matches the steep price that it demands, is the question to be answered.

Specs:
Screen Details: 2.4in TFT display 240 x 320 pixels
Network: GSM, HSPDA
Camera: 5-megapixel with autofocus, 16X digital zoom and Xenon flash
Memory: 40MB internal memory and External memory up to 2GB using MicroSD/M2
Connectivity: Infrared, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, EDGE, GPRS, A2DP,
Media: FM radio with RDS, Digital audio and video player, with sound and video recording facility
Stand-by: Up to 400 hours
Talk time: Up to 9 hours

The Nokia N95 started the stream for the 5-megapixel camera phones; Samsung followed the suite with its G600. Sony Ericsson’s latest addition to their popular Cyber-shot, the K850i is all set to push the imaging limits further with its high-speed 3G (HSDPA) and Touch-sensitive menu pad. Imaging has been the centripetal guiding force in K850i’s design, functions and ergonomics.

Starting with the looks, Sony Ericsson has given away with its trademark ‘joystick’ navigation. The joystick proved irksome as a navigation tool to the most, and the funky blue rimmed navigation pad in K850i is a change for better. However, the navigation rim overlaps with the numerical pad and some may find this a bit intervening, we didn’t. The rectangular numerical keys are small but very well spaced out which ensures that mistyping error is a rarity and have a different appeal.

Sony Ericsson also focuses on touch-sensitive box by embedding touch-sensitive soft menu buttons onto the K850i; a mimic of Apple’s much touted iPhone. These are aligned by three thumb-spots at the bottom of the phone’s 2.4-inch LCD. By eliminating the traditional hard buttons, Sony Ericsson has managed to provide more space for a larger display. Sometimes the late response of the touch screen proves to be irksome though.

The camera side of the K850i ditches its recently introduced lens cover to offer slick glassy smooth surface. The downside of course is that there is no protection from any smudges or specks. So if you want to ensure a perfect shot you’ll need to give the front of the camera a wipe. Also the manual lens cover on the K800i and K810i also doubled as a switch for the camera; herein this feature is passed by.

About the camera; it’s a bit up and down. As specs go, it’s a clear winner with a 5-megapixel camera, autofocus, automatic lens cover, a superior xenon flash and a BestPic feature that can automatically take nine photos in a second. There’s also a picture stabiliser, which helps to reduce camera shake. A new switch on the side of the phone lets you switch easily between camera modes, much like in a real digital camera. It also comes with a built in accelerometer that detects the orientation of the phone and automatically reformats images into landscape or portrait accordingly. There is a 16x digital zoom, though we hardly used that due to pixelation in the pictures. It has a selectable ISO, white balance, metering modes and a variety of scene modes to help the user along.

However, the trouble comes in with the performance. The flash and the shutter sync are a bit shaky with some flaws evident. There are some fundamentals flaws in the flash itself which needs to be fixed for better. When everything is perfect, the image quality is one of the best we have seen from a camera-phone, but when it is not, the foreground and/or background details are all darkened. Choosing not to use flash gives you optimal picture quality.

One of the more interesting introductions to the K850i is the battery compartment. Unlike most mobile phones where changing the power cell involves removing a cover, it sports a slide-out door that allows access to the battery, SIM card and expansion card slot.

The phone it’s pretty much standard mid-to-upmarket Sony Ericsson. It means you get a solid, usable operating system, a well developed suite of contacts and calendaring applications. The media player is fully featured, despite not being a Walkman phone. There’s also an FM radio equipped with RDS. MP3 and AAC ringtones are supported. The sound quality, as one associate with Sony Ericsson is very good.

As this is a 3G phone, video calling is enabled too, and the video quality is pretty good, using a front-facing second camera. The built-in memory is just 40MB, but this is expandable to 4 GB with a Memory Stick Micro, and there’s also support for the microSD format cards too. The battery life and phone book capacity are good and 3G (HSDPA) enables you to access the web and download files at broadband speeds.

Overall, potentially the K850i had promised much more on paper, but it seems a bit lack-luster in performance. Considering the razor-sharp price to cut, the consumer will expect more from a start rated product, but it disappoints. It was launched to be in the leagues of elite, but too many quibbles drag it down to the thronged segment of being merely very good.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

We say:

Good: Dedicated camera controls, image and video quality, unique looks with HSDPA connectivity and Touch screen soft menu buttons

Bad: Glossy surface attracts fingerprints; tiny buttons may not appeal to some, camera flash sync

Overall: Good camera quality, good sound and Touch sensitive soft menu are its USP’s, with basic functionalities of a hand-held well looked after