SONY ERICSSON K850i

Sony Ericsson K850i Cybershot phone

So I’ve jumped to my next iteration of a sony phone – the K850.

This phone is a bit bigger… in fact its similar in size to a smaller point-n-shoot camera…. Such as a sony DSC-T70. The advantage is that sony advertises this as a digital camera with phone functions.

Design:
The phone is a bit bigger than most handy small phones… yet its not as big as a PDA or Iphone. The lines are sleek, relatively big screen, with an interesting mix of retro with modern chic touches in the cut. The buttons… while unconventional work well… and require a bit of getting used to. However, they seem to react smoothly.
The 3 touchscreen buttons available are also sensitive and react smoothly… they don’t react to cloth or anything that might accidentally touch… other than fingertips….

Camera function:
The camera… now… this is something of a story. The old sony K810 used a metal plate to cover the Carl Zeiss™ lens. The K850 uses an actual glass filter to cover the lens…. A-la normal DSLR lenses… Great idea in concept… a good cheap cover for a lens so it can still be viewable through review mode at all times, yet…. Protected from scratches and dust. What’s the problem? Well on DSLR cameras, the filters cost $10 to replace. This one is NOT replaceable. Or it will cost you maybe $200 to change. Half the price of the phone. NOT very good beta-testing on sony’s part. If this lens cover… which hereon we will call “lens2”… scratches… its all over.

The pictures overall are good…. Not quite digital camera pointnshoot quality…. But they are good. Maybe one of the best camera phones available. There’s a dedicated xenon flash and also a LED light to use when filming videos. Ingenious. HOWEVER…. They used the same sensor size as the old K810… just made more megapixels. K810 was 3 MP, and this one is 5 MP. What’s the problem? Well, its like saying your will take the SAME car…. And FORCE AND TUNE it to go 2 times faster. Eventually you have to give up other performance issues… in the case of a car its durability. In this camera’s case… there is a lot of noise, slow processing, and bad focusing. Fringing is everywhere.

I do stress however… it’s better than MOST camera phones. Just not as good as the K810.

Software :
This uses sony’s standard OS. Relatively easy to use, common menus found on all phones and nothing really new here…. Sony created a winning formula back in the days of the T610… and haven’t changed since then. I’d compare this phone’s system to old phones like saying… is windows XP similar to Windows 2000? Yes and no. not everything is exactly same… but most things are.

A sweet feature… which didn’t work on old sony phones… is this one runs .swf FILES in all its environments. Forget using a picture as the background…. Just load up a flash program (download a youtube vid, convert it to flash… and use that as background!)
What’s amazing about this is you can creat interactive programs….

WITH THE MOTION SENSING! This phone has a “shake control” feature… basically like Iphone’s motion control… accelerometer… like the wii joysticks. You can move the phone and interact with the software. Create a flash file of a dancing person… and when you shake he phone…. The person dances….
Had Sony invested in this actually being USEFUL … would be nice. However, perhaps 3rd party applications will make use of this….

Technology
The phone uses 3G. it’s on the 1900 UMTS 3G network… so it will run on ATT in USA in 3G. if you plan on hooking the phone up to your laptop via modem… you may revert back to 2G…. or 2.5 G…. as there is a lockdown by ATT on the 3G network… and requires password and User ID.

It’s a nice touch to be able to connect the phone, sync it with outlook, send sms messages from the PC via phone’s Bluetooth, and also connect it to the internet using the phone as a modem.
The other big functionality is Bluetooth. The phone has BT+2 EDR A2DP technology… so you can connect it with stereo headsets, headphones, speakers, cars, tv, and pc… all wireless. Can be used as remote control for all these features.

Performance
3G works fast.. not fastest… but fast.
The phone is a bit sluggish… run windows media player… and everything starts to drag. Its not as bad as Samsung Blackjack or other Windows Mobile phones… but, could be better.
Bluetooth drops often
Battery life sucks.
The phone crashes sometimes.

Conclusion:
Good overall phone. I’d recommend.

Pros:
– Highly customizable using scripts and .swf files as well as interface
– Relatively good performance
– Fast when not using too many programs
– OS is friendly but has been refreshed
– Good camera phone and shots
– Has everything you would want to do with a small pc….
– High level of support from 3rd parties and hackers. There’s a file for anything out there.
Negatives :
– Poor battery (with my 200 texts a day, Bluetooth, emailing, constant music) I get barely 14 hours of use before I have to recharge. The Iphone gave me 17 hours.
– Crashes often. Unstable interface.
– Big and bulky
– Camera lens cover could have been tested better.