Review: Sony Ericsson K850i

03-01-2008

by Ralph Averbuch

When the Sony Ericsson K800i first debuted it set a milestone in megapixel cameraphone quality. Does the newer K850i continue that trend?

There's no denying the attractiveness of the K850i. It's a much slicker package than its predecessor, though for some, not all the changes will be considered improvements. Take for example, the lens. The K850i sports a higher 5 megapixel camera which definitely improves on day, night and indoor photography (with a bit of fiddling with settings). The 3.2 megapixel K800i was pretty much useless in dark light conditions.

Gone also is the manual sliding lens cover of the K800i, replaced by an electronic lens cover inside the body of the K850i. In theory this should make for a cleaner lens but in practice the transparent cover easily picks up marks and dust. Worse still, in daily use we saw dust appearing inside the cover.

Mind you, that's a minor gripe for a phone that will come bundled with most carriers. About the same size as its predecessor, this is a phone that pushes the envelope in terms of non-call oriented uses. Whilst the 3G phone does just fine, it's the camera and the music capabilities which will appeal to most.

If you want a phone, a camera and an MP3 player in one hand-sized package the K850i pretty much delivers. Using the expansion slot we added 2GB of storage to the phone's measly 40MB, allowing us to both snap loads of high resolution pictures and, using the phone as a mass storage device, run the free application myPodder (http://www.podcastready.com/) to catch a range of programmes for listening on the move.

The surprise is that the phone actually does a respectable job of all three tasks. Whilst the K850i is no match for a dedicated digital camera with a decent lens, it's more than adequate for capturing acceptable group shots. And with patience you can achieve very good results. However, we have our doubts about how resilient the camera will be in long term use. Meanwhile the audio capabilities, which are really not given any prominence in any marketing material, are going to be more than sufficient for most people.

We tried the K850i with both traditional earphones and a Bluetooth headset with no problems. In addition the actual presentation of audio is much improved over the K800i, with album covers and podcast art appearing as postage-sized icons. Our one gripe would be the confusing range of ways to view content.

However, not all improvements will meet with universal approval. One issue we had was with the three touch sensitive buttons placed across the bottom of the 240x320 resolution screen. Whilst theoretically handy for quick interface navigation we found them ridiculously easy to press accidentally, often taking you away from where you wanted to be. With practice this can be overcome but this phone is not a friend of those with big fingers. Similarly the phone sports a blue plastic rectangular navigation control which circles the numbers 2 and 5. Again, when using this to navigate it's easy to press the centre touch sensitive button above or the number keys to either side. Bottom line, this phone needs far more user attention in everyday use than the older K800i.

Worthy of mention is the improved battery/SIM/memory slot. This is now accessed via a small door on the bottom of the phone, making for much neater lines.

We'd have liked to have seen higher resolution video capture on this phone. It records at 320x240 which looks fine on the handset, but is pretty low when transferred to sites like YouTube or Viddler. A further minor gripe is the proprietary connecter on the base of the k850i. Fine if you have a load of legacy accessories that fit it, but it's high time all phone makers standardised on the same agreed connections -- something we're hoping to see more mobiles sporting since micro USB was ratified [PDF] by many networks and manufacturers last year.

So is this phone a winner? The answer is a qualified yes. Apart from navigation niggles, it's a clear step up from the K800i in both audio and photo quality and control. However it is not a smartphone. Yet, for the price of a contract the K850i will come bundled and that makes it possibly one of the most currently desirable multifunction devices of 2008. If you want decent pictures and sounds whilst on the move the K850i is possibly the standard others must seek to beat.

For details on the full specs of the K850i visit the Sony Ericsson site.