Jul
02
First impressions of the Sony Ericsson K850i are that it isn’t a particularly small or lightweight phone, feeling strangely heavy in the hand. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as it makes the K850i feel very sturdy and well put together, which it is. Actual dimensions of the phone are 102mm x 48mm x 17mm (4.0in x 1.9in x 0.7in), and it weighs in at 118g (4.2oz).
The front and back of the phone are made from shiny black plastic, which looks great and seems to resist scratches quite well, but attracts fingerprints very easily. The sides of the phone are a matte silver with a thin blue mirrored stripe around the middle. This same mirrored blue plastic is also used on the 850i’s unusual d-pad, which rings itself around the 2 and 5 number keys. Two other color choices are available, with the only differences being that the mirrored blue parts are instead silver or lime green, and the silver sides of the phone are instead black.
The first thing you’ll notice on the face of the phone is the odd d-pad, which gives the phone a funky, fresh look. The downside to this stylish design is that it’s tricky to use due to its position in the middle of the keypad, which can cause you to press the neighboring keys accidentally. Above this d-pad are a set of three touch-sensitive softkeys that are represented by tiny white markers just under the screen and appear to be purely an aesthetic gimmick. Unfortunately, the more I used these keys, the more they irritated me. The main problem I had was that they often didn’t sense my inputs, or sensed too many inputs, which could be very frustrating.
The rest of the keypad is made of unusually small keys which are quite hard, but turned out to be more comfortable than I had expected, even with frequent use. The keypad was not the easiest to type with, partly due to the intruding d-pad and odd buttons, but still operated well enough to keep me happy. When activated, the keypad emits a cool white glow, making it much easier to read the tiny letters under each key.
As usual for a Sony Ericsson device, the K850i also has dedicated “send” and “end” keys, a shortcut key, and a cancel (c) key, all of which are metallic silver in color and sit just above the keypad. The remaining buttons are found on the top and right side of the device, with the usual on/off/profile button on the top, and the camera buttons and mode switch on the side. These buttons include the camera shutter button, a dedicated camera on/off button, a pair of zoom/volume buttons, and a three-way camera mode switch to choose between the stills camera, video camera, and playback mode.
On the bottom of the device you will find the multi-function charging/headset/data connection port, plus a lanyard eyelet and a small door that wraps itself around onto the rear face of the phone. This door hinges open to reveal the battery compartment, the sim card slot, and the microSD / M2 memory stick slot. This is a fantastic idea and eliminates the need to dismantle the phone to swap the battery and/or sim/memory card. I also like the fact that the single memory card slot allows for a choice of two different memory cards - either Sony’s M2 memory stick, or the more common microSD cards.
The display on the K850i is crisp, clear, and reasonably sized, making it a pleasure to use for both phone and camera functions. Even in bright sunlight the K850i’s screen was plenty bright enough to be read easily, and it looked especially vibrant in low-light situations. With over 262,000 colors and a 240×320 pixel resolution, the screen on the K850i is a joy to behold, and, as expected from a Sony Ericsson device, the menus look very crisp and colorful, as do internet websites and photos.
Multimedia / Applications
Being a Cyber-Shot branded phone, the main selling point of the K850i is its 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus and xenon flash. I expected great things from this camera and thankfully wasn’t disappointed, with the K850i producing some very respectable pictures. Upon activating the camera, a blue ring of light glows around the camera lens, then almost immediately fades back out. There are also matching blue lights to be found on the shutter button, and four hidden icons that are illuminated from beneath the phone’s fascia, labeling the 3, 6, 9, and # keys’ new functions for the camera. Overall the picture quality of the K850i’s camera was very good, and shots looked clear and detailed. However, shots could sometimes have a bit of a “washed out” look about them, and taking photos in low-light conditions in auto mode would often provide blurry or very dark images. These issues could usually be solved with one of the many scene selections available, which allow you to quickly adjust the settings for any situation you might encounter.
There are also four different shoot modes: normal, BestPic, panorama, and frames. BestPic is a handy function that takes nine photos with one press of the shutter button and allows you to choose the best one, making it easier to get a decent picture. The frames mode allows you put one of a selection of comical frames around your photos as you take them, mainly for entertainment purposes. A macro mode is also included, and close-up pictures taken on the K850i are very clear and impressively detailed. Generally the K850i’s photographic capabilities were very good, but in low light conditions I often found it more difficult to get a decent photo than with some comparable devices, such as the Nokia N95, which seemed to require less fiddling to achieve a decent shot.
The K850i does, however, feature a “photo fix” option, but in my experiences it usually made the photo worse, rather than better. Should you want to manually tweak the photos yourself, you can edit them using the “PhotoDJ” application, which offers more control over the changes made to the image.
The K850i also features a video camera mode, but the quality of the videos leaves a lot to be desired, being far too dark in poorly lit environments and showing lots of pixellation. There is a night mode for the video which makes the image brighter, but unfortunately it also has the side effect of making any motion very blurry and jerky, resulting in poorer footage than before.
The user interface for the K850i’s camera was very simple, and thanks to its traditional camera layout, should prove quite user friendly for the inexperienced. With the included scenes and helpful shoot mode options, the K850i’s camera is a very flexible performer, but without careful adjustment of these settings, users may find that photos don’t always come out quite as expected. Sample photos taken with the K850i’s camera can be found on the pages following this review.
Included in the K850i’s photo playback mode is “X-Pict Story”, an application that allows you to view a slide show of all your photos, in one of a selection of different moods: silent, sad, romantic, happy, or energy, each with its own music and transition effects. It’s a very simple feature to use, and makes it a lot more fun to show people your photos.
User Interface
The overall layout of the Sony Ericsson K850’s user interface is very uncomplicated and simple to navigate, even for new users. The basic design of the interface hasn’t really changed from previous models, but that’s fine because I’ve always found Sony Ericsson phones to be very intuitive and well designed anyway. Menus are well structured and everything is where you’d expect to find it, plus each menu item can be quickly selected by pressing the corresponding number key - for example, pressing the number 4 will select the fourth option in a list.
Should the appearance of the interface not appeal to you, don’t fret. There are five themes pre-installed on the phone and plenty more available to download from the internet. A nice function of the K850i interface is the auto-rotate feature that uses an in-built sensor to rotate the screen when you’re in the photo/video browser and MP3 player. Just turn the phone on its side and the screen will rotate to suit, though it only works if you rotate the phone counterclockwise, as if holding it up the correct way to take a photo. This same sensor is used for one of the included games, Marble Madness 3D, which requires you to hold the phone flat and tilt it in different directions to move a marble around a course.
Conclusion
Overall the K850i is a great device, with a fantastic camera and a funky, contemporary design. It has plenty of great features, including an MP3 player, HSDPA capabilities, and Bluetooth A2DP, but also gets all the essentials right with good reception, clear audio quality, and a decent battery.
The K850i isn’t without its downfalls though, and I wish they hadn’t used the irritating touch-sensitive softkeys or the awkward d-pad, perhaps opting for more traditional keys instead. Another change that I’d welcome to the K850i is the inclusion of a “proper” web browser that would allow the device to display web pages like the iPhone and Nokia’s S60 devices can. Without this, the included HSDPA is partially wasted, as it isn’t really required for the simple list-type pages that the K850i displays.
Overall, I rate the K850i as “Highly Recommended”, as it’s a fantastic device with all the essentials and plenty more, including one of the best cameras found in any current phone. Possible alternatives to consider: Nokia N95 or LG Viewty.
You’ll find a gallery of sample photos shot with the Sony Ericsson K850i on the following page.
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