Sony Ericsson K750i
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Sony ERICSSON K750I USB CABLE The Ultimate Catalogue c/o eDirectory £3.60 |
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Sony ERICSSON K750i, D750i SOFT SILICONE SKIN The Ultimate Catalogue c/o eDirectory £1.88 |
Pros
Stylish, Lots of Features, Cheap, RDS FM Radio, Memory card slot.
Cons
Slow Web browsing - GPRS only, Small 126 x 200 pixel screen, No 3.5 mm jack, Small screen = poor Web browsing.
RATING:
Sony Ericsson K750i Prices
Pay Monthly
Pay As You Go
SUMMARY:
Stylish, small, lightweight camera phone. A little old now - newer models have better features. Buy it dirt cheap on PAYG.Sony Ericsson K750i Review
The Sony Ericsson K750i is an excellent little camera phone. Released in June 2005, the K750i continues to sell well - and rightly so. Stylish, small, 2 MP camera (with video capture), RDS FM Radio, a good media player, easy-to-navigate menus, a 262k colour screen, voice dialling and a host of other features. You might like to get a cover/case, greater capacity memory card (up to 4 GB) and a Bluetooth dongle. It's March 2007, and it's still one of the best selling pay as you go handsets in the UK.
Design
The joystick can be used for shortcuts - right = calendar, up = shortcuts, left = create (mms, sms, voice message, !live postcard), down = contacts, options.
The joystick could perhaps wear out, depending on how you use it. Mobile games requiring energetic use of the joystick are likely to speed up the wear.
The left side of the phone features the Memory Stick Duo slot. It's protected by a rubber case. The K750i comes with a 64MB Memory Stick Duo. Inserting and removing the memory card is a bit fiddly - particularly if you don't have long girly nails. The card has to be pushed right in where my finger can't get to - not helped by the rubber casing getting in the way. We used a pen top to prod the blighter back in.
The back of the Sony Ericsson K750i is quite stylish. In fact, it looks like a snazzy camera with the LEDs and camera shutter. The battery is very easy to remove - just slide off the back cover. The speaker is also located on the back (towards the base) of the phone.
The top of the phone has the on/off button and the infrared port. The bottom of the K750i features Sony Ericsson's 'Fast Port' - plug in the USB cable, earphones and charger here.
Features
Camera: You can save and view pictures or video and send them as email attachments or in picture messages (MMS). Choose between 1632 x 1224 pixels, 640 x 480 or 160 x 120 picture sizes. You can save the picture or video to phone memory or to the Memory Stick.
To activate/deactivate camera mode, slide open the camera shutter (protector) while in standby, or select 'camera' from the main menu. You could also create a shortcut in the activity menu.
The photo light can be turned on by accessing the camera's 'settings' menu. Even quicker, press the '*' key to turn the photo light on or off. You can also take screenshots from video files - pause > more > capture frame, and also change video speed whilst watching - hold the joystick down/left/right.
It's a good little camera, and the photos come out as we would expect from a decent 2 MP camera.
Screen: The 262K colour 176 x 220 screen is good quality. You can view up to 11 lines of text on the screen. The screen's not as big as many of the newest mobile phones, but it's fine for most things.
Only slight problems come when viewing some text - can be too small in games, applications and when browsing the Web. The K750i's screen size is not good for browsing the Web - far too much scrolling is required.
Memory: There's 34 MB of phone memory - free memory varies based on pre-configuration. The K750i comes with a 64 MB Memory Stick Duo - not great, but enough to store a reasonable amount on.
Tap the volume key (on the right side) to get the 'phone status' menu showing free memory and memory stick memory used. When connected to the PC (via bluetooth, infrared or USB), the PC recognizes the memory card as a flash drive.
Connectivity: There were no problems connecting the K750i to the PC - Bluetooth or USB. Infrared is also available.
The package includes Sony Ericsson's PC Suite software on CD. The PC Suite contains the sync manager, file manager, image editor, MMS Home Studio and a Mobile Networking Wizard (use your mobile as a modem).
Installing all the software takes a few minutes. There were a few 'registering' errors whilst installing, but it did successfully install. The whole package is 82.73 MB. The PC Suite put a shorcut icon on my dekstop which we couldn't remove - naughty naughty software. We uninstalled the package and reinstalled only parts of the suite.
Entertainment: The K750i includes a range of 'DJ' tools in the entertainment menu - Video DJ, Photo DJ and Music DJ. These little applications let you play around with your files - trim, delete, preview, send as MMS, email, add clipart, zoom in, rotate, create melodies, insert music verses and choruses and more. They all work fine.
Sound Recorder: Save and play sound, record new and send as MMS, email, bluetooth, infrared. It worked fine.
Making / Receiving Calls: Call quality is good. The call menus are logical - all, answered, dialled and missed. You can receive a call when the camera or radio is on.
There are lots of call options: divert calls (voice, fax, data, check all, deactivate all, manage calls (call waiting, accept calls (select list), restrict calls (all outgoing, outgoing intnl, intnl roam, all incoming, incoming when roam) and closed group. They all work well.
Installing Files: To install a file, put the file into the relevant folder. To install a .jar file, put the file into 'My items' > 'other', select the file, then 'install'.
The PC Suite software makes it easy to add and remove files from the K750i. You can also synchronize contacts lists from your PC to your phone.
Internet Access: It's slow. GPRS is slow. Sometimes it took me 30+ seconds to download a tiny page of text on Vodafone's Live! service. We tried at different times of the day - still slow. If you want fast Internet access, buy a 3G phone with a large screen.
FM Radio: The built-in FM radio (87.5 - 108.0 Mhz) is good. It has Radio Data System (RDS) which standardizes time, track/artist and station identification. The antenna is in the handsfree earphones - this must be attached.
We couldn't find any stations through the autosearch feature - we did however find 6 stations with very good signal quality when manually searching for stations. A 10cm movement can be the difference between excellent and no signal. The RDS is supposed to show station info - this can be toggled on or off in the 'RDS' menu.
Media Player: Play music and video files with the media player. It's fine. It does the job well.
Email / Messaging: Writing emails and text messages is always slow without a QWERTY keyboard.
Calendar: We find the calendar useful to see which day a date falls on. Easily accessible and easy to navigate. You can't set recurring events (such as Birthdays) from the phone, but you can synchronize /import calendars from other email applications - Outlook, Thunderbird etc.
Speed Dial: Save numbers from your phone contacts or SIM contacts in positions 1 to 9. The only slight problem with this is having to remember which numbers match which keys.
Voice Commands: Voice commands are activated/deactivated in the settings menu. Recording a voice command requires you to be in a quiet environment.
You can record a word for voice dialling - say the name of the person to start the call. You can also record handsfree 'answer' and 'busy' commands.
Instruction Manuals: The instruction manuals are very good. Nice and simple with a good simple index. There's a K750i quick start guide too.
Summary
The Sony Ericsson K750i is a stylish, small, lightweight camera phone with plenty of good features. A popular sub-£100 handset, particularly for pay-as-you-go subscribers.
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