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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 59 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 8 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Great phone; minor problems"
Pros: Great design; awesome camera; large screen; decent music playback; intuitive design; bluetooth works; countless features
Cons: Keypad compressed because of screen size; processor lag; synchronization software very difficult to use (but eventually works); slow camera capture speed; low video resolution; lens cover slips down
Summary: The Sony Ericsson K800i is a wonderful phone, with minor flaws. I'll expand on the pros and cons I have listed above.
Great design: It's going to be James Bond's phone!
Awesome camera: Although there are cameras with higher resolutions, the 3.2 MP is more than enough for a camera phone.
Large screen: The 2"+ screen is great for previewing camera shots and pretty much everything else. There is some need to switch between portrait and landscape modes; this is generally intuitive (some practice needed), and the buttons and joystick realign themselves well.
Decent music playback: The music quality sounds decent on the K800i, especially since it is a phone. No bass, however.
Intuitive design: The menu system is very easy to navigate, and the shortcut buttons and top-most camera buttons are great.
Bluetooth works: Not highspeed bluetooth, but works fine.
Expandable memory: As soon as the 1 GB M2 memory stick is available, I'm getting it.
Countless features: It takes a while to run through all the features on this phone, including 5 alarm settings, infrared support, voice control, built-in secondary video-call camera, screensavers, games, very basic photo editor, ability to record phone calls...okay, I think that's it, but I'm sure there's something else I'm missing.
Keypad compressed: The large screen size on this candybar phone comes at the cost of the keypad; buttons are squeezed a little bit tightly, but it's easy to get used to, even with large fingers.
Processor lag: My main issue is that the processor is slow. Sometimes, when browsing photos or running Java applications, the phone "freezes," and takes as long as 30 seconds to catch up and respond.
Synchronization software: The synchronization software is very difficult to set-up and use. It is not very easy, but I was able to make it work after about 30 minutes. I usually use bluetooth file transfers, though the bluetooth is not high-speed. The packaged music-transfer program still does not work for me; instead, I just drag the mp3s I want into the Music folder via bluetooth (or USB).
Slow camera capture speed: This phone will not replace a digital camera. There is no optical zoom (some Nokias and Asia-exclusive phones have this), and the response time is long (takes a while to focus).
Low video resolution: Given the quality of the camera, video resolution is a bit low. Originally, this phone was to feature QVGA (320x240), but is not built in.
Lens cover slips down: Slightly annoying is that the Cyber-shot-style sliding lens cover will slide down in your pocket.
FM Radio: Radio quality is fantastic, but I wish it would work without plugging in the earbuds as a receiver.
Proprietary memory format: Why not just Memory Stick Pro Duo?Updated
Radio on Speakerphone: This actually is possible. Turn on the radio; click more; option 5: "Turn on speaker"
Call Volume: Call volume is out of 8 "circles". 4 or 5 out of 8 (default) is somewhat low. If you turn the volume up to 8 out of 8, it is decent (though not fantastic).
Flash: Far from perfect, very bright but focused on a small area. It would be better to use natural lighting.
Photo conditions: Outdoor, well-lit photographs come out extremely well; indoor photos are a bit blurry.
Other features: BestPic (Takes several pictures, and you choose the best one.) Once again, the camera is too slow for this feature to be truly useful. 3G: Connects to internet, gets your e-mail, and even blogs. I personally don't use it.
- 1 reply to this review
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It says on the front of the CNET description that it has WCDMA and WGSM (both of them) or something like that. I have sprint and from the reviews on this phone it would be fantastic if this phone would work on Sprint service. Please respond.
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