The K800i's roots are undeniable. The moment you set eyes on it you're reminded of a stretch K750i, no bad thing given the K750i's success. Sony Ericsson has stuck with the tried and tested matte black body and silver accents, though it has replaced what little of the front fascia is visible with an black brushed aluminium finish.
Despite being only a centimetre or so longer than the K750i, most of that extra real estate has been devoted to the screen and the area immediately above it where the VGA video-call camera resides. The result of this is that the keypad has now been crammed into the lower quarter of the handset and though the keys are only fractionally smaller, combining this with their position makes it far more awkward to use quickly and accurately.
The K800i's screen is an excellent 2in, 320 x 240, 262,144-colour unit. It's bright, vivid and sharp, and its visibility holds up well under bright sunlight. A silvered border around the screen does a sterling job of reflecting and thereby amplifying the herds of fingerprints that frustratingly seem to congregate on the high-shine surface. Keep that micro fibre cloth handy.
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Arguably the best of the Walkman phones, the W810i has everything you need in a music player phone: Sony's award-winning Walkman music player with enough memory to store 20 full-length audio CD's, a built-in FM radio, and a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus. In our opinion this is a phone that cannot be faulted.
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Since K750i and W800i are essentially two phones with exactly same hardware specifications, soft modifications are available to convert a K750i to a W800i by using flashing software and the firmware files of the W800i model. Such modified phone will be able to use the Walkman feature which is available to W series phones only.
Such phone can also use the flight mode option which allows the phone to work only as a media player while other functions, like cellphone radio system, are turned off. This option is essentially usable when in places where mobile phone transmitters must be turned off.
This modification will revoke any remaining warranty for the phone.
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The Sony Ericsson S500 features a 2-inch 260k color LCD display, a 2 Megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, integrated media player supporting MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ music formats.
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The K800i is an excellent mobile. Not only is it the best camera phone around at the time of release, but it's a good all-rounder. There are a few things missing, such as wi-fi and a document viewer, but there's no doubting that this is a flagship phone from Sony Ericsson. Disadvantages include the large size, fiddly keypad, and the camera cover that slides off too easily. A bigger irritation is the PC software that is supplied with the phone - this is difficult to install and needs to be addressed by Sony Ericsson in future releases. Compared with its predecessor, the K750i, the K800i offers a significantly better camera, 3G capability, a better screen and more built-in memory but is slightly larger in size and a bit heavier. Compared with the W900i, the K800i has a better camera and is more compact, but is not as good as a music player. A phone that excels in the camera department, but isn't the best in every other respect, we've awarded the K800i 5 stars, but only just! The K800i has now been joined by the K810i and K850i.
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Introducing the immense Sony Ericsson C905 with an unbelievable 8-mega pixel, cyber shot, auto focus, image stabilising camera.
In a Russia v America esq. race to space battle, it seems that Samsung will be the first manufacturer to plant the 8 mega pixel flag in the UK. However, this mobile ain’t no monkey, this is a fully evolved picture taking masterpiece, and boy does the quality of the photos show this. Our entire review of the Sony C905 consisted of pointing and shooting, as we ran the phone through a testing gauntlet of photography. Distance – no object, Quality – fantastic.
Mobile Phones
