In a nutshell: A slimmed-down version of Sony Ericsson’s hugely successful K800i, the K810i shares the amazing 3.2 megapixel Cyber-Shot?„? camera with autofocus and bright xenon flash that made the K800i arguably the best camera phone so far. Also comes with a music player, 3G video calling, expandable memory and wireless Bluetooth connectivity. The K810i can be your digital camera and MP3 player as well as a mobile phone. It costs a little more than the K800i but is slimmer and lighter.
Best buy: *Free* with a free XBOX 360 and free memory card from Dialaphone; or ??149.95 on Pay as you Go from the Carphone Warehouse.
The Sony Ericsson K810i Cyber-shot?„? is virtually the same as the hugely successful and best-selling K800i. The two key differences are that the K810i is slimmer – 17mm instead of 22mm – and that the buttons have a new design. It’s good to see that the phone is smaller and lighter, since that was one of the main complaints about the K800i. However, the new keypad has small circular buttons that are quite widely separated and are not obviously an improvement over the old keypad design. Perversely, Sony Ericsson have kept the fiddly joystick that really should have been changed.
Apart from these cosmetic modifications, not much has changed in the year since the launch of the K800i. Nevertheless, we award the K810i 5 stars, since it still beats the competition hands down! Its photographic capabilities are the same as the K800i. In other words it’s the best camera phone currently available (excluding the bulky Nokia N93 and possibly the N95 smartphone – both very different kinds of handsets). The camera is 3.2 megapixels with autofocus (to enable your images to be sharper), a powerful xenon flash (better than the weak LCD flashes used on most phones), high quality optics (as you’d expect from Sony, one of the leading makers of digital cameras) and a 16x digital zoom. One new feature is something that Sony Ericsson call “Photo fix”, which adjusts the light balance, brightness and contrast of the image – a useful feature if you don’t have access to image-editing software on a PC. The camera also has Sony Ericsson’s BestPic?„? feature which lets you automatically take nine photos in a second, so that you can choose the best one to keep – handy for moving subjects. There’s also a picture stabiliser, which helps to reduce camera shake. One design improvement is that the camera cover is now recessed, avoiding the problem that the K800i had with the lens cover sliding off. The video camera is also of excellent quality, recording at QVGA resolution. A video editor is included, so that you can edit videos on the phone.
The screen resolution is the same as the K800i, and is standard for high-end phones at 320 x 240 pixels and 262k colours. It’s an excellent display.
In addition to the photographic capabilities, the K810i is also an excellent performer in other areas. It has a built-in music player that supports MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ and WMA formats, and also a stereo RDS FM radio. Audio quality is good, especially using the supplied headphones or an optional Bluetooth wireless stereo headset. It’s also possible to buy an adaptor to plug in standard 3.5mm headphones.
The K810i is a 3G phone, and supports video calling as well as high speed downloads at up to up to 384 kbps. In common with the K800i, there’s no EDGE capability, so 2G data transfer speeds are slow. Internal memory is a reasonable 64 Mbytes (enough for around 16 music tracks), so you’ll want to buy a Memory Stick Micro?„? card, which are available in sizes up to 2 Gbytes. Battery life is excellent for a 3G phone.
In conclusion, the K810i is an outstanding phone, and offers a lighter, slimmer alternative to the K800i. Both are outstanding camera phones, with near identical functionality, but cosmetic differences. The K810i is retailing at slightly higher prices than the K800i initially, so if cost is an issue choose the K800i. If you want to stand out from the crowd with a newer thinner phone, choose the K810i.
You can get the K810i free with a free XBOX 360 and free memory card from Dialaphone.
Features of the Sony Ericsson K810i include:
* 3G video calling
* 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, xenon flash and 16x digital zoom
* Video recorder (164 x 144 pixels, 30 frames per second)
* Second camera for video calling
* Display: TFT, 262,144 colours, 240 x 320 pixels
* Music player (MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ and WMA formats)
* FM radio
* MP3 & AAC ringtones (72-voice polyphonic)
* MusicDJ (polyphonic ringtones composer)
* Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email
* Speakerphone
* Sound recorder
* 3D Java games
* Web browser with RSS feeds & picture blogging
* Flight mode
* Personal organiser, File Manager, Phonebook
* Memory: 64 Mbytes plus Memory Stick Micro?„? (M2?„?) support
* Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB mass storage, Fastport, Infrared
* GPRS, 3G data transfer (up to 384 kbps download)
* Vibration alert
* Triband plus 3G
* Size: 106 x 48 x 17 mm
* Weight: 104g
* Talktime: 2.5 hours (3G) – 7.5 hours (2G)
* Battery standby: 350 hours
Source: Sony Ericsson K810i review
Tags: sony ericsson
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