Mixed Feelings For My New Phone. (Sony Ericsson K770i)

Member Name: eawheeler

Product:	Sony Ericsson K770i
Date:	13/02/08 (1331 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of good features, nice clear screen and very pretty!

Disadvantages: Texting a bit awkward and game demos cannot be deleted.

For the last ten years I have used Nokia handsets. I'm very comfortable with their simplicity and design. My Nokia 6680 had been a great phone for two and a half years, but it began losing charge very quickly and began losing signal a lot. It was time to think about a new phone. I spent the last few months looking into deals and phone models and rather fancied the fairly basic Nokia 6300. Unfortunately, without warning, my mum kindly bought me a new phone. I admit to being a little disappointed when I found out it was a Sony Ericsson. I'm very loyal to the Nokia brand and didn't like the idea of having to get used to a different style of phone. However, I accepted the phone and put it to use right away.

I am not someone who buys a phone for all the fabulous features, I don't really care about video calling, games, email or music; I just want a phone that efficiently sends text messages, makes and receives phone calls and can take photos now and then. The Sony Ericsson K770i Cyber-Shot phone seems to be a little too complex for my liking.

This is a great looking phone with smooth edges and a distinctive look. It is slim and lightweight, weighing only 95g and measuring 105mm tall, 47mm wide and 14.5mm deep. My phone is a 'truffle' brown but it is available in four other colours; Sandy Beige, Ultra Violet, Henna Bronze and Soft Black. It feels and looks high quality and has an impressive 3.2 megapixel camera with an integrated lens cover that sits flush with the back of the phone. I have had problems with the cameras covers on older phones that quite often would slide open when I would put them in my pocket or bag and take photos without me realizing it, leading to a drained battery or a folder full of photos of my wallet and keys! When you slide back the lens cover, the phone automatically starts up the camera mode for fast picture taking which is great. There is also a button on right hand side of the phone at keypad level that also starts up the camera mode immediately. I find the location of this button very frustrating as I'll be attempting to write out a text message and accidentally put pressure on this button; the text will vanish and I'll be in camera mode. I then have to dig out the text I was writing in the drafts folder. Despite this, it's a nice camera with an auto focus and flash so you can get some OK pictures but unfortunately you are unable to zoom while taking a photo which I would have expected to be standard in a camera phone today. Connecting your phone to a computer allows you to transfer photos and music to and from your handset. This is good to do as it frees up the phones memory without losing the files you want to keep. There does seem to be a problem though. I was waiting for a call on my mobile a few weeks ago and thought that while I was waiting I'd move my camera photos onto my computer, I connected the handset to the computer and it synchronised quite happily. About 15 minutes later, the landline phone rang and when I answered I was questioned why I had my mobile switched off. Without knowing it, the phone had switched itself off while being connected to the computer even though it looked like it is still on. Not ideal.

When making and taking calls the sound is clear and the volume levels seem adequate. The address book can easily be searched via a shortcut button or via the recent calls log which is found in the same way. However, I do not like the text messaging function on this phone. On the standard setting it is slow as it is on any handset but the predictive text messaging is needlessly complicated. When you begin writing a word it does not recognise, a big screen comes up for about two seconds stating 'word not in dictionary!' Although this doesn't sound like a long time, when you're a fast texter, two seconds is an unnecessary hindrance. You hit the 'Spell' option at this stage and you find yourself on a screen where the word you tried to spell remains in full but it is obviously nothing like the word you actually want to write. For example, if I wanted to spell 'Toblerone' (the Swiss chocolate bar!) for the first time, it would go as far as to write 'uncle' before telling me that the word I want to spell is not in the phones dictionary. On the spell screen, 'uncle' would remain and needs to be deleted so more time is taken to hit the cancel button five times to clear the screen so that the full word 'Toblerone' can be entered manually. I am used to the Nokia system where if you try to spell a word it doesn't recognise, it highlights the wrong word so you can delete the whole thing or part of it with ease before entering manually. This saves so much time. There are no warning screens or awkward menus to go through in the nokia system because there is just no need for it. Anyone who is loyal to the Sony Ericsson brand will probably not find a problem with the text messaging feature; I am just very set in my ways and believe that the Nokia system works so much better.

The phone allows access to the internet which can come to great use when looking for cinema times on the move or when trying to find the address of a business you need to get to in a hurry. Connecting to the web takes no time at all but the content on the screen is very small so anyone without near perfect vision might have a hard time with this. The K770i also has Bluetooth which is great for sending pictures and other media between friends at no cost and for use with a hands free headset. In addition the phone features a radio which is both easy to use and produces a clear sound. This is such a nice feature to have when you are stuck on a stuffy train or bus! My only problem with the radio is that it requires you to use the headphones provided and I constantly forget to take them with me when I go out. The phone comes programmed with six pre-installed demo games. This sounds great but they allow you only 60 seconds play time! There are no other games and it is impossible to delete these demos from the phone because they are 'protected files'. This is extremely irritating. I do have my contract with Vodafone so this might be something to do with them and might not happen with other contracts.

In addition to these main features there is a calendar, a handy calculator, a basic light which has an option of flashing SOS (I like this although I can't think of a situation where I would need it), Google maps, a good music player and fun applications like 'Face Warp' where you take a picture of someone and then stretch them into various poses. There are probably more features that I haven't come across yet! The more you use the applications like the camera, games and music player, the more it impacts your battery life but with general use the phone can go days without charging.


Overall this is a nice handset. To be honest, it doesn't suit me and I am certain my next phone will be a Nokia. I would still recommend this phone but I think it would be more suitable for someone who would appreciate all of its many features.

Summary: A nice phone. Just not for me.

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