A Great Phone At A Reasonable Cost (Sony Ericsson K800i)

Member Name: Trengot

Product:	Sony Ericsson K800i
Date:	26/02/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Does everything you need and does it well.

Disadvantages: Nothing major, lens cover opens on its own

I have owned this phone for about four months now after my old nokia finally died. In that time I have not been able to find anything substantially wrong with it. Sure, there are always one or two very small things that could be improved (such as the lens cover being too easy to open and can open in your pocket by mistake) but that is true of any phone.

Firstly (and probably most importantly) it works as a phone. The buttons aren't too small to use and the phonebook is easy to access and edit. It is the first phone that I've used that has predictive text that works well. It remembers which words are used most and makes these the first ones on the list, and nearly always gets it right (lots might have this now, I've not used a huge number of the newest phones, but its still a good feature to have).

[Edit] The souund quality is good and comparable to the landline in my house even with minimal signal strength, the volume is loud enough to be heard over most back ground noise and it comes with a handsfree set for driving.

The next best feature of this phone is the camera. It lives up to its cybershot name and exeeds all other phone cameras that I've seen. 3.2 megapixels is high enough resolution to enlarge the photos to the size of the computer screen or to an A4 printout. It also has all the settings of a cybershot camera incuding brightness, contrast, saturation etc. The phone does have a second, smaller camera on the front for use during video calls but has so far remained unused on my phone. This isn't a problem but probably wouldn't be a selling point for most people.

The music player is probably the most used feature on my phone. I bought a 2Gb memory stick and now use my phone more often than my mp3 player. It is just as versatile (although it has less memory) and saves me carrying two items around. Music is searchable by artist album or track and can be played on repeat and shuffle (again, most probably have this but its still good). Playlists are creatable on the go which is useful and is something my mp3 player doesn't have.

The phone is also useful for internet access and I use this as much as I use it as a phone. The screen is large enough to display content clearly and it is fast enough to not be annoying. There are also applications available (free) for MSN and other IM networks.

The number of applications available is huge and my phone is now used a GPS as well.

The build quality is good although the joystick controller can be a little annoying at times and stick.

The battery life is very impressive. On standby it lasts about 10-12 days although I use the mp3 player alot so it rarely lasts that long. Even using the music player and the internet and making calls, the battery last two or three days (depending on usage). It takes about two hours to charge from the wall and 3-4 from a USB port.

Overall, I would recommend this phone to anyone. It works, its not too fragile, it looks good and has everything you need on it. A good buy.

Summary: I have found nothing wrong with it. There is nothing more that I'd want it to do.

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