Another Disappointment From Sony Ericsson (Sony Ericsson K850i)

Member Name: louiseypees

Product:	Sony Ericsson K850i
Date:	17/10/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes calls, auto-rotate is fun, has a memory card slot

Disadvantages: Camera is rubbish, phone falls to pieces after 5 months!

I'm a bit of a phone snob. I've had some pretty rubbish phones in my time and so I make sure I always get a top of the range model when I get a new phone. I have an iPod, which I'm perfectly happy with; I also have a really good, but bulky digital camera. My iPod is small emough to cart around with me everywhere; my camera isn't. As such, I always go for a phone with a really good camera instead of much music functionality. As I like to take photos, I also look for a removeable memory card.

I have always loved Sony Ericsson phones. Us Sony Ericsson devotees are a fairly common breed and we're fiercely loyal. I broke the habit a few years back and got myself a Nokia but regretted it, so my criteria for my latest phone purchase were fairly clear: it must be the best Sony Ericsson camera phone. At the time of purchase, the K850i seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

I was initially attracted by the powerful 5.0 megapixel Cyber-shot camera. My previous Sony Ericsson phone had a 3.2 megapixel camera and it was fantastic, so I had really high hopes for this one. With loads of impressive-sounding camera features, like BestPic, autofocus and a Xenon flash, it sounded really promising...

Unfortunately it doesn't deliver. The performance of the flash is patchy at best, with it only firing at the right moment about 30% of the time. I have a phone full of dark pictures in nightclubs because the flash is firing too early or too late. Sometimes it just gives out completely, refusing to turn on unless I restart the phone. This was a huge disappointment for me. During the day, the camera is fairly good. It doesn't really knock the socks off of my previous phone, but it is serviceable. BestPic is a good feature in theory, but it isn't a setting you can set to default, which means that if you want to use it you have a lot of setting up to do each time. This gets really annoying.

Going for all the negatives first, the battery life on this is a bit of a let down too. I usually get no more than 36 hours out of it, and that's if it's used for nothing more than a couple of texts and an alarm. This is a massive come-down from my last Sony Ericsson, which I only needed to charge about once every four days! If I use any of the features (such as, you know, calling people), then it needs to be charged every night. It's pretty rubbish.

It's also not very hardy. It's a big chunky brick of a phone and gives the impression that it would last forever, but I've found that I have the age-old Sony Ericsson problem in that the navigation buttons and even the number buttons are becoming slow and unresponsive, sometimes not even registering at all. I chose this phone partly because it didn't use a "joystick" to navigate - my last Sony Ericsson with a joystick became unuseable after about nine months as the joystick stopped working. I was gutted, then, when I realised that this model was similarly afflicted, even without a joystick. The navigation keys don't have much more life left in them, and it's only six months old.

While I'm whingeing about the keys - this phone is partially touch-screen. The very bottom of the screen has three navigation keys. These have never been very sensitive or reliable, and it's been annoying since day one of using it. It would've been a great idea if it was done correctly, but it hasn't been.

Final whinge - mine didn't come with any games installed! At £5 a download, and literally nothing to play with until you pay up, it's pretty rubbish.

Good things about this phone then!:

It has a lovely big memory for text messages. I don't like to delete them, so this fills me with joy. I currently have 1500+ stored and it's not whingeing about being full yet. Text messages are manageable and easy to navigate, with a "group by sender" option which can help you find the individual message you're looking for. This is a big plus with that much storage.

3G internet is a great perk, especially when you're on a contract like mine and don't pay extra for it! It's fast, easy to navigate and really really useful.

As with all Sony Ericsson phones, the menu system is really intuitive and easy to use. This is an area which other manufacturers have improved upon recently though, and I'm not sure that Sony are still the best in this field.

There is video call functionality built in, with a separate camera on the front of the phone. I've not used this yet (does anyone actually use video calling in the real world?) but I'd imagine it's about as good as most video calling - pretty rubbish.

There is a Media Centre included on the phone, with a shortcut from the home screen. It's fairly well managed, but it's nothing really special - it's just a way of looking at your stuff, after all. Nothing groundbreaking here.

The only funky feature is the auto-rotate when you're looking at photos. This made me smile for all of 10 minutes, and I'm very easily entertained. Basically if you turn your phone 90 degrees, it senses it and flips your photo 90 degrees. As I said - a bit flashy, but entertaining for 10 minutes maximum.

It has a memory card slot, which takes mini cards which fit into an SD adaptor. I consider this an essential in a phone really, so while I'm glad it's there, it isn't really a massive deal for me.

Overall, I'm not hugely impressed with this phone. The camera is rubbish - a huge disappointment, and all of the stuff that's good about the phone I could have found easily enough had I chosen a different handset. The fact that it has started to give up the ghost after six months further puts me off of Sony Ericsson phones - this is the second handset in a row that I've had from them which just doesn't stand the test of time. In days of 18 month phone contracts being the norm, this is simply not a good enough effort from Sony Ericsson. They used to make cracking phones, which would withstand any amount of use, but they seem to have sacrificed quality for trying to pack in as many flashy features as possible - whether or not they work.

I will be using this phone for a little while yet - until it breaks, as it surely will and I get a new one through my insurance company. Hopefully by the time I'm upgrading, Sony Ericsson will have improved their offering. I'm afraid, though, that my loyalty may just have run out.

Summary: Not recommended

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