Sony Ericsson K850i - 5MP Camera Phone (Sony Ericsson K850i)

Member Name: kersplatty

Product:	Sony Ericsson K850i
Date:	12/12/08 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 5MP Camera, Nice lighting and design, Responsive UI, Plenty of features

Disadvantages: Inbox can slow down, Firmware updates wipe your contacts and inbox (unless you back up)

Continuing the K series of impressive camera phones by sony-ericsson, the K850i is a stylish candy bar phone with a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Firstly the phone itself, much like previous phones in the k series of sony ericsson phones the k850i is a candy bar phone. At about 17mm thick and 102mmx48mm length and width it's hardly the thinnest phone i've ever seen but it fits in pockets easily and although it is around 118grams it isn't too heavy. In terms of every day use i'd say its not too heavy to be irritating and not too light to think it's missing from your pocket. The design on the phone is very slick, with blue LED's for the camera function, a nice sizeable screen and a big lens on the back of the phone it becomes obvious that this phone is all about the function.
Overall not the smallest, thinnest phone but an acceptable size for it's function

Secondly I will talk about the Camera itself. The nice thing about this phone is that once you turn on the camera a cool neon blue LED lights up around the lens making it look very slick and sexy but a disadvantage of this is that the time it takes to turn on the LED and automatically open the lens means you can't slide and shoot as quickly as it's predecessors. The quality of photos from the phone itself are excellent, with a small file size compared to a 5 megapixel camera however in early firmwares problems with the autofocus and flash detection makes close ups bleached with light. Upon updating the firmware of the phone however this problem is eliminated.
Overall a good camera provided you update the firmware or are able to set the settings manually.

Finally the software. Like the W580i the k850i can use flash themes which are very responsive, i prefer to use the laser precision theme as it goes well with the colour theme of the phone and gives a tactile type feedback when in the main menu. The different areas of the UI are very responsive, that is until your text message inbox fills up. After having over 500 texts i noticed it took upto 8 seconds to load the inbox, an inconvenience if all you want to do is read a text. The media player built into the phone is excellent i got a 1gb minisd for my phone and by using the flash media player i was able to easily access my music and create playlists. Even videos played well and the auto-rotate is a nice trick which never gets old.
Overall a responsive and fully functional UI apart from the inbox which when clogged, can slow the phone which is a minor inconvenience.

Overall it is an excellent phone which is very reliable, i have took it to leeds festival, various gigs and general outings and over the course of the year suffered no problems provided you keep up to date with firmware updates, in terms of the mechanics everything is still working well.

Summary: Lots of features, a 5MP camera and a sleek and sexy phone & UI

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