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Sony Ericsson K550 review: A Cyber-shot on a budget

09 February 2007 | Read the review | Post your comment
Sony Ericsson K550 review: A Cyber-shot on a budget - read the full textAlready a magic word in the world of mobile phones, the Cyber-shot brand, has now received a new member. The Sony Ericsson K550 is a feature-rich cameraphone with an enjoyable 2 megapixel camera, nice imaging applications, FM radio and a memory card slot. And all that at a reasonable price that may attract your attention. Anyways, if we’ve managed to grab it, feel free to join us on a tour with the K800’s little brother.

 

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I think K550 is an almost perfect phone for mid-end level. This cybershot phone guarantees us with the best photos quality in its class,although K750 is better. Sound quality is loud enough to hear even when we're in crowded place. Unfortunately,it is not a 3G phone, a technology that sets trend in my country Indonesia and a must in advanced country and nowadays era , so be ready to be dissapointed with GPRS speed. Also M2 card memory is more expensive than other card memory type usually used by other vendor handset Overall,its design,camera,multimedia feature is very great.

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  • 2008-03-22 14:47
  • M@T2

There seem to be a lot of dud examples of this model - I have one . Other review sites carry lots of reports of buttons sticking/not responding, with mine it's the ghi and mno buttons. And this is the second one I,ve tried. Sony and Carphone Warehouse MUST know this is a common problem amounting to a design or manufacturing fault. Why don't they whithdraw it? Probably because a lot of people are like me and don't make enough of a fuss while their phone is still within it's gaurantee period.

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  • 2008-02-17 23:54
  • Ihst

There are no problems with this phone and you CAN zoom in normal mode,all you have to do is go to settings,click on picture size and change it to VGA

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  • 2007-12-28 22:47
  • 0p1D

Do you always have to turn the speaker on when answering the call (or to press left upper key 3 times)? It is really annoying to not be able to answer the call with a single click... or I just can't find what I'm looking for in settings :)

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  • 2007-12-27 13:33
  • 0pAK

i flashed my k550 to w610 and now it rocks !
you follow the tutorial on thinkdigit to to so !

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  • 2007-12-08 08:30
  • 2SPx

This phone is good and works well..... Plays music welll..... and nice pics as well...

I have a problem that i cant see missed call numbers..... Dont know what to do.... Great if somebody can help......

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  • 2007-09-29 06:16
  • 2TmY

Hi,

I've just bought a k550i.

The auto focus works great but I'd like to manually focus on certain objects so what mode can I use???

On using the burst mode, the image size becomes small and not too good for a print.

Please advice.

Naveen

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  • 2007-09-25 15:06
  • in{P

I got my own 550i Cybershot about 2 weeks ago... doin away wid my Motorola.. I was impressed wid its stunning looks.. but was apprehensive about its keypad.. Maybe that's y it took me this long to get the phone.. I had a real hard time in gettin to a decision to buy this phone... I guess i can safely say.. i made the right decision.. This phone may not go down well wid the diehard Nokia fans.. i find it hard to understand why is there so much fan following for the Nokia Nseries.. all i can say.. the Nseries is an oversized and bulky piece.. I agree.. it has a whole lot more features than say an erricson or a Moto.. but here in India.. most of these features are of no use.. Our network doesn't support it.. Well.. now coming back to this phone.. It took me time to get used to this keypad.. because of the crystal casing that i have put for this phone.. i still find it a bit tough to type quickly.. Being a music lover.. i was pretty satisfied with the stereo sound of the Phone.. the FM reception is way better than the Motorlla and the sound quality is much better than a Nokia phone.. The Mp3 is average.. the base boost is a missing feature.. but can b compromised... An awesome camera.. maybe not as good as the other cybershots or the 750 as the reviewers say.. but if u can select the appropriate mode and settings for the particular situation.. u will definitely be satisfied with the final outcome... The night nmode is the only disappointing factor.. it is not up to the mark.. also no zoom for the normal mode is a missing factor..
Overall a great mid range phone... Im lovin it...

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  • 2007-08-20 13:54
  • iS$@

Great phone, payed extra to have it in white. Have had no problems with it so far apart form the fact you cant zoom in normal mode which being a cybershot phone i wouldnt expect.

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  • 2007-08-16 23:06
  • m5yf

I just want to know that weather the mp3 or other songs will have to be listened on headset or k550i has inbuilt speaker to listen .

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  • 2007-08-12 23:44
  • 2SUU

did i mention that when i plugged in my data cable
the phone asked me if i want to use it in standard
or in transfer mode
the standrd mode i obvious for everibody i think
but when u switch to transfer mode
you can just drag'n'drop anything you want there
just like in any usb memory device
whats more you can upload games to your phone without installing
therefore you can send them to other phones
i think thats great
for example i got a friend whose k500 does not have a bluetooth
i have bt dongle and send him games via Irda which is good

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  • 2007-07-24 02:33
  • SnLT

i cant see why these nokia fanboys keep giving their opinion
it seems they dont get it what a good phone should be like...
at all

@ those complaining about the black stand-by screen:
as far as im experienced in se phones se have tried
up with all-black screen and with one showing the clock
maybe they decided the first one is a bit better
so: all u have to do in order to see the clock is touch
the right-sided volume button for a while
i think this works perfect - it was the same thing with my k700
the button there was on the left side though /kinda confusing/
not all of the k700 are like that but it's convenient enough :)

@ those asking for new features - havent you heard about TrackID™
this feature is just awsome, and i personally dont know
if there is any other phone which supports it @ the time its out
its just perfect for any music fan on earth
and i think even w800/w810 dont have it
if youre wondering whats its effect - read somewhere :p

great phone
the only thing i bother is i already did some scratches to my new k550
i have spoilt this masterpiece of modern art

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  • 2007-07-24 01:55
  • SnLT

hi pipol.
to those who are really curious bout the difference of k750 and k550..
ive been using SE for so long and tried almost all the fones that they have. the longest that ive used was k750 wwhich is known for its incredible feature.. now im using k550.. not that much the difference but i must say this cyber baby is more nice than k750.. though it doest have night mode(literally) it comes with a feature like a digital camera.. if you want to have nice quality in low light place just choose twilight landscape or portrait this function is like night mode in some phones.. the plus factor of this phone is the picture quality in printing!! remember pictures taken by any phone is in the hand of whos taking the picture! dont blame the phone if it comes with a ugly outcome when you take picture!! the print of this phone is nice specially when it is processed and developed in photo center which prints pix from a digi cam or film or even pix maker prints nice quality pix.. cyber baby!!

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  • 2007-07-18 15:50
  • wYJb

hey. i jus bought a K550i. n i for some weird reason i cant zoom in while clicking a picture. it says "ZOOM NOT POSSIBLE IN THIS MODE". i cant zoom in the normal mode n can do so only in the others. bt i dont want to take a picture all the time in the panaroma mode. plz help!!!!!!!! I NEED TO ZOOM!!! :'(

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  • 2007-07-16 21:00
  • 2Zjk

how can anyone say this is k750i 's twin brother! k750i is much better and camera is much more clear than this fone. k750i should be the cybershot! K750i is much better. TRUST ME! get k750i - cheaper and better!

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  • 2007-07-05 05:14
  • PZUq

Hai ammie

it seems like ur battery is draining out quickly.... may b something is wrong with the battery. My battery is lasting for about an average of 3-4 days from a single charge. The stand by time has been more than a week. SE says the standby time is 350 hours !!!!!!

Try decreasing the brightness to minimum, as the 550i display is so bright. And also try charging the phone after switch it off..
The last try and keep charging till it says "fully charged".

To view the clock just press either the volume or the pause/play button and the clock will show up. For a large clock go to settings-display-clock size and change it ot large clock.

Well the crackling sound comes 4 me also... but thats not an issue as my previous w550i also had this problem. Its not that irritating... only once in a while does it come ......


kel

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  • 2007-06-02 11:43
  • vGtZ

To make a correction, I just checked my phone and the battery has now gone down to just 1% in only 40 hours! I had fully charged it 2 nights ago and now the battery is already dead. When I bought the phone, I was told it was only a month ago. Was I cheated?

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  • 2007-06-01 21:32
  • 4XV4

Hey Kel,

Thanks for the reply.

The pics definitely look really good in good lighting conditions. I'll have to learn how to utilize the features the k550i is packed with. Definitely a loss that there is no night mode. Hopefully the flash makes up for that, somewhat.

Just a question about your phone, do you know if there's a way to change the setting so that the clock is visible when in powersave? Or somehow change it so it's not pitch black when in powersave? Also, does your phone feel as flimpsy as mine? It gives a squeaking sound when I apply any amount of pressure on it. I bought the phone used from someone else. So it worries me that it's possible it's fake or something. Any tips? Also, how is your battery life? Mine goes down to 50% in less than 45 hours even though it's just standby and I did not make a single phone call on it! Should I be worried?

Thanks!

amie

  • Reply
  • 2007-06-01 21:23
  • 4XV4

to amie :::::

Hi there

I also do own a 550i, well it seems like u checked the clarity rather in poor lightning conditions ..... it does'nt have a night mode... a big miss by sony :-(

Well in daytime, 550i matches the clarity of 750i , its twin brother...


Check out these pics ....

http://www.esato.com/phonephot...&model=K550i

These are all pictures taken from 550i...

And in the ranking , there are 4 550i pics in the top 20 rankings ..... :-)

And if u use the walkman headsets instead of the given poor headsets , sound clarity is excellent and matches the walkman clarity ......

and it is very ver quick 2 use and also has a seperate video player and supports multi tasking ......

I like it very much than the w800i which i prevously owned ......

One question....

who takes photos at poor lightning conditions ?????????

c u

kel

  • Reply
  • 2007-06-01 16:41
  • vGt@

I just got my SE 550i yesterday. I am disappointed that in powersave the screen goes completely black and doesn't even show the clock like my old SE T610. At times, it made me uncertain if the phone was even on since the screen was completely black. Or is there an option for that?

Like many others have commented, I too was disappointed with the camera. There are some nifty camera features but the quality is rather poor. Quality appeared to be better in better lit places like inside a mall.

Another thing I'm unhappy about is how flimsy it feels in my hands. It doesnt feel solid in my hands. If I put any pressure on it, it has a cracking/squeaking sound. Is that just my phone?

  • Reply
  • 2007-05-31 06:25
  • 4XV4
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