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Sony Ericsson K850 review: 5 megapixel Phone-and-Shoot

14 September 2007 | Read the review | Post your comment
Sony Ericsson K850 review: 5 megapixel Phone-and-Shoot - read the full textWe called Sony Ericsson K810 the rebirth of the Cyber-shot. We're now looking at a great leap forward in developing the company's cameraphone lineup in the face of the glamorous Sony Ericsson K850. It brings a bunch of novelties in design...

 

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I just wanted to know which phone is worthy of buying... K850i or W960i? I'm a bit confused as i love music as well as clicking pics. And i'm afraid that W960i being a symbion will be having bugs and viruses, like in nokia. Where as K850i is worthy.... And also W960i might be too delicate as it's having touch screen and K850i is having much higher sound than W960i !!! The only disgusting thing about W960i is that it might be prone to viruses... And i don't want that! So, will you guys help me soughting out which phone i should buy! Please reply honestly...
First i had a W550i and now i'm having K790i and now i don't know which phone to buy? And of course i want a SE. :)

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-19 09:05
  • M@T2

Got my sony ericcson K850 for 2 weeks and more than dozen of times, I wish I can throw the phone to the wall... Really frustrated. Phones get hang half way.. couple of times, incoming calls, cant hear pp voices. sms hang. NOW the centre key no more wording reflection..... REALLY, SONY...... Please run more test before launching new phone....really spolit SONY's image and market confidence

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-18 12:49
  • TIEh

To Franique Black;

yeah. Why is SE always releasing buggy phones at first? What would be the purpose behind it? Recently, the firmware was upgraded form xxxx39 to xxxx37 (or probably downgraded). It's so mysterious...

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-17 18:58
  • w0QQ

Would like to suggest Sony Ericsson consider proper testing of their phones before releasing to market. Old K800i was a little buggy but in minor places, K850 has problems with major phone functions (text messaging, phone calls) apart from being slow.

Phone intemittently hangs while dialing resulting in not being able to hang up the call. Great if for some reason you want the call to continue when you request it to hang up, but all in all very unprofessional if you're using it for business.

Phone automatically enters text message writing mode whilst on calls, enter a few symbolsd (typically '.') and then attempts to sent it to the first person in your addressbook. On average this happens on every other call. Good way to annoy the first person in your phone book, but otherwise again very unprofessional for business use.

Have also had situation where you can't record video, pressing shutter attempts to start recordsing but freezes phone for 2 seconds then returns to the home phone screen. Bluetooth car kit won't connect either. Only a reboot fixes it. Also had physical failure where shutter on camera fails to operate any more. (Lasted all of 6 days)

Seems to be entering an era of reboot your phone regularly. What ever happened to code reuse and developing products to improve them? Bring back the Nokia 6210! You could always guarantee it would make/drop calls as requested, it just worked!

All in all, suggest you avoid this phone for a while and hope the issues are resolved. Currently on 3rd handset, no real improvement (though shutter now opens!). Car Phone Warehouse's customer commitment is shockingly bad, Occasionally able to speak with someone knowledgeable but more by luck than their own policy, most of time they have you going round in circles, and don't seem to be all that interested in customer issues with handsets otherwise they'd have recognised these problems and fed them back to SE to be resolved, rather than having the end-users suffering the testing of the products.

S/W version "1200-4400 R1CA029 070922". Very disappointed that phone is not fit for purpose currently. (ie making phone calls reliably, preferably without the auto text message sending!) Ever more disappointed that CPW supplied an unworking phone and then wouldn't allow a return.

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-16 13:09
  • mTyE

hey ppl. basically, i'm still new with SE coz I've been a Nokia fan for years. Just recently I decided to switch over to something else which has something more than just a phone. generally, i find this gadget simply irresistable!!! The camera works exactly like a normal digi. cam and i'm way too contented with the shots i made with it!!! the sound works fine and love the mega bass! auto-rotation mode is so cool (and i assume nokia is copy-catting every single thing from K850i :P) though it lags a lot. kinda find it hard to adapt with at first but a few days later after that, my fingers worked just fine! it's pretty much a unique gadget (to me!) since it's equipped with something which i've been needing desperately lately. fine! I LOVE THE CYBER-SHOT INSTALLED!!!! (coz i'm a photography-freak!)

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-11 00:52
  • M{If

I get mine today, played around with it in store its a great phonE" 10/10

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  • 2007-11-08 11:33
  • pL9i

to johnny:
DVD quality video? im hoping your just pulling our leg, because that is the most absurd thing i have ever heard. your n95 produces more than VGA video? DVD quality? count your lines of resolution....the only way you would get dvd video is to record it with.....a DVD video recorder! not a mobile phone. plus i doubt your n95 pics have higher res on photoshop unless your digital camera is really shoddy.
--wait a few years and we may see dvd recording mobile phones, but not with a dodgy nokia lol.
hope reality doesn't hurt to much when it hits you.

in the meantime, look at a sony e, the battery life will last long enough to take a few pics over a few days at least

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-08 10:45
  • vkQ8

i've been reading reviews as soon as the k850i was released all over the globe. Many say its good, and others say its bad. But ofcourse, as Plan B; if something goes wrong there's a firmware upgrade system SE is giving for those who are in need.
But I want to know first as to how bad the first firmware would be? I'm planning to buy one but discouragements are everywhere. I want to know how awful the first firmware is. Anyone, pls.... ^_^'

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-06 14:31
  • w0QQ

Btw, who the @!#! needs GPS? I just installed google maps (it's FREE) and if that doesn't cover your navigation needs then you're in serious need of help.

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-04 11:28
  • m}Kb

Okay, just got me one of these babies!
The Media Center is really great when it comes to features however the software is kind of slow when browsing the files simply because it has to load preview thumbs.
Music playback is almost as good as on SE's music dedicated Walkman phones with playlists, trackID, Mega Bass etc. But for the perfectionist there is a difference in sound quality.
The headset you get with the phone is complete trash. If you buy this phone you should buy a Walkman headset at the same time because you will NOT be happy with the ones included.
The camera is great but still can't compete with dedicated digi-cams, probably because of the lousy optics. If you view the whole pics on a PC they look great but when you zoom in they'll start to look pretty grainy.
Video recording is really good actually. It's not the best I've seen but it's better than any other SE phone. The advantage of the low quality is that the video files doesn't take much space on your memory card at all, so you'll be able to record videos despite being low on memory.
Of course, you can always buy a 4gb Memory Stick Micro to make sure that you have enough room for both videos and music.
The design is great although it gets covered in fingerprints pretty fast. Keypad buttons are great and the d-pad actually works pretty good, unless you're playing any games with it. The touch-sensitive soft buttons are great. They make navigating feel fun and easy despite the occasional undeliberate press.
The motion sensor is great when viewing photos or videos. It's also great when playing Marble madness as you can tilt the whole level and roll the marble in any direction. The precision is really surprising as the sensor notices every single move you make. You'll look dumb playing it in the subway but at least it's fun.
The phone features are great so making calls and sending messages have never been as easy.
Other than that it has all the usuall SE phone features so you know what you're getting.
In the end a great device with excellent camera and phone features. What could make you not want this phone is the lack of GPS and other ultra high-tech features, the screen isn't as good as Nokia's, slow media center software, d-pad not made for gaming, fingerprints, and really lousy headset.

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-04 10:35
  • m}Kb

£330 on pay as you go orange

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-02 21:13
  • mpTu

perfect sony ericsson i ever had. go get one guys...its best in photo taking and video is better than k800.

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-01 22:24
  • TSTq

i think the k850 is the best phone in sony ericsson phones

  • Reply
  • 2007-11-01 12:42
  • pTf%

Personal Ranking of Phones:
1 - k850 - SE's latest offering is a great all rounder with superb camera, battery life and build quality.
2 - N95 - I hate this phone, but lots of people like it. If you will use all of the functions of the phone then this is the one to go for.
3 - LG Viewty - great camera, awesome video recording and playback (DivX).
4 - G600 - cheaper than all the others and it does show, that said the bundled accessories are great.

I've tested all the phones and none are perfect (I prefer the k770 to the k850 but it's not widely available) there cannot be any argument which is the best phone, they're all better than each other in different ways. I've gone for the k850 because at the end of the day it hasn't forgotten to be a phone, has great battery stamina and the camera is on par with the others. For style and media I love the Viewty but I think the novelty of the phone would wear off after a couple of months. The N95 is a great device, but not a great phone.
If you need to get a phone soon I'd recommend any of the above, but if you don't it'll be worth waiting for the next crop early next year.

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-25 13:08
  • Bw@e

Hi! I agree to digital_singh 100%. Sony Ericsson has gone mad with keypad for some reason. I had K series and still git K800 for the camera quality it was the best. I rally want to upgrade to 5Mp or more but playing with K850 it doesn't feel good cpz of keypad. For a person who is a texter will find it really hard. FAo Sony Ericsson manufecturers...can you please make a phone with higher spec camera but with normal keypad?

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-22 23:44
  • mpYs

Hi guys.. I have used the original k-series cybershot phones i.e K750i,K800i and now I upgraded to the K850i. I have used a N95 and the camera in the K850i has to the most superior in any phone out there. But unfortunately I have to say apart from the camera there is no other blistering feature which would let me keep the phone. So I have sent back the phone to my network provider. The phone is not very comfortable in the hand, small little crappy buttons and slow software. Overall the K800i is a better phone. Oh yes the video calling is better in the K850i for which the credit can be given to a better front camera. As in the K800i you can start a video call and check how you look like bla bla, but in the K850i I could not find a similar feature , so the front camera cannot be started unless you start a video call.The video's are again excellent but Overall I am disappointed by the handset. SE could have done better. I would rate it 7.5/10 just because of the absolutely stunning camera.

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-22 16:28
  • M7dS

Do you think we can get some audio quality graphs on this phone? It's going to be selling like hotcakes, so I think it would be great if it could be added on.

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-17 21:45
  • x99W

Have the k810, camera is very good for a camera/phone. Expect the k850 to be better, but remember sometimes it takes some firmware upgrades before best performance. Can't understand why everyone needs a new phone on day 1 with all the problems yet to be sorted and top price. SE are good phones, business like generally. Anyone knows anything about digital photography knows it's not just megapixels, some 5MP outperform 8MP, Carl Zeiss good but k810 3.2MP outperforms both Nokia N73 and N95 because of crappy Nokia over-processing and imaging. Still feel this 5MP won't match a Canon 5MP compact but maybe close to Casio or similar.

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-17 17:48
  • M{3P

nice to hav a new generation mobile can u provide 8 pixcle camera
for us

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-16 05:32
  • w4sW

which lens they are using? not carl zeiss?

  • Reply
  • 2007-10-13 15:40
  • n3mR
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