Sony Ericsson K850 goes 5 megapixel

Sony Ericsson reaches for the 5 megapixel barrier with its new Sony Ericsson K850 Cyber-shot cameraphone. The handset features all the goodies seen in the previous Cyber-shot handsets but besides the resolution punch it also packs in full HSDPA (3.6 Mbits) support.

Sony Ericsson K850

The Sony Ericsson K850 Cyber-shot is the next generation of powerful cameraphones by Sony Ericsson which have long kept the first place when it comes to camera-in-phone performance. Today they are making the next step and move on to using a 5 megapixel camera.

Beside that, the Sony Ericsson K850 comes with a number of updates over previously released handsets: it has an automatic camera cover, a 3-LED video light, a renovated camera interface, and a spanking new media browser with picture auto rotate feature. It has a larger, 2.2" TFT display, and features extended network support such as tri-band HSDPA (3.6 Mbits) and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. That sort of a solution is uncommon for Sony Ericsson since up until now they offered identical EDGE-enabled and UMTS-enabled devices separately. Now for the first time we see 3G plus EDGE all-in-one.

Other than that, the handset retains all the original K810 specs such as a xenon flash, a secondary video calls camera, stereo Bluetooth, USB support, FM radio and a M2 memory card slot (with a 512MB card to be included in the retail package). The memory card slot deserves a special attention since this is the first SE attempt in using a dual card support - it can host both a M2 card as well as a microSD card. In terms of its size, the new K850 will be identical with the Sony Ericsson K810 keeping the same measurements and adding only 3g of additional weight. Sony Ericsson K850 carries a really innovative design solution - the navigation D-pad (marked by the green rectangle on the photo) is made part of the alphanumeric keypad, while the softkeys are really small. The most probable reason for such a solution is obvious the need to fit a larger display while keeping the older size and form factor.

In regards to video capabilities Sony Ericsson has finally made a mark in their portfolio - this is the the second of their handsets to feature video recording in QVGA resolution at 30 fps (the first one being Sony Ericsson W900). Regular feature phones produced by SE so far were well known with their meager QCIF@15fps video recording, while even the latest smartphones Sony Ericsson P1 and Sony Ericsson W960 record video at QVGA@15fps only. The new Sony Ericsson W910 feature-rich Walkman phone would also record video in QVGA@15fps only. We certainly hope that VGA@30fps will not be far away since QVGA is already outdated.

When it comes to music the Sony Ericsson K850 is equipped with Music Player 3.0 which is almost the same as the newly announced verion 3.0 of the Walkman player which is to be seen in Sony Ericsson W910 Walkman phone. Further on, the K850 comes with stylish light effects to suit the rhythm of the currently playing track. Again, much like the W910, the Sony Ericsson K850 has a built-in motion sensor but whether it can be used to control the music player (the Shake control described here).

The Sony Ericsson K850 will be available in Velvet Blue or Luminous Green in the beginning of Q4 2007.