Lightning Review: Sony Ericsson K850i CyberShot Phone (Verdict: Almost Usable, But Not Quite)
The Gadget: Sony Ericsson's K850i is part of Sony's CyberShot line of phones which boast high quality cameras in a mobile phone package. In addition to its 5 MP camera and unusual design, the phone has 3 touch sensitive buttons just below the screen. Is this powerful enough to throw your point and shoot aside?
The Verdict: The dedicated camera buttons (on/off, shutter, zoom, photo/video/playback) on the side go a long way towards making this feel like a real point and shoot. It takes good photos in average daylight situations and has a powerful flash. It comes with a standard array of modes (macro, sports, twilight, etc...), and specialised features like BestPic, which takes 9 "burst" photos and lets you pick the best one. the 4 digit keys on the right side also become dedicated buttons in camera mode, with blue icons that glow while active. Photos are good in daylight and the flash is powerful. Videos are smooth, but shows visible signs of compression.
As a camera, the interface its a step towards feeling like an actual camera, but its still not there. It's extremely awkward to hold the phone in camera mode and and use any of the buttons on the backside of the phone. It's just not ready to replace a point and shoot. Which makes it's size (almost an inch thick), somewhat inexcusable.
Sony Ericsson's UI is as polished as a non-smartphone interface comes. Everything on screen is laid out clearly, menus are intuitive, icons are bright and colorful. I'm not a huge fan of the keypad cosmetically, but it does look nice when it glows. My main gripe is the keypad has too many buttons crammed around the screen. A green 4-way navigation ring wraps around two buttons, neither of which are used as a select button. (both are hot keys; one for web, one for messaging). The selection and context functions are passed on to the touch-sensitive keys, which are a nightmare to use. I have to press the touch keys repeatedly and in different ways to get them to work. The silver hard keys are placed too close to the touch-sensitive keys, which led me to hit wrong keys repeatedly.
While there are a lot of good things this phone offers, none of them outweigh the bad found in the essential features.
View: AU Comments (1) | US Comments (21 comments)
Obviously this is just being released in the US as I have had mine for 5 months now.
I find the thinkness of the phone somewhat annoying. The case that orginally came with the phone (from HK) didn't even fit the phone.
I am used to the touch sensitve buttons, though still hit them wrong from time to time. I use a crystal case and was impressed when the button still work with the plastic on top of them. The 4 way navigation works well, knowing of the problems with the Joystick prong. The small square keys are good, with less chance of hitting the wrong keys as happens with flat keys all up against each other.
As a camera I like it, except for the occasional indoor shot, even with the flash comes out too dark.
@digitalexis: I believe that the $650 is referencing the phone I mentioned, the SO905iCS. It's got 3x optical zoom and the same sensor that they use in their Alpha DSLRs.
jamar0303
I've been using a k850i for a few months now and I have a bit of buyer's remorse. The camera works pretty well for a phone, except that 5MP rating is pretty worthless since the optics and sensor are so small that you will always have a ton of noise, banding, color fringing and other crap on all your photos which means that they look fine at scaled down webfriendly resolutions, but look like garbage in native res.
The UI is really garbage, most events have enough lag that I frequently find myself double tapping the touch points and missing the selections that I want. The "recent events" dialog doesn't include anyway to go to the next or previous event which would work fine if you rarely receive txt messages however if you do any serious non-voice communications you will quickly tire of selecting exiting navigating and reselecting items.
I've been using the phone on AT&T's hsdpa network and while the connection is fast the phone doesn't have enough umph to run the browser's rendering engine at anything approaching the network speed which makes browsing a chore (the new opera mini is much better) and the rss reader doesn't have any capability for downloading podcasts OTA which makes the podcast functions in the media player basically worthless since you are stuck sideloading content onto the phone using SE's piece of crap media management software.
On the plus side of things, this phone does have one feature that I REALLY REALLY like, when using the data cable for the phone with my linux laptop the phone emulates a USB network interface instead of the crappy hayes modem emulation I've seen on other handsets. Which means I've gotten used to using the k850i as a tethered hsdpa modem more frequently than my sprint aircard since it connects so much faster and is integrated much more seemlessly into the network manager interface. Unfortunately the antenna built into this phone doesn't seems to be a bit too directional which means that it will hop back and forth between networks when you are at the edge of reception; sometimes to the point of being nearly unusable without positioning the phone "just so" and then remaining entirely motionless while connected.
In conclusion I'd happily trade this phone for an n95 and found it to be more of hassle than the Samsung BlackJack it replaced.
checkout my photostream at [flickr.com]
for a decent number of k850 photos...
dfn_doe
@elislider:
$379.99 over at [cti-miami.com]
You should check them out. I bought the k800i there.
digitalexis
@Step666: After reading your comment I went and discovered that update. Holy cow, haptic is amazing for the buttons. Also, the camera starts almost instantly now! Hot shit indeed.
nachobel
^^^ sounds like an apple user ... LAZY
i own this phone its great. all the points that were addressed in this lightening review as far as the buttons, they are openly and clearly spaced. the silver buttons are a bit of a nuisance, however they work very well after about a week. the touch sensitive buttons are amazing and i can easily say your using them wrong. i know this because my 5 year old cousin learned how to use my phone after about 30 minutes, thats not a knock to you but the time that you spent with the phone, especially in a limited setting such as this. but they are responsive, if you have the latest firmware installed as stated earlier you do have haptic feedback, where the phone will vibrate each time you touch one of the 3 touch sensitive buttons, it is a very well done feature. but with that comes the realization that it is in fact the software not the buttons that is failing (idk which is worse) so with the haptic feedback you know that you have touched the button (via vibration) if the selection doesnt go through it is beacuse the phone is too slow or too many apps are running.
i suggest getting the latest firmware and then using the phone a little more, hold on to it for a day, text a little, post a blog, let the phone show you what it can do, and where it falls short. no need to make stuff up theres MORE than enough wrong with it. the touch and spacing of the buttons is not one of them.
shadymilkman
I used to have this phone, but give up after a week or so. there are just too many "getting used" to.
When I buy a gadget, I want the way things should be done and not "getting used" to =)
plwh888
@nachobel: what firmware version are you on?
From R1EA031 onwards, they added an option for haptic feedback for the touch-points.
Step666
I've got this phone. It's amazing. The touch keys took me a few weeks of getting used to because there's no tactile feedback, and if you're blazing through the UI and a bit ahead of it, you aren't quite sure if you selected something or not.
However, now everything is gravy. I also like it because I never turn the keyguard on and it never calls people in my pocket, unlike my HTC Dash which called people ALL THE TIME and there is no auto-keyguard setting. bah.
The camera is nice, it's a camera phone camera so..you know. Grab a nikon if you want picture pictures, whip out the camera phone for those strange pictures or to take that video of your friends making paper airplanes then throwing them out of the 22nd story window. Stuff where quality isn't essential.
Also, the phone's LED lights (autofocus lights) can be used as a torch, which is amazingly useful. The screen is gorgeous and the phone feels very solid. All in all, I like it. And I'm on T-Mobile, so I get good stuff cheap :P
nachobel
October called, they want their review back.
Nickbee
I own one of these, have had it for a few months and it's absolutely wonderful.
@all the people having problems with the touch-points: I don't know what you're doing wrong but I've never had a single problem with them.
They're not difficult to get used to, they work every time and with the two most recent firmwares that provide haptic feedback when they're touched, they're even easier/better to use.
RE the review: no, it doesn't match a proper point-and-shoot camera but, frankly Adrian, if you really thought it would, then why are you writing for a gadget blog?
No offence but everyone knows that camera-phones are crippled in comparison to real cameras.
As for the rest of it, there are a lot of holes in what you've written that belie the fact that this is a review based on a 5-minute play with the phone and no real knowledge of it as a product.
Step666
@Collins1: wow now i definitely want that C902
@jamar0303: hmm thats an interesting and promising phone. its even got wifi. however its like $650 on ebay and for that i would just wait for the X1
elislider
How about someone do a review of the SO905iCS instead? That does a lot better as a Cyber-shot phone than this one. Seriously, SE needs to get its act together; they should start selling the DoCoMo stuff internationally.
jamar0303
I've got one and love it.
True: The touch keys is a bit hard to "get", but you get used to it. I never miss them now... couple of months after I got it.
Pics are great, but you have to hold the cellphone in a awkard way... to avoid blocking the light sensor.
Like the touch buttons, you eventually get used to it... not a major problem.
The cellphone does have an accelerometer... though it's kinda useless. Just for automatically turning pics and an annoying game that comes with it.
MP3 quality is great... just like W810i... but they didn't include a pause/play button with easy access, which was just stupid. But the zoom in zoom out button also acts as vol+/vol- and previous/next song... just like W810i.
I'm plenty satisfied with it... it's a little thicker and a little bigger than W810i, heavier...
Oh, and something that people should know: Supports Memory Stick MICRO and MICROSD cards. I'll say again: MICRO. Not mini, not Pro Duo, MICRO.
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
oh... and there's motion sensing/accelerometer built-in for auto-rotating photos and videos using the media player (but not when viewing photos/videos in the File manager).
Good review here:
[www.gsmarena.com]
avlxyz
I just got the k850i (sample photos and unboxing).
The inclusion of non-Walkman crappy headphones were a bit annoying, but the music player very good when teamed up with a good pair of headphones.
I have always loved the Sony Ericsson UI where in the main menu, each number button corresponds to a submenu, eg. # is for settings, 0 or organiser (get it? O-rganiser), not just 2 & 5 corresponding to web & messaging.
avlxyz
@tnkgrl: Most of the reviews I've read, including some which compare the 850 directly against the N82 award best camera to the N82.
The Nokia is definitely my next purchase.
Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer
My Sony Ericsson K850i observations, camera analysis and iSync plugin:
- [tnkgrl.wordpress.com]
- [tnkgrl.wordpress.com]
- [tnkgrl.wordpress.com]
Since then, I've reviewed the Nokia N82, which I consider to be the better camera phone!
But if you want tei-band HSDPA (and quad-band EDGE), it's hard to beat the K850i...
tnkgrl
@Collins1: Autofocus is a feature now? I was almost positive that all my camera phones and all my point and shoot digital cameras autofocus. I have a sales person at Best Buy I gotta have a talk with... swindled again.
thechansen
I used this thing at the Sony Style store and it was awkward to use and the navigational buttons are not intuitive at all. Nor is the touch buttons.
I'm hoping the C-series phones coming out of Sony Ericsson will be a little better.
phi
My friend is on his 3rd one of these already (it's been out forever in the UK).
Everyone here seems to have it and hates the damned touch sensitive "buttons". When will people learn that it should be either a full-on touch interface or just plain old buttons.
I would personally wait for the C702 (3.2mp, autofocus, GPS with Geotagging) or the C902 (5mp, autofocus, photo flash). At 15.5mm and 10.5mm thick respectively, these 2 are much better sized, and the camera buttons are placed to make it more stable to take pictures.
Collins1
Since this phone was announced I was planning on getting one, and not my k800i is finally wearing out. I was happy the k850 no longer used the little joystick prong, because its always the first thing to go out and if my k800 wasnt suffering from the very problem, then i wouldnt consider upgrading. however, i never kne wthe k850 had touch buttons, which adds a new layer of intrigue and complication. from reading this review i'm not sure i want to get it for the issue of the touch buttons. i love the sony phones because i know all the shortcuts and hotkeys so that i can use my phone without even looking at it. but with touch buttons theres no feedback and i think that would be a major drawback...
thanks for the review
elislider