Sony Ericsson K800 Review

[Mobiles24]

Please post your Sony Ericsson K800 reviews and opinions in this topic.

• Sony Ericsson K800 Photos & Specification

[CatTrapper]

I bought the k800i a few weeks ago now and I just upgraded from a phone that I bought in the 90's so it was a big change for me. I really enjoy it and there are many great features.

The camera is great at 3.2 megapixels and it has loads of additional features like solarize, negative, black and white and sepia. It is also really good quality when you upload them onto the computer and on print outs.

The music and speakers are great quality and quite loud which is very good for my liking.

The screen is also great for videos and games but for the games they can sometimes get abit annoying.

9/10

[lazyitus]

I upgraded to this phone from a k750 a few ago now and it does exactly what i wanted it to do-it has the same layout and functions as the k750 a better camera(quality and tools ie obliterating motion blur ,best pic choice etc) has a bigger screen and can play films and most new games.The only things it doesn't have that newer phones have is a motion sensor and 8MP camera (it has 3.2MP)but neither of which bother me,motion sensors just seem like gimmicks and if i want very high quality pics i buy a very high quality camera.
The only complaints i have are that the camera cover slides open a bit too easily in your pocket when you have other stuff in your pocket,and i keep catching the camera activate/take picture button when i'm texting.Very minor niggles tho,all in all a very good phone at quite a cheap price now if a little hard to find.

[jowkah]

k800i full review

Key features:
A 3.2 megapixel Cyber-shot™ camera with autofocus
Xenon flash
Integrated image blogging support
Memory card slot with hot swap functionality
3G support with video calls
Great MP3 player
FM radio with RDS
Infrared port
Bluetooth stereo support (A2DP)
Multi-tasking support

Design
Sony Ericsson's K800i is a sophisticated looking, but somewhat bulky, candy-bar shaped mobile phone. its black case isnt prone to smudges,but fashionistas will be turned away by the pocket bulge the K800i creates.
The TFT display is sharp and bright with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.adequately viewable in sunlight and shines brilliantly at night, with support for up to 262,000 colours on the screen. Beneath the display is the usual line-up of Sony Ericsson controls, which should be familiar to its brand-loyal fans. There are two shortcut keys as well as back, clear and Web buttons, and a five-way directional joystick. At the top of the screen are two very thin buttons that we didn't even realise were there until we glanced through the K800i's documentation. Both are called photo keys and allow you to browse saved images, either in thumbnail or full screen mode, when the phone is idle. When in camera mode, these keys alter the settings for stills and video.The first phone from Sony Ericsson to actually carry the Cyber-shot brand, the K800i has a 3.2-megapixel camera -- the highest resolution currently available in Australia on a phone -- which is launched automatically when you slide open the lens cover on the back. One thing that bothered us about the K750i was that the orientation of the lens cover caused it to open accidentally when put away in your pocket, resulting in ten or so extremely close and dark photos of the inside of your jeans. With the K800i, Sony Ericsson has rotated the lens cover onto the vertical axis. Consequently, we had fewer problems with it triggering unwanted images. The only downside we found with the design of the camera was the visible 5mm protrusion where the camera is positioned, which means the phone isn't flush to surfaces when you put it down.

Down the right-hand side of the K800i is the volume rocker, infrared port and camera shortcut key. Launching the camera turns the screen into a landscape-mode viewfinder, which prompts you to turn the phone on its side and take a photo in the same fashion as a regular camera. The left side of the phone hosts to the play/pause music key and the Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot.

Music
Sony Ericsson K800i has a good application for organizing music and playlists. As far as I can see, the player is the same you find in the Walkman range of phones. It is missing the Walkman logo and colours, but it is just as easy to organize MP3 and MP4 music files. Music files are organized by artists or tracks. The PC application Disk2Phone is the provided and preferred way to transfer convert and transfer music to the phone. The play button on the side of the phone will start or stop songs playing. The button controls the last used applications of the two: Radio or Media player.

Communication
Sony Ericsson K800 can communicate with other devices via infrared, Bluetooth and the included USB cable. When you connect the phone to a PC via the USB cable, it is possible to access the files stored on the phone memory using Windows Explorer. The phone will be visible as a removable drive in the Windows operating system. The other option is to connect to a PC using the included Sony Ericsson Phone Monitor (PM) application. The PM connection method is needed if you want to synchronize with MS Outlook or Lotus Notes. If you have bought some extra memory and want to use the K800 as a MP3 player, you will find that the fastest way to transfer the MP3 files to the phone is to use the USB cable and the included Disc2Phone. Disc2Phone will convert your CD's to MP3. Another, and probably the fastest way to transfer files is to buy a card reader and just copy the MP3 files directly to the extra Memory Stick Micro card. Most part of this review is written away from the office, and the Sony Ericsson K800i is my only connection to the net. I am checking email and keeping track of Esato in general with a laptop connected to a K800 via Bluetooth. It works like a dream. Sony Ericsson Phone Monitor application and m-router was not easy to install. The Phone Monitor installation application refused to install on my work machine with Windows XP x64. I also had problem when trying to use the PM with a laptop and Bluetooth. Dial-up was not any problem, but the PM and m-router could not find the K800. I am waiting for the excellent freeware application MyPhoneExplorer to be updated with K800 support. It does everything I need, and I have never had any problem finding the phones using this app. It is also a very convenient way to make a complete backup of a mobile phone. If you want to install the Phone Monitor, you should NOT use the version shipped with the K800, but instead do what I did and download a newer version from the Sony Ericsson website.

Just as the latest range of Bluetooth enabled Sony Ericsson phones, the K800 can also be used as a remote control for your PC. Three pre-installed profiles are available: Desktop, MediaPlayer and Presenter. Starting the Remote Control application MediaPlayer let you use the K800 as a remote control for the Windows Media Player PC application. The phone keys can start, stop, pause, play next, play previous songs and more. Starting the Remote control application Desktop let you control the mouse with the phone joystick. New Human Interface Device (HID) profiles can be created on a PC and then transferred to the phone. Such HID-profiles turns the phone into a custom made remote control for almost any PC application


Internet
The Internet application does not only support WAP, but also XHTML and HTML pages. I.e it is possible to browse both ordinary web pages and pages created especially for mobile phones. These pages will be shrunk down to fit the K800 display width of 176 pixels. My three most favourable features is the option to view pages in landscape mode, the option to browse in fullscreen and the feature I find most pleasant: Internet keypad shortcuts. When using the shortcuts, you can press a key to access the most used internet functions such as switching to fullscreen, landscape, zoom and access bookmarks with a click on a number key.

Now for the camera -- the 3.2 megapixels are the headline but they are by no means all that make this camera special. The flash, for example, is a proper one like that found in 'real' cameras and low light and indoor photographs are of a higher quality than you'd usually get from a phone camera.

There is a massive 16x digital zoom, but you should be wary of digital zooms -- the closer you get to the action, the more fuzzy and blurred images become. A more useful feature is the autofocus, which makes shots appear much sharper.

Another handy setting is BestPic. This lets you take nine photos in quick succession when you press the shutter button. You can then browse the lot and choose the one you want to keep, which could be handy for situations like group shots where the subject is quite fluid.

entertainment
the k800i has a radio,music dj,photo dj, video dy, video player, voice recoreder,You also get three games: Mini Golf Castles, which switches the screen format into landscape and has a Bluetooth multiplayer option; Foto Quest Fishing, which sees you trying to snap at underwater life; and a tennis game which shows off the fast processor and 3G graphics capability of the handset particularly well.

i dont think you could get bored of the k800i, its a great sony ericsson phone that will be honured for years.