Sony Ericsson K850i Review

Written on 2/11/2008 04:20:00 PM by poison_ivy

When me and my friends went on a recent fishing trip I noticed that instead of using a digital camera, my friend was taking pictures using a camera phone. Being the cellphone addict that I am, I naturally had to take a look at this phone and see it for myself. Here's my review of the Sony Ericsson K850i and my few days with it.

The first feature of the Sony Ericsson K850i that would instantly jump out at you when reading the phone's specifications is its 5 mega pixel camera. While that's not something since the Nokia N95 has sported a 5 mega pixel camera for some time now, this is the first time that I've seen it on a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. The Sony Ericsson K850i even looks like a digital camera, it has a slider switch that can change between still and movie modes and it even has an automatic lens cover. The most notable similarity that the Sony Ericsson K850i has with a digital camera is its battery compartment. We're used to removing the battery from our cellphones by sliding the back covers and then replacing the battery, most of the times and depending on the cell phone model, this could be cumbersome as most phones have a slippery cover so you end up pushing too hard and damaging your cell phone cover. On the Sony Ericsson K850i, there's no need to remove any covers when replacing battery as it's as easy as opening the bottom compartment to gain access to the battery, simcard, and the memory card slot-much like Sony's digital cameras. Another similarity between the K850i and a digital camera is the accelerometer; when turned sideways, the screen orientation of the K850i automatically changes to landscape mode.

Since the Sony Ericsson K850i has the looks and features of a digital camera, I have to test the picture quality. I have to say that even though this device can be passed off as a digital camera, picture-quality wise, it doesn't meet the standards when compared with standalone 5 mega pixels digital cams. The picture quality was okay though suffering from a little bit washed colors and when compared with my Nokia N95, the previous device still came out on top when picture quality is compared. And when you view the pictures taken on the Sony K850i on those HD compatible Sony LCD TVs, the picture imperfections would be more obvious. So just stick with viewing your pictures on digital picture frames or slide shows on your LCD monitor. Feature-wise the Sony Ericsson K850i has almost all the standard functions you can find on some digital cameras; autofocus, Xenon Flash, ISO function, white balance, scene selection, and metering modes, plus it has a secondary LED light for taking videos in low light conditions.

As for the phone functions, I have to say that call quality was good but I wasn't able to test the music functions given my limited time with the device. All in all, I have to say that the Sony Ericsson K850i is one of the better camera phones that I've encountered. If you're looking for a camera phone with lots of functions, this is a good choice.