3GSM 2007 On-site Coverage

The K810 is the replacement of the K800 3-megapixel shooter, building on its platform. The new phone is slimmer by a few millimeters, and greatly reduces the camera bulge on the back, so the phone now can easily slip into your pocket. The camera-cover is redesigned and it is now smaller and covers almost only the lens itself, but opens with less efforts and a lot more smoothly. Keep in mind that even that dimensions are reduced, the camera module is the same and quality of images will not suffer.

The K810 has more mature look than its predecessor, and it is more elegant. The numeric keys are round, made of metal and reflecting the light. Although they look very uncomfortable at first, using them should not be a problem due to the empty space between the key rows. The tactile response is very good and comparable with that on the W880.

SE K810 and SE K800

The soft and navigation keys are hard to press and almost without response, while the joystick can be uncomfortable because it has pretty small area around it and bigger fingers may not be able to push it to the left or the right for example.

An improvement when working with the camera is the addition of shortcut keys - the left column (which is bottom row in landscape) has blue characters indicating what the function of each key is. In picture taking mode, the short-cuts can adjust the focus, picture size, timer and flash. The keys are not-programmable, so their function cannot be chanted.

In video capture mode, the short-cuts backlit is off, but the #4 and #7 keys still function as allow image stabilization and focus adjustment.
The two keys above the display also have that blue backlight and act as camera shortcuts.

Sony Ericsson K810 is the first Cyber-shot phone to have PhotoFix functionality, which when was under development was called BestPic. The option allows to automatic brightness and contrast adjustment on images, which is standard functionally or most image editing software packages. This is the first time such an option is part of the phone's software itself, rather then an option in post-image manipulation.

Effect of image editing

Unfortunately, we found the implementation of the feature to be very flawed and we let K810 product manager know. The issue is that PhotoFix is not an automatic feature, but an option in the camera menus. First of all, it is very hard to notice over or under exposed images on the phone's small screen and that is why similar functionality is part of the computer software packages. Even if the user notices that the image is overexposed (too bright), he has to go to a menu and select PhotoFix which will in turn adjust the brightness. It would have been a lot easier as we pointed out to Sony Ericsson, PhotoFix to be turned on or off via a menu, and activated on every single shot taken automatically.

PhoneFix performance is nothing exceptional, and similar results can be accomplished with any computer based software.

The User Interface and actual software on the K810 is what can be seen on the K550 or the W880 devices (expect the Walkman music player) and is pretty standard. The response times were very good, without any noticeable lag when switching menus.

Overall, the new K810 is a good next step for the Sony Ericsson and their Cyber-Shot line. In our 3.2-mega pixel camera test, the K800 shared the first spot with Samsung D900, and the new K810 will perform similarly well. We only expect to high resolution, but from what we heard during the pre-3GSM SE press event, the company priority is not to increase its camera resolutions any time soon.

Sony Ericsson K810 Video

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K550 compared to K810

K550 is mid-range quad-band GSM Cyber-shot phone with features similar to the K750. Its camera is 2-megapixel unit, with active lens cover which was hard to open.

Similar to the W880, the keys of the K550 are also with metal look but are not round. The narrow rectangular keys, depending on the person who tested them, were found comfortable or not. Still we valued the separation space between them, which makes mistakes less likely to occur.

The volume keys located on the right side are very flush and almost impossible to find without glancing at them and during a call, we think they would be hard to locate.

Instead of a joystick, the navigation is accomplished via a 5-way key which actually looks similar to a joystick. It is very comfortable to press it up and down (the key is raised in those directions) but left and right keys are hard to press, due to its small size. We are not happy to see that the shortcuts to the Internet and to "My Shortcuts" menu are very hard to press, which makes them almost impossible to use. Hopefully in production models those will be improved.

Sony Ericsson K550 Video

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SE W880

Sony Ericsson W880 is the slimmest phone of the manufacturer - one of the Sony Ericsson's most talked about models. Part of the Walkman series, the W880 offers excellent functionality in slim design. It measures only 0.4" (9mm) in thickness, despite which still offers excellent feature set including 2-mega pixel camera, 240x320 pixel display and UMTS.

The small metal keys are very similar to those used in K550 and W610, but are actually shorter and with better tactile response and overall performance. We again did not like the navigation pad, which has easy to feel up and down direction, but almost unnoticeable left and right ones. Missing are the standard volume keys usually located on the right side. In order to adjust the volume, the user will have to do it during a call via the d-pad.

W880 Interface

The UI is identical to the one used in W610 and W550 (only the camera interface is different). The Walkman software installed is considered version 2.0 but still is almost identical to the original one. New is the TrackID software, which after 10 seconds recording of music will connect to a central database via any available data channel (GPRS/EDGE/UMTS) and will spit out the artist's name, album and song title and offers to send it via SMS. During out testing though, probably due to network congestion, the TrackID failed to get an answer from the server and timed-out about four or five times. We can give our final verdict only after a longer testing, which will happen when we get the device for a review.

One of the biggest shortcomings of the W880 is the tri-band only GSM support. In other words, do not expect it to be released in the US by any carrier.

Sony Ericsson W880 Video

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W610

The W610 is mid-tier Walkman device, with similar to K550 design. It lacks though the active lens cover of the K550, as it considered music and not picture oriented.

Its numeric keys are identical in design to the ones of K550, while the soft keys are semi-round in shape, and hard to press.

Thankfully, the W610 actually does have a volume keys on the side, but they are flush and very hard to notice by touch. It is weight that unlike them, the camera key is actually raised, which makes having flush volume keys pointless.

A 2-mega pixel camera is positioned on the back, with two LED lights and self-mirror. The rest of the features of the quad-band GSM W610 include mediocre 176x220 display, EDGE data, FM Radio and POP3/IMAP email support.

Sony Ericsson W610 Video

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SE K200

K200 is a budget model with low price but still someone stylish appeal. Available in white or black pearl colors, it comes with transparent keypad and blue backlight. Although both separate rows and columns are raised, you will hardly feel the keys without looking at them.

The software and navigation keys are pretty awful as they are not raised and are hard to press. The navigation key is 4-way only and lacks central "confirm" position. The K220 is FM-Radio capable version of the K200. Even they are low-class phones, they look attractive and fingerprints are hardly noticed on them.

Being an entry-level phone, both K220 and K200 will have dual-band US (850/1900 MHz) version and European one.

Sony Ericsson K200 Video