Sony Ericsson C902

The Sony Ericsson C902 is the latest Cybershot from Sony Ericsson and the first of the ‘C’ series Cybershot phones. It is, in a way, the forerunner to the much awaited C905 - The first 8.1 MP camera phone from Sony Ericsson. Yet it does manage to hold out its own and has created a decent fan following. It takes over from the K850i which was moderately successful but was dogged down by many controversies and finally defeated by the Nokia N82 which reigned supreme in the 5 MP category. It aims to compete with the Samsung G600 and the Nokia N82 and the upcoming Nokia N96 and Motorola Zine ZN5. It is slim, sleek and light and has a very simple yet stylish design. It is officially, the slimmest 5 MP cam phone to date. In this review, we check out its features, its pros and cons, and whether it does manage to please its targetted audience - the cam junkies.

Sony Ericsson C902 Specifications:

• Dimensions : 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
• Weight : 107 gms
• Display : 2.0″ TFT, 256K Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera : 5 MP Cam (2592 x 1944 px) with LED Flash, Auto Focus, Image Stabilizer, Secondary
• videocall cam
• Memory : 160 MB Internal memory
• Connectivity : GPRS Class 32, EDGE Class 10, 3G HSDPA, USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Price : $480 (Approx)

Other Key Features:
8 camera touch keys, Java MIDP 2.0, FM radio with RDS, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player, TrackID music recognition

Design and Display

The Sony Ericsson C902 scores rather high on the design front. At dimensions of 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm, it is a sleek, slim and stylish phone. It does weigh slightly more relative to its dimensions - about 107 gms. It has a normal candybar form factor and is encased in a metal body. It has a glossy finish in the front faces which adds to its style.

The display is a characteristic Sony Ericsson - 2.0″ TFT, 256K colors with a resolution of 240 x 320 px. Sony Ericsson desperately needs to improve it’s device displays and add bigger, better displays with more colors. Coming back to the C902, the display is nothing impressive, just the normal type. What does impress, are the 8 touch sensitive camera keys add to the sides of the display. They can be used to switch between and adjust many settings like gallery, autofocus, shoot modes, timers and flash mode. The display is good with optimum brightness and contrast, nice vibrant colors and good sunlight legibility.

The keypad feels a bit crowded with the keys thrown in very close to each other. It is a standard Sony Ericsson keypad, with a D Pad, soft keys, ‘Call’ and ‘End’ keys. THe keypad has rather subtle backlighting which makes the corner keys slightly illegible, but that shouldn’t matter much as you get used to the keypad. On the left side of the phone is the Universal port, while the right side sports the dedicated Camera key and the Volume rocker. On the back, there is the 5 MP camera with flash hiding beneath the sliding cover.

OS and Interface features

The C902 sports the usual Sony Ericsson Firmware based OS with the familiar, simple yet effective interface found in all Sony Ericsson phones, spiced up with some new features. It sports a changed menu structure which can be changed to three layouts - Grid, Rotating and Single Icon views. The interface has had quite a few visual improvements with new animations and effects. It has cooler menu transitions and icon effects, overall a much refined and responsive interface. It also sports a highly improved camera interface with 8 new touch sensitive camera buttons to access advanced camera settings.

Camera and Multimedia

It is commendable as to how Sony Ericsson fitted a 5 MP cam in that 10.5 mm slim body, even after doing away with the Xenon flash that is a must in all camera phones. The highlight of the C902 - the camera performs well with awesome shots, low noise levels and nice crisp images with accurate color reproduction. It has many advanced features like face detection, image and video stabilizer, BestPic, auto-rotate, macro mode and more. All of these can be adjusted using the 8 new touch sensitive camera buttons which are active only in camera mode. They are also useful for accessing the photo gallery and adjusting the autofocus mode, shoot mode, scenes, timer and flash mode.

It can record video at QVGA resolutions at 30 FPS, which is a bit of a letdown considering that the N82 and many other new phones can easily do VGA at 30 FPS. The PhotoFlash LED performs good, but nowhere near a Xenon Flash. The addition of the LED flash also helps in conserving the battery life considerably. The C902 sports the new improved Cybershot v2.0 interface which is quite efficient and provides access to almost all of the camera features. The bulit-in accelerometer automatically auto rotates the images when the phone is tilted. The face detection works as expected. It is a capable camera phone, the presence of a Xenon Flash would only have added to its list of features. The BestPic feature automatically takes 9 pics in quick succession so you can choose the best among them. The image stabilizer prevents blurred pics in low light conditions.

Photos, Music and Videos can be accessed from the Media Center menu. The flash based interface simply rocks. It has a new addition though, a Games section. You get the NFS Pro Street game bundled with the phone. It can be controlled using both the D Pad and the accelerometer. Sony Ericsson is trying to sell it as a complete entertainment device. The C902 also supports TV out. It also has a standard FM Radio with RDS support and Auto Scan to automatically search and save radio stations. The Music player supports the standard TrackID feature allowing you to identify songs and download them. The gallery includes a Picture editor and blogging support. The Music Interface can be set to Auto Rotate, Portrait or Landscape.

Other Features

The C902 features many connectivity options like Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0. It also has GPRS, EDGE, 3G but no WLAN. However we are not complaining as it isn’t expected in media centric phones anyways but again most of its competitors do have Wi-Fi. It has a 930 mAh Li-ion battery which delivers about 8 hrs of talktime and lasts about 2 days or more with moderate usage.

It comes bundled with a charger, earphones, a USB data cable, a connectivity CD, the use manual and a 2 GB M2 card.

Pros

• Great Design and Build Quality
• Good Battery
• Great Cam & Music playback

Cons

• Rather Expensive
• No Xenon Flash
• No Wi-Fi

Final Words

The Sony Ericsson C905 is a good buy for those looking for a great camera phone with similar music capabilities all packed together in a small footprint. But it isn’t able to better the Nokia N82 which we still consider a better option to any other 5 MP phone. It maybe lose out a bit in features but makes up for it in style and design. It is a decent buy, though if you already have a K850, we wouldn’t advise you to upgrade.

Rating : 3.9 / 5.

Top 5 iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G has just released and we have reviewed it already. It is a great phone but definitely not the best out there. We take a look at some phones which, while priced similarly to the iPhone, have many features that are much better than the iPhone 3G. They can easily kick the iPhone 3G’s ass in a one to one face off. So here we present the devices, that we think, can dethrone the iPhone to become the king of smartphones. All these phones have all the regular features like calling, messaging, email, high speed web browsing etc, so we won’t be elaborating much on those points. We will highlight and compare just those features which are in direct contrast to the iPhone. All these devices will be releasing, hopefully, by the end of 2008. All new phones now have accelerometers, touchscreens and other sensors, all thanks to the iPhone. Do note that the devices are in no particular order.

Side note: The iPhone 3G has changed the history of mobile phone development and set the path for constant innovation. Its Multi Touch UI is its biggest asset. It was so cool and innovative, that even after a year of the iPhone’s release, no manufacturer has been able to beat it in terms of user interface capabilities. However even after the release of the iPhone 3G, it still has some very stupid shortcomings like - no video recording, no cut paste abilities, no MMS, no A2DP, no Flash support etc.

Top 5 iPhone 3G Killers

• Samsung Omnia i900 :

The creators of the Omnia i900 at Samsung definitely had the iPhone 3G as a target in mind when they made the Omnia i900. Whatever features the iPhone lacks in, the Omnia makes up for it in the best possible way. It is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and sports an iPhone esque Multi Touch interface - Touch Wiz. Though it is not as refined as the iPhone Multi Touch UI, it does come very close. It sports a superb 5MP cam and has everything that the iPhone does not - Flash, Video recording ( VGA at 15 FPS & QVGA at 30 FPS ), FM with RDS, A2DP. The audio quality is close in line with the iPhone 3G. Being a Windows Mobile phone, it offers a greater variety of softwares and games. It offers up to 8 GB expandable memory compared to iPhone 3G’s 8 / 16 GB.

• HTC Touch Pro :

The HTC Touch Pro is the most powerful and feature packed phone ever on Earth. It sports 288 MB RAM, coupled with a very powerful 528 MHZ processor. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and features a very cool User Interface - TouchFLO 3D which is just as good as the iPhone’s UI. In addition it features many more softwares and games from the Windows Mobile stable. The 3.2 MP Cam with AF & Flash is much better than iPhone’s 2 MP Cam. It supports CIF ( 352*288 ) Video recording at 30 FPS. It comes with a QWERTY keypad too which slides under the back of the phone. It combines style (Multi Touch) with usability (QWERTY) and is much more suited for office executives.

• Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 :

The Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 is a slightly underpowered clone of the HTC Touch Pro. It marks Sony Ericsson’s foray into Windows Mobile phones. It is slimmer and lighter than the HTC Touch Pro and with a supposedly inferior UI. It sports 256 MB RAM, a little lesser than the Touch Pro. It has a 3.2 MP Cam too, with Auto Focus, Flash and VGA Video recording at 30 FPS. The other features are almost same as the Touch Pro which mean that it pretty much pawns the iPhone 3G except in the UI department. The QWERTY keyboard is much more comfortable when typing, compared to a virtual onscreen keyboard.

• Nokia N96 :

The Nokia N96, though not a touchscreen phone, has everything you could ever expect from a phone. A superb 5 MP cam with Auto Focus and Flash, Video recording - VGA at 30 FPS, 16 GB Internal memory, A-GPS, a DVB - H receiver, a Dual ARM 9 CPU, 128 MB RAM, a brilliant 2.8″ 16M color screen - the list just doesn’t end. It is powered by Symbian s60 V3.2 OS v9.3 - The most popular smartphone OS ever. It has huge 3rd party application support, second only to perhaps Windows Mobile. It has the most user friendly interface in smartphones. Even though it doesnt have Multi Touch, it easily surpasses the iPhone in terms of its easy to use UI. It is going to be the flagship Nokia smartphone and packs enough power to kill the iPhone 3G. The UI with the iPhone 3G comparison is subjective. Its Webkit based inbuilt OSS browser and Opera mobile are just as good as Apple OS X’s safari and even beats it in some aspects.

• Sony Ericsson C905 :

The C905 is Sony Ericsson’s latest and greatest Cybershot. It will have a mind boggling; yea, hold your breath, 8.1 MP Super Cam with AF, Flash, VGA Video recording at 30 FPS and the likes. It is the best camera phone ever and gets precariously close to digicam territory. Taking awesome pictures is in its genes. It has 128 MB internal memory and theoretically supports up to 32 GB. It has all the other regular stuff like 3G, A-GPS, Geo tagging, WLAN, Bluetooth with A2DP etc. Like the Nokia N96, this one also doesn’t sport a touchscreen, but WTH! , does one need Multi Touch with all such features packed in?

And Re-introducing the current nemesis of the iPhone 3G,

• The HTC Touch Diamond :

The HTC Touch Diamond is the current reigning iPhone 3G ass kicker. It will soon be surpassed by its successor, the HTC Touch Pro. It has similar features to the HTC Touch Pro - Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro + Touch FLO 3D, except that it doesnt have the QWERTY keypad and has less RAM - just about 192 MB. The only negatives with the Touch Diamond are the absence of a QWERTY keypad and the slightly laggy Touch FLO 3D user interface. You can check out the here.

Sony Ericsson W960

Sony Ericsson W960 takes a Walkman series to a completely new level and offers a wide range of exciting new features. W960 was announced by Sony Ericsson some time back amidst much fanfare and it generated a lot of hype but its launch came only recently. A big display with touchscreen support, Symbian OS, WiFi,8GB space, you will find all these under one roof : Sony Ericsson W960!

Sony Ericsson W960 specifications :

• Dimensions : 109 x 55 x 16 mm
• Weight : 119 g
• Display : 2.6″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Storage capacity : 8GB
• 128MB RAM
• 3.15 Megapixel camera with autofocus
• GPRS and 3G enabled
• WiFi 802.11b
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• Symbian OS 9.1, UIQ 3.0
• Approx. Price : $650

The specifications sheet of the W960 is truly amazing and it features almost every feature except for EDGE which is a bit of disappointment. The W960 has many characteristics found in Sony Ericsson P1i such as same processor, same amount of RAM etc. but it is essentially a successor to Sony Ericsson W950 which did not gain much popularity.

Design and Display

The W960 has got good looks and its dimensions also also small. The weight stands at a relatively low 119 g almost same as its predecessor. On the front panel you will find only the standard keys along with the big 2.6″ touchscreen display. The front camera and earpiece are above the display. But the fun starts when you get to know that there are a bunch of touch sensitive keys below the display which activate when Music Player is opened. The Jog dial is on the left side along with stylus holder. The right side is pretty much standard with the volume keys and the camera shutter key. The back panel hold the 3.2 megapixel camera which comes with dual flash and Sony has provided nice finishing to the setup.

The display on the W960 is a 2.6″ TFT touch sensitive screen having a resolution of 240 x 320. The display supports 262K colors and has good visibility under sunlight. The contrast and saturation levels are although not upto the mark and do not bring out the crispness in the display clarity. The keypad is very ergonomic and comfortable to use and the backlighting complements the phone color nicely.

Symbian OS and Web Browser

The W960 comes loaded with Symbian OS 9.1 which is base of the UIQ 3.0 interface. It offers a whole lot of customisation options and also gives you the liberty to install 3rd party softwares apart from Java. The home screen itself brings the fact to life that this phone is a Walkman phone as you see a shortcut of Music player right is middle of the screen!

Apart from regulars like clock,battery,signal, the home screen offers you with a shortcut bar on which you can stuff upto 15 shortcuts. The home screen also is capable to displaying the visualisations associated with a music track which you would find only accessible through music player.

You find two pop-ups on the home screen for navigating you through the menus. The more softkey offers you the various connectivity options ,task manager, ring volume and other such stuff. The other triangular softkey gives access to more important tasks such as call management, contact management, organiser stuff etc. The options have been neatly organised and it is an ease to browse through them.

Opera Mobile 8.0 is the bundled browser with the phone. It is certainly one of the best you will find in mobile devices. It renders pages perfectly and is fast. It has support ranging from HTML,XHTML,CSS to Javascript,CSS,TSL and SSL. It has got all the armours in its kitty to make it a successful browser. Naturally the browsing experience is good on the phone!

Music Player and Camera

Music Player is a strong point of the phone which comes as no surprise. The touch sensitive multimedia keys on the display come in handy while operating the player. The interface on the player is very user-friendly and a fun to work with. Apart from custom playlists, the player hold the ability to create autoplaylists based on genre,latest addition,year,most played etc which is useful more often than not. The background visualisation really mesmerize you and you would keep gazing at them!

The speaker sound quality is soft but soothing. The bass is present but is limited. Overall the speaker is good only for casual listening while alone in a quite room. But Sony has compensated for that by providing a stereo Bluetooth headset which makes use of A2DP feature of the phone. You can plug in your own earphones too in it!

The Sony Ericsson W960 is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera compared to no camera in the W950. Landscape mode is the default mode for capturing pictures and videos. The toolbar at the bottom contains all the settings options for the camera. You get a dedicated macro mode in the autofocus settings. Some other manual settings include fixed focus, exposure control, white balance and the preset modes to choose from.

The camera quality of the W960 is very good and the pictures turn out pretty. The contrast and sharpness are upto the mark and the unit produces images better than Sony Ericsson P1i. The video quality is also good but is limited to 15fps at QVGA resolution. 30fps at QCIF resolution isn’t worth mentioning for its quality.

Pros :

• Touch sensitive display
• Excellent music player
• Great camera
• Symbian OS
• 8GB storage space
• WiFi enabled

Cons :

• Slows down when 8GB filled up
• No EDGE support
• No VGA video recording

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson W960 is an excellent offering from Sony Ericsson and is surely bound to make some Nokia users turn its way. It offers unmatched features when compared to other Sony Ericsson phones. The excellent music player coupled with great camera is what will draw most users towards it. It you want a touchscreen phone will all the features then get this one.

My Rating : 4.25/5

Top 10 Mobiles

Cellphones are released everyday but only few survive the fight to live long in the hands of the consumer! There have been many exciting cellphones that have been released off-late that not only take functionality to a new level but also add a lot of glamor to one’s personality. I have reviewed the best cellphones across various categories and I will list them all here to help you compare them and help you make your decision easier!

1. Nokia N95 8GB

The complete multimedia device with all the looks that money can buy! It has everything ranging from 5 megapixel camera to 8GB internal memory. The phones excels at imaging and multimedia tasks and the big 2.8″ screen is sheer pleasure to work with . WiFi,GPS,3G, this phone has it all. The phone is a fast performer and has all the ingredients that make it a ‘mini-computer’.

2. Nokia N82

The Nokia N82 is a bar phone and is very much similar to the N95, but it has a few more tricks up its sleeve. The phone is a first from Nokia to feature Xenon flash which delivers amazing performance in night shots and can be considered as a replacement to entry level digital cameras in the market.Average looks do not go well with its personality but that will change when the all black Nokia N82 comes out soon.

3. Sony Ericsson W960

This one is revolutionary phone from Sony Ericsson and has loads of features starting from touchscreen to a 3.2 megapixel camera. The device excels at playing music as well as taking great images.8GB internal memory is an added advantage along with integration of WiFi. All in all it is great device and being Symbian it will attract lot of Nokia users also.

4. LG Viewty KU990

A LG phone made it to the list! The phone takes the imaging in cellphones to a new era with support for VGA recording at 30fps which is really cool and the images taken are also amazing. The interface on the phone is flash based and different from the rest and is operated through the stylus or your fingers. TV-out support also comes with this cellphone. A ‘different’ phone that sets it apart from the crowd.

5. Sony Ericsson P1i

P1i is an excellent offering from Sony Ericsson in the PDA department. Sony Ericsson has always come out with great Pocket PC devices and here is yet another example. The device manages to get almost all the things right. A 3.2 megapixel camera does a good job at imaging but lacks in the video department. Handwriting recognition , Symbian UIQ 9.1 OS , WiFi are some of the nifty features of the P1i. It is one the best Pocket PC devices and absolutely worth buying.

6. Apple iPhone

Apple has done a remarkably good job on its first cellphone it introduced in the market. The device has generated a lot of hype and interest all over the word and selective availability has resulted in ‘unlocked’ versions selling all over the world. A lot has changed with the device after a series of firmware upgrades and various annoying restrictions were removed. But what set the nail on the head was the announcement of the iPhone-SDK that sets the path for development of 3rd party Apps on the device which will take the experience to a new level. All of you would already know about its features like Multi-Touch, huge 3.5″ display, accelerometer etc. It is the device with the highest flaunt value and increasing functionality!

7. HTC Touch Cruise

A strong competitor to the Sony Ericsson Pi1 , the phone is an improved version of the HTC Touch which had a few drawbacks. TouchFLO interface is fun to work with and makes navigation easier. Camera quality is not a strong point of the phone and display also could have been a bit better. Otherwise there are no drawbacks with this device and performs all the tasks a PocketPC can with utter smoothness.

8. Nokia N81 8GB

This device is aimed at music lovers who do not want to compromise on music quality. Apart from being a music phone the N81 is also a gaming device and belongs to the Nokia N-Gage gaming platform. The display is breathtaking and will leave you spellbound. NaviWheel is another great invention by Nokia. Inbuilt 8GB memory will never hurt. Bulky weight and average keypad are its only deterrents.

9. Sony Ericsson K850i

Sony Ericsson has done a great job by integrating almost a lot of features in this phone. Although the display is not big but you get a plethora of features like GPRS,EDGE,3G, 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash,motion sensor etc. WiFi is one thing which you will miss in this phone.Motion sensor is a cool feature aka. accelerometer of iPhone. The 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash paves the way for great imaging experience. Sound quality is another strong point. Only if it has symbian!

10. Sony Ericsson W910

Looks are of prime importance with this phone. Big display, good keypad, extremely thin, new Walkman 3.0 player are some of the positive points of this phone. Camera is not a strong point of this phone.The speakers are pretty loud and ShakeControl and ShakeMe are excellent additions. The phone also comes with a good accessory bundle. There are other phones with better functionality but they don’t look as sexy as W910!

Sony Ericsson W910

Sony Walkman series has a new member in its family: The Sony Ericsson W910. The Walkman series takes music in cellphones to a new level and sets benchmarks for other phone manufacturers to follow.W910 brings in lot of hardware and software front along with gorgeous looks that also won it the handset of the year award from the Mobile World Congress at the Global Mobile Awards.

Sony Ericsson W910 specifications:

• Dimensions: 99 x 50 x 12.5 mm
• Weight: 86g
• Display: 2.4″ QVGA resolution
• GRPS,EDGE,3G
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• 2 MP camera
• FM radio with RDS
• Motion Sensor
• Approx. price: 400$

The large display combined with sexy looks makes this mobile a strong competitor against Nokia slider phones which are not so popular among users.Sony Ericsson it seems like as if it has got most things right in this mobile.The packaging includes the standard accessories like charger,USB data cable,2GB M2 Memory Stick,installation CD and manuals.A new accessories included in the package is a M2 card reader which does come in handy as it works without the need to install the PC suite.

Design,Display and Keypad

The phone has been made from a highly refined material which shows naturally when you hold it in your hands.Although it is a slider phone but it is surprisingly thin at 12.5 mm.The phone fits perfectly into the hand and has a nice grip.Below the huge display are the dedicated call and end keys along with other navigation keys.Light sensor has strangely been placed besides the right soft key.The slide open reveals the alphanumeric keypad which is very ergonomic and a boon for SMS junkies.The keypad lighting looks spectacular at night.The weight of the phone at just 86g makes it light on your pocket.

The large 2.4″ display is an improvement both in size and clarity over previous Sony Ericsson phone like Sony Ercisson K850.The display has ample brightness and contrast.Also it has fair amount of visibility in sunlight though it does not come close to Nokia phones in this matter.

The keypad as I already mentioned is top-notch and is almost flawless.The surface of keypad is absolutely flat but that in no ways affects your typing speed.The keypad has high responsiveness and gentle tapping of keys is enough to make them respond.

Interface,Loudspeaker and Shake Control

The interface on the phone is a mix of old and new.Though the basic navigation system remains the same, SE has made it more refreshing.Flash themes are also supported now on the device.We get to see the brand new Walkman 3.0 music player.Also features like auto rotate are slowly making way onto SE phones.The interface is still as fast as has been the case with other SE phones always.

The loudspeaker has very high level of volume and you won’t miss a call even on a busy trafficway! We will get to sound quality of the music files later.The speaker has taken the competition to a new level.

An amazing new feature developed by SE is Shake Control. Shake Control detects the movement of your hand is a particular direction and responds to it in an appropriate manner.For example in music player flicking your hand either left or right will make the phone go back to previous track or next track respectively.Shake Control can also be used during gaming and hence you can experience the “Wii” fun!!

Camera and Music Player

The camera is a downpoint of this phone.Lack of autofocus and flash is a major disappointment.Also 2 MP camera and 15fps video recording mar the experience further. The camera is controlled by the Cyber-shot SE v2.0 application which is excellent and has immense options to play around with but unfortunately you would not make much out of it through this camera.The photo quality is poor and has very less details.Lack of flash makes the camera useless in low lights.The video recording isn’t any better at 15fps.The secondary camera is good when compared with other secondary cameras.

The phone supports the MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC +, WAV, WMA, M4A and MIDI file formats.The player has preset equalisers including the MegaBass equaliser.Thats for the usual part.But another new application that makes it debut is SenseMe.What this application does it basically sort your music tracks based on your mood that is directly related to tempo of the tracks.But for this to work you have to make use of Media manager which is much slower compared to direct transfers.The audio quality of the phone is breathtaking and it justifies the Walkman tag that has been bestowed upon it.

Browsing and Organiser

Browsing on a 2.4″ screen is brilliant.The sites turn out very well but you will not have much options to play around with as the bundled browser ie. NetFront 3.4 can not be compared to likes of Opera Mini.

The organiser has almost all the standard functions such as ,Alarms, Applications, File manager,Video call, Tasks, Notes, Synchronization, Calendar,Timer, Stopwatch, Calculator, and Code memo.The Alarm has good customization options and you can also play around with Calendar with adding tasks and scheduling them.MusicDJ, VideoDJ, TrackID and voice recorder sum up some of the other applications under the organiser.

Pros:

• Large Display
• Good Keypad
• Extremely thin
• High volume speaker
• Shake Control and ShakeMe
• Walkman 3.0
• M2 USB card reader bundled

Cons:

• Bad Camera
• Overpriced
• Shaky Sliding mechanism
• Non-Symbian

Final Thoughts

SE W910 offers exceptional music playing capability.The large screen and great keypad combined with gorgeous looks make it a deadly combination.The bad camera is a big disappointment and this will seriously hamper the sales of this otherwise brilliant phone. ShakeControl and ShakeMe features are excellent additions to the device.M2 card reader was a good addition to the package.Buying this phone if you don’t use cellphones for imaging tasks else looks out for other options.

My rating: 3.5/5

The Sony Ericsspn K850i

Sony’s Cybershot series is well known for its excellent camera quality.Sony released quite a few Sony Cybershot phones some time ago and they take inbuilt camera imaging ability to a new level. 5 megapixel cameras are becoming the norm these days.Sony Ericsson K850i is a 5 megapixel phone thats is glamorous and stylish.This phone gives competition to the likes of N95 and N81 but it loses out to them as the former are powered by symbian OS.

Sony Ericsson K850i specifications:

• Dimensions: 102 x 48 x 17 mm
• Display: 2.2″ QVGA resolution
• 40 MB inbuilt memory
• GPRS,EDGE,3G,Bluetooth with A2DP
• 5 Megapixel camera,Xenon flash
• FM Radio with RDS
• Motion Sensor

The specifications of the camera are just awesome but it would have been great if Sony had incorporated WiFi capability.A cool feature to look out for is motion sensor.This phone not only is a major addition to the Cybershot series but to Sony Ericsson series as well.

Design and Keypad

The design is one of the most eye catching feature of this phone.The phone has rounded corners and has a completely new redesigned D-pad which adds a lot more functionality to the phone.The four way navigation key has been added around the buttons which is an innovative idea as it saves space and gives way for a larger screen without making the phone’s dimensions bigger.A set of three soft keys have been placed just below the display.Also dedicated call and end keys are there.The back lighting on the keypad looks brilliant at light.

The battery,SIM and memory card insertion into the phone has become an ease due to introduction of push-to-eject mechanism.And good thing is that the card slot can read both M2 as well as cheaper microSD cards. The top of the phone has ON/OFF key which also acts as a profile switcher.Dedicated camera keys are rare on a mobile phone but this one features them saying lengths about work put into the camera department of this phone.The ergonomics are top class in this phone and that not only includes the keypad ergonomics but the phone ergonomics and general, though it will take some time to get used to the new layout of the buttons.

Display and Interface

The 2.2″ display is crystal clear and has a improved levels of brightness and contrast and so are the saturation levels.Also in direct sunlight the visibility is quite good but not comparable to its Nokia counterparts.

The interface has got a new look and it refreshing on the eyes.The interface has a Media center and flash lite theme support.Flight mode is not supported by the phone.Multi-tasking is possible on the phone which has been a grudge with user for a long time.The TrackID feature is supported which is exclusive to SE phones.

Camera and Music Playback

The 5 megapixel camera has Xenon flash with autofocus and automatic lens cover.The camera application interface has been completely rehauled and resembles the T-series of its Cybershot digital cameras.The Xenon flash is powerful and this boost the phone’s capability in low light conditions.Upto ISO400 is available and there are various other options to play around with which include AF light,picture quality,stabiliser,digital zoom etc.The picture quality is excellent and comparable to both N95 and the N81.Video recording at 30fps at QVGA resolution is a delight.

The music playback has not been compromised but instead it has been enhanced with the inclusion of Music Player 3.0.The supported audio formats include MP3, AAC, and AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, WMA, M4A and MIDI.The sound quality is very good but the bundled earphones are top notch.Music playback is enhanced by lighting effects.The motion sensor is another cool feature which detects rotation of screen to adjust the display.

Pros:

• Excellent 5 MP camera
• Good display
• Xenon flash
• Good ergonomics
• Motion sensor
• Great sound quality

Cons:

• Not symbian
• No WiFi
• Prone to fingerprints
• High learning curve

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsspn K850i is revolutionary in itself.The phones manages to bundle almost all features and make use of them efficiently.The phone gives serious competition N95 and N81. The excellent camera combined with great music playback makes it a hit with general consumers but symbian addicts will definitely skip this one.Its time for Sony Ericsson lovers to upgrade!

Sony Ericsson P1i

Smartphones are the obvious choice when buying a cellphone but not many of us prefer PDAs in that category.But that might change with Sony Ericsson P1i which combines functionality and also fulfills downsides that older PDAs have. Sony Ericsson is expert at manufacturing excellent PDAs which put their Nokia counterparts to shame.

Have a look at its specs:

• Dimensions: 106 x 55 x 17 mm
• Weight : 124 gms
• 2.6″ Display 240 x 320 resolution
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3.2 MP Camera with Autofocus
• GPRS, HSCSD,3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11b
• Bluetooth v2.0 ,Infrared
• Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0

What sets this PDAs a league ahead of the other PDAs is the integration a high resolution camera which you do not see in a PDA along with its light weight. A 512MB Memory Stick M2 micro card comes with the package along with other standard accessories like stylus,stereo headset etc.

The P1i comes with a silver body which sports a large 2.6″ TFT screen.The VGA camera for video calls has been placed at left top.The keyboard is a new design with each key able to type two different characters depending on whether you pust it left or right which saves saves and also makes it a QWERTY keyboard.The memory card slot and camera key are placed on the right side of the phone.The speaker is at the back on top of the camera which has dual LED flash. All in all P1i feels nice and comfortable to use.

Display and Keyboard

The 2.6″ display having QVGA resolution is quite good but not as good as some of the Nokia displays.The performance of the display takes a beating in direct sunlight and it becomes tough to use.The color saturation is fine though.

The keyboard which is one of its kind although does save space but is nowhere near a full QWERTY keyboard and is not ergonomic and it will take you time before you get used to it.A regular keyboard or a full QWERTY would have been better in my opinion.

Camera,Music Player and OS

The camera quality is above average and produces good enough images for printing when sufficient light is available for shooting. The macro mode does its job well. The camera interface is not as responsive as the one found in Cybershot models of Sony Ericsson phones. The downside of the camera is it video recording capabilities as they turn out to be grainy and 15fps do not do justice to them.

The music player is same as ones found on Walkman series phones and hence offers full functionality.The loudspeaker sound quality is respectable for a PDA.The bundled earphones are not great and also you can’t plug in your choice of earphones as it does not have a 3.5 mm jack.Flipping through music tracks is a breeze with the jog dial button provided on the side.

UIQ 3.0 based on Symbian 9.1 OS has been used on the phone.The standby mode displays the standard clock,battery meter,signal strength and today screen which can be customized according to you.RAM management is very good and that helps in multi-tasking.The phonebook is very advanced and allows you to store extensive details about your contacts.

Web browser and Organizer

Opera Mini 8.0 has been used as the default browser on the phone which delivers excellent performance while surfing the net. It is capable of displaying various kinds of sites based on HTML,XHTML,JavaScript,CSS etc aptly. Surfing through web pages is fast but it gets bottlenecked as this phone is not EDGE compatible.

Notes and task applications allow you to makes short notes and schedule tasks respectively.Alarm clock is standard and does not offer any new functionality but does its job well. The calendar offers good functionality.You can store reminders for various kinds of events. Apart from these there are also many other settings that you can play around with.

Pros:

• 3.2 MP camera
• Good RAM Management
• Handwriting recognition
• WiFi enabled
• Crisp display

Cons:

• EDGE missing
• QWERTY keyboard not ergonomic
• No 3.5mm jack
• Bad Video recording capability

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson P1i is a big step forward in PDAs.It does most things perfectly.The keyboard was a disappointment and so were its video recording capabilities.The organizer is top-notch. Handwriting recognition adds to the yum. So if you are not too much concerned about the half-QWERTY keyboard nor the lack of EDGE then it is a perfect PDA for you.

Sony Ericsson P1i

Smartphones are the obvious choice when buying a cellphone but not many of us prefer PDAs in that category.But that might change with Sony Ericsson P1i which combines functionality and also fulfills downsides that older PDAs have. Sony Ericsson is expert at manufacturing excellent PDAs which put their Nokia counterparts to shame.

Have a look at its specs:

• Dimensions: 106 x 55 x 17 mm
• Weight : 124 gms
• 2.6″ Display 240 x 320 resolution
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3.2 MP Camera with Autofocus
• GPRS, HSCSD,3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11b
• Bluetooth v2.0 ,Infrared
• Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0

What sets this PDAs a league ahead of the other PDAs is the integration a high resolution camera which you do not see in a PDA along with its light weight. A 512MB Memory Stick M2 micro card comes with the package along with other standard accessories like stylus,stereo headset etc.

The P1i comes with a silver body which sports a large 2.6″ TFT screen.The VGA camera for video calls has been placed at left top.The keyboard is a new design with each key able to type two different characters depending on whether you pust it left or right which saves saves and also makes it a QWERTY keyboard.The memory card slot and camera key are placed on the right side of the phone.The speaker is at the back on top of the camera which has dual LED flash. All in all P1i feels nice and comfortable to use.

Display and Keyboard

The 2.6″ display having QVGA resolution is quite good but not as good as some of the Nokia displays.The performance of the display takes a beating in direct sunlight and it becomes tough to use.The color saturation is fine though.

The keyboard which is one of its kind although does save space but is nowhere near a full QWERTY keyboard and is not ergonomic and it will take you time before you get used to it.A regular keyboard or a full QWERTY would have been better in my opinion.

Camera,Music Player and OS

The camera quality is above average and produces good enough images for printing when sufficient light is available for shooting. The macro mode does its job well. The camera interface is not as responsive as the one found in Cybershot models of Sony Ericsson phones. The downside of the camera is it video recording capabilities as they turn out to be grainy and 15fps do not do justice to them.

The music player is same as ones found on Walkman series phones and hence offers full functionality.The loudspeaker sound quality is respectable for a PDA.The bundled earphones are not great and also you can’t plug in your choice of earphones as it does not have a 3.5 mm jack.Flipping through music tracks is a breeze with the jog dial button provided on the side.

UIQ 3.0 based on Symbian 9.1 OS has been used on the phone.The standby mode displays the standard clock,battery meter,signal strength and today screen which can be customized according to you.RAM management is very good and that helps in multi-tasking.The phonebook is very advanced and allows you to store extensive details about your contacts.

Web browser and Organizer

Opera Mini 8.0 has been used as the default browser on the phone which delivers excellent performance while surfing the net. It is capable of displaying various kinds of sites based on HTML,XHTML,JavaScript,CSS etc aptly. Surfing through web pages is fast but it gets bottlenecked as this phone is not EDGE compatible.

Notes and task applications allow you to makes short notes and schedule tasks respectively.Alarm clock is standard and does not offer any new functionality but does its job well. The calendar offers good functionality.You can store reminders for various kinds of events. Apart from these there are also many other settings that you can play around with.

Pros:

• 3.2 MP camera
• Good RAM Management
• Handwriting recognition
• WiFi enabled
• Crisp display

Cons:

• EDGE missing
• QWERTY keyboard not ergonomic
• No 3.5mm jack
• Bad Video recording capability

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson P1i is a big step forward in PDAs.It does most things perfectly.The keyboard was a disappointment and so were its video recording capabilities.The organizer is top-notch. Handwriting recognition adds to the yum. So if you are not too much concerned about the half-QWERTY keyboard nor the lack of EDGE then it is a perfect PDA for you.