Preview: Sony Ericsson K750i

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	Home / Cell phones

	Preview: Sony Ericsson K750i	By Jørgen Sundgot, 1 March 2005

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Jørgen Sundgot gets hands on with Sony Ericsson's new 2-Megapixel marvel, the K750i imaging phone. Read on to share his first impressions.

It hasn't been more than a week and a half since this year's 3GSM World Congress ended; a mobility-focused show where Sony Ericsson enjoyed its rightful share of the spotlight as a result of unveiling the K600i and Z800i. Naturally, I assumed the handset maker's unveiling there meant they'd give it (and me) a rest until the CeBIT consumer electronics giga-show kicks off next week. Of course, I was wrong.

Having launched four brand spanking new handsets today, I had my chance to play with one of the two most coveted - the K750i. Essentially an upgrade to the company's existing K700i model, the K750 makes a giant leap forward in the camera department, boasting a 2 Megapixel version where the K700i's was an almost-too-embarassing-to-mention 0.3 Megapixel.

Not only did Sony Ericsson upgrade the resolution, however, it also improved on the photographic abilities available to users. Now boasting not only a night mode, white balance adjustment and the ability to shoot stills at several quality settings, the K750 comes equipped with auto focus and a macro mode. Both of these appeared to work flawlessly in the short amount of time I spent with the handset, and the resulting images proved to be of highly impressive quality - for a camera phone, that is.

But wait, I've got more praise to lavish. The 1.8", 262K colour screen of the K750i has been improved over that of the K700 and is now bright and clear to the point where it's almost bothersome, which can also be said about the handset's built-in photo light; the word torching comes to mind. Also, user interface is both graphically nice and easily navigated, and animations flow smoothly and effortlessly all along the way.

There's a hitch, however, and like with most other Sony Ericsson handsets it lies buried in the department of text input; the handset simply cannot keep up with rapid multi-tap texting. Fortunately, the keypad is well-designed, offering good tactile feedback; low audible noise; and a pleasantly dim white backlight to mitigate this. Also, the rounded joystick is rather comfortable.

So is the handset itself (comfortable, that is) when held due to good ergonomics, and it's reassuring to see that Sony Ericsson placed a sliding lens cover on the back of the handset which actually works whilst also allowing for quick access. It would have been nice to have the camera application start and close automatically in conjunction with the lens cover, though.

Weighing in at a mere 99 g and measuring 100 x 46 x 18 mm, Sony Ericsson has managed to pack an impressive brevity of features in such a small package. A tri-band GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz phone, the K750i disappointingly lacks EDGE, which it appears Sony Ericsson intends to skip altogether and go straight to 3G, but at least offers Bluetooth and Infrared for short-range connectivity.

For the music-inclined, the K750i offers an MP3/AAC player which can play back tunes both from the 38 MB of non-volatile internal memory and Memory Stick Duo storage cards, whilst other features worthy of mentioning include USB support, speakerphone capabilities and a vibrating alert.