Features aplenty and good looks; does the K610i have what it takes to become Sony Ericsson's next smash hit? Join us as we venture to find out.
Review summary of the Sony Ericsson K610i:
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 The K610i is all about balance - the right kinds of features, ease of use and attractive looks. Basics such as voice/video calling and messaging perform with aplomb, while the camera is one of the best we've seen sans autofocus. Sadly, the omission of earphones, insufficient memory and limited music controls make for a poor music proposal out of the box, even though memory card expansion and stereo Bluetooth audio support enables a near-full rectification of this predicament for those willing to pay. Release: July 2006. Price: $300.
Pros:
Cons:
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Mediocre |
Good |
87%
VERY GOOD |
Excellent |
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Full Sony Ericsson K610i Review:
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Calling - Very good
As with other Sony Ericsson handsets, the K610i excels at calling with only minor niggles such as slightly-less-than ideal signal reception and video quality preventing a full score. Making and taking calls as well as managing a flurry of contact information is handled with aplomb, although phone-to-PC backups could have been handled better.
Offering 4 hours of talk time and 6,5 days of standby, the K610i isn't the longest-lived handset we've seen but still makes the cut and then some.
Camera - Very good
Although maxing out at 2 Megapixels and lacking autofocus, the camera of the K610i delivers very impressive stills - and expectedly poor video. Its easy-to-use interface and snappy handling are of particular note, while storage is plentiful and pictures are easily shared with friends and family through a variety of options.
Surprisingly, a burst mode for rapid-fire successive shots is also present, although any attempt to shoot action scenes will predictably result in a blurry mess.
Music - Good
It may not be Walkman branded, but the MP3 player of the K610i is in fact quite good - making its lack of earphones, the sparse amount of memory provided out-of-box and the lack of dedicated track skipping buttons all the more disappointing.
Still, enterprising users could do far worse than bring this particular handset up to par by purchasing a spacious memory card and a stereo Bluetooth headset to go along with its 15-hour play time.
Messaging - Very good
Among the best alternatives on the block as far as message handling is concerned, the K610i lets users quickly dispatch messages and see which ones have been replied to, storing up to 200 of the sort - although unfortunately not into folders for better overview.
Otherwise first-rate, its keypad stumbles slightly by dropping characters on occasion, and we're also disappointed that messages cannot be backed up to a PC.
Best of the rest
The remainder of the K610i's feature set could easily be summed up with the word 'decent', which applies to its landscape-enabled browser as much as it does to its Java-enabled gaming prowess and its ability to work as a laptop sidekick. The latter functions both over Bluetooth and USB and offers good battery life, although charging support is unfortunately not present.
Lastly, the K610i also throws in scheduling capabilities which aren't among the best we've seen but still make the cut.
Price and availability
The Sony Ericsson K610i is now available across Europe, selling in the €300 EUR range without subscription.
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