Apr 11, 2007 07:42 PM
11759 Views
For people who have read my previous reviews on MS, you would have known my previous two Sony Ericssons were W550i & Z550i. Now I have switched over to a traditional candybar phone. My current options when I went to buy this mobile were Nokia 6300, Sony Ericsson K750i and K550i.
First of all K550i replaces the K750i as the Sony Ericsson's cybershot mid-range phone segment and is not be supposed to be the flagship phone which actually belongs to K790i / K800i / K810i . But the K550i is going to replace the soon to be phased out K750i, since both are almost similar(lets say 75%).
Build & Looks: I've never been a buyer for phone on looks .but the K550i is a Class Apart in this segment with its"Uber Cool"looks. The small metallic keys with blue backlight looks awkard but it has good tactile feel and its a joy to press. For users of K750i .there is no more joystick(so no joystick cleaning).but the keypad will get sometime to get used to.
Call Quality: When compared to K750i this phone is quad-band so you can take it to your travel to America whereas K750i was only a tri-band phone. The network reception and call quality was excellent. Speakerphone was good. Battery lasts for a talk time of 200 minutes.
User Interface:The first thing to be noticed is the a somewhat bigger font with rounded edges making it look pleasing for the eyes. The main menu and sub-menu options are almost same but they are noticeably quicker than K750i. Sending sms in the background, Video ringtones and a revmaped browser and media player makes it a better bet than K750i
Multimedia:The media player has been revamped but somewhat less in terms of Walkman media player of W610i. And one more thing that it lacks is Megabass which was found on the K750 and the current W610. But K550 has a stereo widening option which is not found in the K750. Video playback now supports playing files with resolution of 240 x 320 at 30 FPS.
Connectivity: A strong point of all Sony Ericsson mobiles has been its connectivity. This phone is no exception with USB 2.0 / Infrared & Bluetooth support. The bluetooth version has been upgraded from K750 and supports A2DP profile(in simple terms bluetooth stereo headphones can be used to wirelessly stream music). Now EDGE is present along with GPRS
Cybershot: As you slide out the active lens cover the phone switches to the cybershot camera mode. The interface resembles to a Sony Cybershot camera with lots of options to change the shooting modes, lighting, frames and effects. It has only digital zoom as with other Sony Ericssonphones it doesnt work in the highest resolution i.e at 2 Megapixels.
To conclude, overall the phone is a excellent package in the mid-end segment. Nokia 6300 gives this a close competition because of its QVGA screen. People looking forward to upgrading from a phone with VGA or 1.3 Mpx should definitely consider this phone
This is just a condensed review of my K550i.for a detailed review please do visit my blog https://vsoftsolutions.blogspot.com . This month is K550i in my Techie CockTail Blog.
