Crystal clear display. Review on Sony Ericsson K700i

The Sony Ericsson K700i adds additional functionality to the popular and highly-rated T630 model. What's new in the K700i? Firstly, the VGA camera has been enhanced with a camcorder capability for recording videos. The TFT screen is 65,000 colours, like the T630, but it has been increased to nearly twice the size of the T630 - great for photos, videos and games.

Ring tones have been upgraded from 32-voice to 40-voice. There's also an integrated FM radio and MP3 player. Another improvement is the increased memory - at 41Mbytes, this is more than virtually any other phone on the market, and is ideal for storing photos, videos and music.

The brushed aluminum finish of the phone and the curved shape make for a very sexy image, and the phone definitely deserves 5 stars when it comes to looks.

Sony Ericsson claims that the K700i is ''as much a camera as it is a phone''. That's a bit of a wild claim, considering that the camera's resolution of 0.3 mega pixels is less than that of even the cheapest digital camera, however compared with other camera phones it's as good as most competitors. Let's not forget that Sony is one of the top 3 manufacturers of digital cameras.

The integrated camera can be activated in one click, with one more click to take a picture. Sony Ericsson's new QuickShare? technology enables you to easily share pictures with your PC or other phones, using Bluetooth?, email, MMS or data cable. The camera is equipped with a 4x digital zoom and a camera light. The K700i has been designed very much with this camera-phone dual concept in mind. From the front, the device is very much a functional mobile phone; from the other side, it's a camera!

We have no hesitation in awarding the K700i 5 stars. ''Outstanding'' is the only word to describe it!

Features of the Sony Ericsson K700i include:

• Colour display (65,536 colours, 176 x 220 pixels)

  
  




• Integrated VGA camera with video recorder (including sound)

  
  




• Bluetooth?, infrared and cable (USB & RS232) connectivity

  
  




• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) - send pictures and sound like text messages

  
  




• Downloadable 40-voice polyphonic & mono ringbones, plus ring tone editor (MusicDJ?)

  
  




• Downloadable Java? games

  
  




• FM radio and MP3 player

  
  




• WAP 2.0 (GPRS), email

  
  




• High Speed Data (HSCSD - up to 28.8 kbps)

  
  




• Speed dialing & voice dialing

  
  




• Joystick, camera button, navigation key, menu shortcuts

  
  




• Predictive text (T9)

  
  




• Mobile chat

  
  




• Voice memo / recorder

  
  




• Speaker phone

  
  




• Picture phone book

  
  




• Wallpaper, screensaver and themes - all downloadable

  
  




• Calculator, calendar, alarm, stopwatch

  
  




• Sync ML

  
  




• Memory: 41 Mbytes

  
  




• Size: 99 x 47 x 20 mm

  
  




• Weight: 93g

  
  




• Battery standby: 300 hours

  
  




• Battery talktime: 8 hours

  
  




• Vibration alert

  
  




• Sleep mode

  
  




• Tri band