The Sony Ericsson K800, which we will refer to as K790, since we are dealing with the American version in this review, is the marriage of cell phone and camera. This isn’t the first attempt; many cell phone manufacturers have tried to join the two devices in the past with minimal success, leaving a stigma on future cell phone cameras.

The general consensus believes cell phone cameras lack quality and are only toys, nothing more. This was true in the past, when cell phone cameras were taking sub 1MP shots filled with noise, lacking auto-focus and true flash, but times have changed and technology has made great strides. The K790 will not replace a professional photographer’s $1,000 SLR, however the K790 does have the advantage of convenience. Out and about, we don’t always have a camera to capture precious moments in our lives, but in most cases we do have our cell phones, so if your cell phone was also your camera… Well, you get the picture.

Many wonder if the K790 could replace their camera, which is definitely a good question, as with many things in life, there is no clear cut answer. It’s a balancing act, between photo quality and convenience, preferences differ from one person to the next. Hopefully by the end of this review you’ll have all the information you need to decide for yourself.

Before we begin I’d like to point out the key differences between the K800 and the K790. The K800 supports 900/1800/1900MHz frequencies and UMTS for data, while the K790(a) supports 850/1800/1900MHz and EDGE for data. The K790 also lacks the front camera found on the K800.

Package Contents

• K790 Handset
• Charger
• BST-33 lithium polymer battery
• Handsfree Stereo Headset
• User Manual
• Software CD
• USB Data Cable
• 64MB M2 Memory Stick Micro
• M2 Memory Stick Micro Adapter
• Wrist Strap

Available Colors

• Velvet Black
• Silver (Casino Royale Limited Edition)

Physical Aspects

As a form of mockery, Google has decided to take Blogger out of Beta after I finished recording the video, lovely timing, so please ignore the comments about Blogger Beta.

Accessories - The Handsfree headset does not have a 3.5mm adapter, so we’ll be stuck with the default head phones. Listening to music through the head phones didn’t strike me as anything special, it performed like any other head phone. The Walkman application has a Mega Bass option, but the bass didn’t carry through so well to the head phones. I tested the bass with the song Angel by Massive Attack, if any of your heard that song, you probably already know how deep the bass is in Angel. I prefer these head phone over the ones that come with the Sony Ericsson Walkman lineup. The Walkman head phones are inserted in your ear and act as a sound plug, I had some difficulty keeping them in my ears while running. Now in the K790’s case this was a non-issue, due to the shape of the head phones.

This is the first handset from Sony Ericsson to support M2 Memory Stick Micro. As you can see from the pictures below, the micro does live up to it’s name. The default capacity that comes with the K790 is 64MB, adding the internal memory of 64MB, you’ll have roughly 128MB at your disposal. High-quality photos taken with the K790 usually take 800KB, with the given capacity should allow for 160 shots, I think most users will find this capacity acceptable for their photography needs. When the M2 was first introduced, the prices for the memory stick were rather high, nearly a year has passed, as of lately I’ve seen the prices steadily fall for the M2. The maximum size currently available is 1GB, priced at $49.99 at Sony Style, which brings it pretty close to it’s older brother, Memory Stick Pro Duo, 1GB capacity cost $34.99.

Size - The K790 is tad larger than the previous model, K750, the main difference being the additional height and thickness, width wise the K790 has become slimmer. The added thickness is mainly attributed to the camera lens on the back, forming a slight hump. The dimensions of the K790 are 4.1 x 1.8 x 0.9 inches (105 x 47 x 22 mm). For all intensive purposes the change in size isn’t really significant in the ergonomic aspect, although it is enough to make the K790 incompatible with K750 cases.

Construction - I personally find the K790’s design to be beautiful, it gives me a sense of elegance and class. Typically mobile handsets are constructed with a variety of plastics, in the K790’s case, Sony Ericsson decided to take a slightly different approach. The front frame that surrounds the keypad, softkeys and display, is actually made of brushed metal. The metal frame gives the K790 a more stable feel, I didn’t detect any creaking in the handset. I’ve had a bad experience with the Sony Ericsson W810 in this regard, the creaking was ridiculous, every time I pressed any buttons I could hear creaking. There’s nothing like a creaky handset to kill the mobile experience. I’d like to see more manufacturers use a mixture of metal/plastic in handset construction, as I feel it would help reduce creaking in handsets.

Weight - The K790 is more on the heavy side (115g/4.1oz) in comparison to other mobile handsets, but then again metal isn’t commonly used in handsets either. I can’t say I’m surprised by the weight of the K790, glancing over the capabilities of this handset, it seems they tried to cram in as much technological goodness as possible in the limited space allowed. This is definitely one of the K790’s strong points, successfully incorporating many of the latest technologies of today into such a small package. Of course the K790 is no Motorola RAZR when it comes to size, but we should also keep in mind the RAZR was never impressive in the functionality department. Sony Ericsson did an excellent job of balancing size and functionality in the K790.

Keypad - The keypad is made of a rubbery material, the keys aren’t stiff, they have some leeway. The keys are slightly sloped, when pressing a key, your thumb will make contact with the top half of the key first. This design feature did help reduce the chances of hitting multiple keys. The keypad is tightly packed together, very little spacing between the keys, I frequently hit multiple keys by accident during my initial trial of the K790. I grew accustomed to the keypad after a few days of use, I found the keypad to be acceptable. I recommend users with larger fingers to test the K790 at a local Sony Style store personally before purchasing.

The keypad has good tactile feedback as expected, when pressed, the user will also hear a soft click.

Softkeys - The softkey configuration has remained the same. For the unfamiliar, on the left side the key with the globe accesses the Netfront web browser, below that is the back key, symbolized by the U turn arrow, returns users to the previous menu screen and if held will return to the network service screen regardless of where the user is in the menu. On the right we have the C key and multitasking key, the C key is used to delete menu items. The multitasking key, illustrated by the over lapping squares, displays four window tabs, New Events, Running Applications, My Shortcuts, Internet. Received SMS/MMS/E-Mails, Organizer reminders and so on appear in the New Events tab. Running Applications tab, allows you to shift between different applications, surprise surprise, I know, hehe. Shortcuts tab, displays a list of commonly used applications, if the list of applications do not suit your needs, Sony Ericsson has made it possible to customize this list of shortcuts. The Internet tab contains a list of bookmarked web pages from the net front browser.

Table of Contents:

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Physical AspectsPage 3: Camera BasicsPage 4: Camera QualityPage 5: ConclusionPage 6: Camera Options

Filed under: Sony Ericsson