Sony Ericsson K610i

...be reviewing the Mobile Phone: Sony Ericsson K610im.

- - - - - - - - - Aesthetics and Ergonomics - - - - - - - - - -

As with some of my other reviews, First impressions are everything. So I tend to start with first impressions.

The K610Im is a candy bar style phone, which means that there are no flips or slides to be operated, the phone is as it is. What you see is what you get, sort of thing. The design ...
...major. It would seem that Sony have noticed this as well, which I'll get in to later.

The biggest improvement in my opinion on this phone over other Sony Ericsson phones is that the joystick has been replace with a rocking button, and thus is less likely to suffer from mechanical defect. A very big bonus, having worked in mobile phone retail for a while, I saw hundreds of faulty Sony Ericsson joysticks.

Overall, I'd ... more

Hey, And welcome to another long anticipated review by Smeep! Haha, Ok, I'll stop tooting my own horn shall I?

Today I'll be reviewing the Mobile Phone: Sony Ericsson K610im.

- - - - - - - - - Aesthetics and Ergonomics - - - - - - - - - -

As with some of my other reviews, First impressions are everything. So I tend to start with first impressions.

The K610Im is a candy bar style phone, which means that there are no flips or slides to be operated, the phone is as it is. What you see is what you get, sort of thing. The design is nice and simple, a nice black finish with a few silver touches. Obviously, this is up to your judgement, But I like it.

The keys are a little to small for my large hands, but definitely manageable and clearly defined from each other both in appearance and “under the thumb” feel. You might find yourself hitting the wrong button a few times here or there, but nothing major. It would seem that Sony have noticed this as well, which I'll get in to later.

The biggest improvement in my opinion on this phone over other Sony Ericsson phones is that the joystick has been replace with a rocking button, and thus is less likely to suffer from mechanical defect. A very big bonus, having worked in mobile phone retail for a while, I saw hundreds of faulty Sony Ericsson joysticks.

Overall, I'd give the appearance of the phone an 8/10, It's not a 'beautiful' phone, but it is very nicely laid out and ergonomics really give this section a boost.

- - - - - - - - - The Feature Dump - - - - - - - - - -

This section is just where I dump the features, to let you know what the phone has. I won't go in to detail about them just yet.

3G Connectivity (With front facing camera for video calling)
2 Mega pixel Camera
262k TFT Colour Screen
Free 64MB Card
Internal 16MB Memory
Tri-Band
Bluetooth
Video Recording and Playback
MP3
I-mode
- - - - - - - - - Functionality - - - - - - - - - -

This section is when a phone rises or falls, and I'm suitable impressed by this phone. I digress.

Keypad and General Operations:
The operation of the phone is very easy. The middle button is your menu, Up, Down, Left and Right move in their respective directions. You press the middle button again to confirm. If you want to go back, there is a dedicated 'back key' which if you press once, it goes back one step, or if you press and hold you go back to the beginning. Very simple, very easy, very well done to sony.

You can go a little more advanced as well, for instance on the main menu, the top left option can be activated by pressing the '1' key, the bottom right icon activated with the '#' key, thus eliminating the use of the left, right, up and down buttons on the main menu.

Menu Features:
*Games and Apps

In here all of your games and applications are stored for easy access. The loading speed of applications is good once you've loaded it once. Controls respond well enough in general, but that is of course up to the manufacturer of the application, rather than the phone.
*I-mode:

(Also accessible using the 'i' button)
I-mode is one of those love hate things. I love it. The benefits of I-mode are much better than most general WAP services. The content is much easier to use and navigate (up, down, left, right, click, back) and is well presented on your phones screen. It's faster than most WAP services, and with the 3G capability of the phone it just works great. £3 per month to sega for as many games as I want to download? Yes please. I-mode also supports I-mail, which I'll go in to later on in the review.

You can still view normal WAP pages on your handset to, Just type in the URL!
*Entertainment:

Here you'll find your video player , video, music and photo DJ's for basic editing (Cutting out parts of a video etc.).

The Video player does exactly what it says on the tin. Plays videos. It plays them well enough for the phones res, and the audio isn't terrible, though much better through speakers.

The Video DJ is a simple yet effective tool, allowing you to cut parts out of videos and rearrange them. It's no where near as good as a PC counterpart, but if you're looking to upload some videos to one of the 'we pay you for your vid' sites on I-mode, it's very handy.

The music DJ is very basic, I suspect if you can get the right audio on to your phone you might be able to make something of it, but I don't really see it going very far.

Photo DJ allows things like red eye removal (all though the phone has no flash) and adding of text captions to your images etc. Just a nifty little tool really.

From this menu you can also use your phone as a bluetooth remote control and record sound.

*The Camera
(Also Accessible from the side button)

Actually, I was a little disappointed with the camera on this phone. The images are clear enough for a photo that you are taking with a phone, but compared to some of the Samsung 2Megapixel phones, and even some of the other Sony Ericsson 2MP phones, it just doesn't stand up to the test, both on the phones screen and on the PC screen. The lack of a Flash is a real downer, meaning if you're out and about at night you can forget using the phones camera, which would be useful because carrying 1 object is better than 2 right? (Imagine, your Ipod, your phone and your mp3 player rolled in to one)

The photo's appear to be a little washed out colour wise and not to sharp. I'm sad to say it only gets worse with the video recording, when you play it back on a PC it's blotchy and low res. I guess that's to be expected from a phone camera though.

*The Contacts List

Much like any other phone contacts list. You can save to the sim or to the phone, you can add emails addresses, addresses and addition contact numbers. It's very a suited to it's job. I can't fault it.

*Music Player
(Accessible through the MP3 Side button)

The music player is not to bad, but if you've ever used a walkman phone you'll be left wanting more. Some of the basic features are in silly places (Like to select and album rather than an artist, you have to select “ALL” then go to the album, which is odd) but it does the job. The sound is as good as your MP3 quality when through headphones, but it leaves a bit to be desired through the speakers.

*File Manager

This is a very basic file management system, you can copy, move and delete files. It's shows you all the files on your phone from Music to text. Not a lot to say really.

*Messaging:
(Accessible through the dedicate “messaging” button)

Ok, so most of you will probably know how a text works. A few things I'll mention is that the automatic dictionary works very well. It shows you a list of words as you type, you can then select the one you want to use, and if you use repeated phrases, it will even suggest the word that you may want to retype, to save you having to type it.

One little nuance is if you miss the 1 key or the 2 key, sometimes you press the back button – but don't worry, it comes up with a message saying

“You are about to exit” and gives you three options. “Save Message” to continue writing later. “Don't save” to exit completely and discard the message or “Continue Writing” so that you can just carry on there and then. A life saver! So many times on Nokia's I've exited and lost my message after typing 4 pages of text!

One feature here is the I-mail. I-mail is like a mobile phone email, You're I-mail address is your mobile number@o2imail.co.uk but you can change that. Right now, you can send I-mail for free. Completely. You can send up to 4000 letters, plus attachment. When the I-mail becomes chargeable (September this year I believe, it will cost 10p without attachments (Pay and Go) and 25p with attachment. But you can send to 5 people for that price too!

*Video Calling

The video speed and quality is good enough, but the phones microphone just isn't good enough to pick up your sound. You'll hear you friend saying “what? I can't hear you” a lot too you. If you have a hands free kit, this feature will be spot on. You can even see your own face to make sure that you're not missing yourself in the shot.

*Calls log

(Accessible by pressing the call key in standby)

Does what it says, tells you who called, when, if you returned the call, who you called. Allows you to return calls from there.

*Organizer

Has a calender, ability to make notes and your alarms. Also calculator, timers, stopwatch and a synchronization tool. (For synchronizing contacts and other data with a server)

*And of course, Settings.

Here you change everything about your phone, from it's ring tones (includes true tones), to modes (car, silent, outdoor etc.) to the bluetooth being switch on and off or paired. It works on a tab feature, left to right to change the category, up or down to choose an option etc. Well laid out, easy to operate.

- - - - - - - Other/More Detail - - - - - - - -

The Sound quality on the phone is passable, but I have noticed it breaking up once or twice. This could be due to bad signal, but I'm not certain.

I wouldn't pay more than £100 for the phone. When I bought it it retailed at £150, but with staff discount and a trade in, I got it for £100 which I think is a fair price.

The Battery life is pretty standard. Realistically, I've had it last up to 13-14 days on standby, but with my love of Gaming on the phone and texting, it drops to an average of 4-7 days. Talk time seems to fall around the 3 hour mark.

The front Camera is VGA quality.

- - - - - - - - Overall - - - - - - - -

I really like this phone. It does it's job well, it's easy to use and it doesn't look all bad. If you can get it for £100 or less (the price I paid in December 06) then it's a bargain. Everything seems well thought of, it all seems to fit. Well done Sony Ericsson.
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If there is anything that I've missed, spelled incorrectly or anything else you'd like me to add, send me a message and I'll update the review.

Thanks for reading. 

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