Sony Ericsson K770i > Reviews > Smart, But No Showstopper

Author's product rating:   

Look & Feel	Good
Durability & Robustness	Satisfactory
Reception quality	Good
Battery standby time	Good
Value for money	Reasonable
Range of features	Good selection

Advantages:	Understated Beauty, All Mod Cons
Disadvantages:	Slippery Finish, Doesn't Feel as cutting edge as I wanted it to

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I got one of these little beauties on a 3 contract last week, and so far I'm pretty impressed with it. Bear in mind that the last phone I owned was an old RAZR V3, so I haven't had much experience with anything vaguely modern :-)

It feels nice in the hand, being pretty lightweight and thin. The finish on the case feels slightly slippery though, and I am a bit worried about dropping it. Speaking of the finish, it comes in the greyish brown as pictured here, and also in the funky purple colour that I opted for. I think it looks great, if slightly feminine! I wouldn't say it looks totally cutting edge though, very similar to all the other sony phones I've encountered. Certainly looks no worse, in fact I quite like the understated look it has about it, I'm less likely to be mugged for it, right?

It takes those tiny little M2 memory cards that you would almost certainly lose if you left them lying around for any length of time. I was originally planning to use this phone as a replacement for my ancient MuVo MP3 player, and the ability to carry around memory cards with different albums and whatever on was certainly a plus point for me. Apparently it comes with a 256mb as standard but you can upgrade to 2gb for not much (a quick scan of ebay says around £20). If you get one on contract than do it in a shop so you can pester the salesperson to throw one in as part of the deal.

Music playback is excellent, despite it not being a true "walkman" phone, you can leave the music playing while you text or whatever. Functions better than a lot of standalone MP3 players. The radio function is a nice bonus, although reception can be a bit patchy if you're moving around while listening to it. Depends where you are though I suppose. The headphones on the hands free kit are also great, if a little large.

The camera is nice, although the silly drunken photos I tend to take on my mobile probably don't require a 3.2 megapixel camera. Shutter speed could be a bit faster but otherwise it's pretty good. The image editing features on the phone are mainly a waste of time as far as I could see. Might keep you entertained for 5 minutes or so.

Battery life seems about average, tends to last me a couple of days before I have to charge it. Which I suppose is good considering the size and brightness of the screen.

Has all the usual calendar functions and stuff. The videocalls are good fun but ultimately pointless. Screen is lovely, web browsing is just about feasible on it. PC software is the usual Ericsson stuff, easy to set up and mess about with.

I'm very happy with this phone, it doesn't scream "NEW TECHNOLOGY" when I use it, but everything it does, it does well.