My shiny new K810i has just arrived from the chaps at Sony Ericsson; let’s see what it comes with…
Phone (I’d have been disappointed if it had come without this!)
128MB M2 Memory Stick
Charger
USB Data Cable
Battery
Headphones
Software Disk
Manual
No big surprises there then… Though the K800i lacked a bundled memory stick, so the 128MB card included here is most definitely a welcome addition.
K810i Diary, Day 2:
Filled my phone book up – well, I say ‘filled up’… I don’t think I could ever hope to fill up the 1000 phone entries it allows for! Hmm, my ‘Surname, Forename’ entry format is automatically reversed when I go back in to search for names, but only on the contacts I inputted manually – how inconvenient! Oh I can change that in advanced options… Oh wait, no I can’t as all the contacts I bluetoothed across from my old phone are now listed in ‘first name’ order. Guess I’ll have to re-input ALL the numbers manually.
Sent texts to my friends notifying them of my new number – this is an excellent phone for texting, as the buttons are nicely spaced apart.
K810i Diary, Day 3:
Put phone through paces – made a few phone calls to check the audio quality: much louder & clearer than I’ve become accustomed to with mobile phones; had to drive too, so connected a Bluetooth headset for the journey – took me a while to work out how to disassociate it from my old phone, but once that was done, connecting them up was simple
Made my first video call – remembered how paranoid I was when it comes to being ‘on film’ – was cool, but I think I’ll be making just regular phone calls from now on;
K810i Diary, Day 4:
Working in London… Test out the camera and music playback whilst walking along the Thames; excellent camera image allowing for a resolution of 2046x1536, though its no step-up from the K800i. The following is a cropped and scaled-down picture of one of Antony Gormley's 'Event Horizon' statues:
...And a zoomed in crop of the same image:
Sightseeing over, music playback is hampered by an inferior headset to the W-series, but quality was passable – Biggest problem was only being able to fit a couple of dozen songs on the slightly stingy memory card.
K810i Diary, Day 5:
Another day in London, and so another train journey… I listen to the radio (much less limited), which gives a good clear signal, and while away the hours playing the pre-installed games on the phone – its no PSP but they’re entertaining enough! That said, there’s only so much ‘Quadrapop’ one can take, and fast-paced games like the WTA Tour tennis game don’t really lend themselves to be easily controlled via the keypad
I try to use video camera function to capture some street performer in Covent Garden – It has to be said, considering the quality of the static camera images, the video playback is pretty terrible. I didn’t try uploading to my PC though…
K810i Diary, Day 6:
Right, now I’ve had this phone for a while I’ll get some things off my chest:
Much like the K800, the lens cap slider is enormous (though not nearly as prominent as before) – it’s not like the lens itself is particularly big, so I fail to understand why they’ve stuck to this sort of design. I find myself catching it and accidentally activating the camera far too frequently.
I personally find the keypad a little frustrating too – but, it does grab the eye I suppose
Charge phone at end of day – the first re-charging I’ve had to do: pretty good battery life it would seem.
K810i Diary, Day 7:
Well being a Sony Ericsson, this was inevitable: my text message memory is full, why do they persist in allocating such a measly amount of space to text messages, rather than limiting it by flash memory available?!?
My score – 4.5 out of 5:
If you’re a fan of Sony Ericsson, you’re unlikely to want to switch to a different manufacturer anyway, but regardless of this you won’t find many better-equipped phones on the market.
All in all, this is definitely a worthy update to the K800, though not quite the update I’d hoped for: The music playback is marginally better, and the camera quality is still unquestionable.
Hubbcap
