Sony Ericsson's K700i is a stylish little phone with a top notch interface and a host of features to keep you entertained while staying connected.Riding on the success of the T610 and T630, Sony Ericsson has released the K700i, which features some similarities and a couple of enhancements over its predecessors.
Sony Ericsson's designers have given the K700i a modern look by combining brushed metal, silver and black on its case. The camera on the back of the phone looks somewhat like the lens of a standalone digital camera and has a photo assist light and mirror for self portraits. The handset itself weighs in at 90g and measures a small 99 x 46.5 x 19.5mm.
The layout of the buttons and structure of the menu on the K700i is basically the same as that found on the T610. Directly under the screen are a two soft keys, a back and cancel key surrounding a navigation joystick (aka the navigation nipple). The transparent keys are slight larger than the T610's and are closer together. On the left side of the K700i are shortcut buttons to use the camera and adjust the volume; on the right side is a shortcut key to go online with an Internet (WAP) browser.
The K700i's 65K colour TFT screen is vibrant and Sony Ericsson has improved the menu since the T610. As you navigate to different items in the 3x3 grid, the animated icons magnify and bounce on the 176 x 220 pixel screen to highlight the feature you're on -- it's rather cute.
The K700i is a tri-band capable phone that can use Bluetooth, infrared or a USB cable (not included in the box) to transfer photos, music and video to PCs, PDAs or other devices.
Photos can be taken at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (VGA) with smaller sized options available: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120 pixels. Night mode bumps up the brightness but we found pictures taken with this feature came out a little more grainy than usual. Panaromic capture does a great job of stitching together three shots and is ideal for landscape photos. MPEG 4 videos can also be recorded at a resolution of 176 x 144 or 128 x 96 pixels. The good thing about these clips is that their length can be set to the extent of the internal memory.
The K700i has 32MB internal memory for storing photos, videos and music files. Unfortunately, there is no expansion slot for extra memory like the Sony Ericsson's upcoming P910i smart phone.
Three above average Java games come installed on the K700i. Darts and Super Real Tennis are fun 3D games that run surprisingly fast on the handset. Our favourite is RiverRaiders, in which you steer four people in a little yellow raft down rapids.
Also on the entertainment side of things is an FM radio and a media player for MP3 songs and video files. You'll need to plug in the supplied grey and silver headset in order to use the radio; apparently, it acts as the antenna.
The K700i also features a link to a service called PlayNow, which gives users access to popular music samples provided by Sony Music. Of course, this is a paid service where you can purchase songs via premium rate SMS and then use them as MP3 ringtones.
A software suite comes bundled with the K700i and features editors for MMS messages/images/sounds, sychronisation software, and an application to establish a network connection through your phone.
The loudspeaker on the K700i is generally audible and most MP3 and MIDI ring tones played come through loud and clear. We did find that some ring tones on the phone had a tendency to play softer than others but this would probably be a flaw in the music files rather than the phone itself. While there are a generous seven message alerts to choose from we'd also like the ability to assign ring tones as message alerts, purely for personalisation.
Sony Ericsson claims the K700i's battery lasts up to 15 days in standby mode and up to seven hours of talk time. We found battery life to be decent overall, averaging about four days for normal usage: making phone calls, sending messages, using the camera, listening to the odd song on radio and occasionally playing games.
Sony Ericsson K700i
Company: Sony Ericsson
Price: AU$899
Phone: 1300 650 050
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"Sony Ericsson's designers have given the K700i a modern look by combining brushed metal, silver and black on its case."
So does this mean it is metal or does it have "silver and black" plastic?