Sony Ericsson K700i Review

Sony Ericsson K700i adds additional functionality to the popular and highly-rated T630 model. What’s new in the K700i? Firstly, the VGA camera has been enhanced with a camcorder capability for recording videos.

The TFT screen is 65,000 colours, like the T630, but it has been increased to nearly twice the size of the T630 - great for photos, videos and games. Ringtones have been upgraded from 32-voice to 40-voice. There’s also an integrated FM radio and MP3 player. Another improvement is the increased memory - at 41Mbytes, this is more than virtually any other phone on the market, and is ideal for storing photos, videos and music.

Ever since we had some quality time with a K700i prototype a few months back, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the final product to make it to market. There were some delays, as there nearly always are, but the K700i managed to make it into shops while interest was still high.

This phone is a multimedia powerhouse. If it involves images or sounds, chances are the K700i has it in spades. There is little that this phone isn’t equipped to handle. It has a big display, a nice polyphonic sound system, the ability to play MP3 files, a built-in FM radio, and a camera that records both still and moving images. It even has a respectable 41MB of available memory to facilitate all of this.

Sony Ericsson claim that the K700i is “as much a camera as it is a phone”. That’s a bit of a wild claim, considering that the camera’s resolution of 0.3 megapixels is less than that of even the cheapest digital camera, however let’s not forget that Sony are one of the top 3 manufacturers of digital cameras and when first released this was one of the best camera phones. The integrated camera can be activated in one click, with one more click to take a picture. Sony Ericsson’s new QuickShareâ„¢ technology enables you to easily share pictures with your PC or other phones, using Bluetoothâ„¢, email, MMS or data cable. The camera is equipped with a 4x digital zoom and a camera light. The K700i has been designed very much with this camera-phone dual concept in mind. From the front, the device is very much a functional mobile phone; from the other side, it’s a camera!

You can however enjoy long hours of music, though, by using its built-in FM radio. The external stereo headsets are used as antenna (the radio application will not start without the headsets being plugged in).

In short, if you’re looking for a good looking phone, with a good set of features, great screen and sound, this seems to be the (for now) ultimate mobile phone.