Sony Ericsson K750i

The Sony Ericsson K750i is very similar to the newer Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman, and like its counterpart packs an impressive features list, including a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and an FM radio tuner.

The most imposing feature of the K750i is, without doubt, the 2 megapixel camera featuring autofocus and a flash lamp. The camera can capture images of up to 1632 x 1224 pixels, and we were very surprised with the high quality of photos taken. The autofocus feature, which is operated the same way as in a standalone digital camera, was particularly notable. You simply press the shutter button halfway down until the image is focused, and then press it down all the way to take the photo.

There are two quality levels on the camera: Normal and Fine. There is also a digital zoom option of up to 4X, although it isn't very effective and we were unable to achieve a clear zoomed image. The phone includes is a light that can be left on continuously to light up dark rooms, or can be used as a normal flash. Other options include a timer, burst shooting and panorama mode. The K750i can record video at 176 x 144 pixels. An annoying feature of the camera is the inability to turn off the shutter sound, even when the phone is on silent.

The K750i only contains 34 megabytes of internal memory and this is nowhere near enough to store a collection of photos, let alone music. Thankfully, it supports Memory Stick Duo and Duo PRO expansion. A 64MB Memory Stick Duo is included with the phone.

Another striking feature of the K750i is the FM radio with RDS (radio data system) support. The radio has an option for 20 preset channels. The RDS function allows the phone to receive and display digital information from radio stations (a few radio stations in Australia, such as Sydney's Nova and MIX, broadcast RDS information with the title and artist of the current track). However, we were unable to get the phone to display song and artist name--the only information that was displayed was the name of the radio station.

The media player built into the K750i is also impressive. It supports playlists as well as repeat and shuffle functions and an equaliser option. We were very satisfied with the sound quality, and it's worth testing out the equaliser options to get the best sound.

With the 750i, Sony Ericsson has again opted for the double face design: a mobile phone on the front and a camera on the back.

The K750i supports polyphonic and MP3 ring tones, although there weren't many tones included on the phone we reviewed. The phonebook stores up to 500 contacts, with five numbers and one email address for each contact. The K750i includes support for SMS, MMS and POP3/IMAP4 email messaging. Only four lines of text are shown while messaging, which may disadvantage those who usually write long messages.

The K750i's keypad is a disappointment. We feel that the buttons aren't raised enough and the keys are too cramped, making text entry difficult. However the five-way navigational joystick is very responsive and the two selection buttons and Back and Clear keys are well placed.

Besides its poor keypad, the K750i is also let down by a couple of other annoying problems. First of all, the screen is very easily smudged and marked with fingerprints. Also, when we pulled the phone out of our pocket, we noticed that on some occasions this would open the camera shutter and start the camera application--even when the keypad lock was on.

The K750i supports GSM 900/1800/1900 networks, as well as GPRS. It also offers Bluetooth, infrared and USB 1.1 connectivity. We found call quality on the K750i excellent and the battery life was also good, with approximately 6 hours of talk time and nine days of standby time during testing.