Issue #3
Okay, so it might have been a year since my last one but hey...
As you no doubt saw in my last post, I got me a new mobile (sigh okay, CELL) phone- the new K850i from Sony Ericsson. For those of you interested, I'm on T-Mobile's Flext35 plan (I'm not entirely sure if the same plan exists in the US, or outside of the UK for that matter) and because I'm what's deemed a "loyal customer", I get a monthly allowance of £200 instead of the usual £180, all for £35 per month. This means I can use said allowance however I want- no pre-set amount of texts or calls each month, just whatever I need.
First, a little about my mobile history. Over the past three years, I've stuck with Motorolas- purely because they were what I was used to. The V3 and V3i both served me well (while they didn't do much, I never demanded much either), and looked sleek to boot. Sure they had a camera, but were VGA and 1.2MP respectively. Video recording was shocking. But like I said, they looked good. But come on, Mike. This is 2007.
So, when choosing my upgrade from T-Mobile, I figured I needed a change- and a phone that could do a little more than just call and text. I wasn't looking for a Blackberry or other "smartphone" - though, I did look at them - so I decided to go for something I knew a little about. My cousin has had the K810i for the past year and a half, and it seemed like a pretty good handset. So when customer services told me they could wangle me a K850i (T-Mobile don't yet sell it here directly, only third-party sellers do), I jumped at the chance.
I won't bother posting pics here, you can see some pretty good views of the handset itself in my last post. But let's face it, it looks hot. I opted for the "blue" model, with black front and back, and silver sides. I never was one for the two-tone look, but... yum. The blue trim around the centre and the "joystick" sets it off perfectly.
Oh yes, about that- you might notice the joystick, or lack thereof. They were always something that pissed me off with mobiles, and were always something that would break, usually first. Great, the way to control your phone's OS is screwed. That'd be like your laptop's touchpad going to the pearly gates and not having the option of plugging in a mouse. Instead, Sony Ericsson have gone for a four-button affair which works surprisingly well. And probably won't break anytime soon.
The screen is lush. If you're interested in numbers, it's a 240x320, 262,144 color TFT affair. I haven't had the chance to playback pre-recorded video yet, but those specs are pretty damn good for a mobile phone. Memory, I hear you ask? 40MB of onboard flash memory, expandable by up to 4GB via the mini-SD slot. I got mine with a free 512MB mini-SD, which is enough for 300 or so photos at 5 Megpixels.
5MP? Yeah, the 850i has a freakin' 5 Megapixel camera. And it's not just tacked on, either. It's a serious, standalone camera- even the controls and OSD (on screen display) are exactly as you'd expect to find them on a digital camera. No optical zoom unfortunately (who am I kidding, it's a cell phone), but it does have 16x digital zoom should you feel so inclined.
Over and above all this, it has all the usual fare of the day- MP3 playback, 3G video calling, internet access, blah blah blah. What wins it for me is that I now have my own digital camera IN MY PHONE. And I got it for free.
My only gripe so far is that the onboard media player doesn't seem to read ID3 tags, instead displaying MP3 filenames instead of track names- a pretty small gripe, I know. Oh, and the supplied headphones - while capable of more than acceptable audio output - tend to start slipping out of your ears if you do anything more strenuous than sitting on your ass, thanks to the integral hands-free unit. My first port of call (no pun intended) will be to get some standalone headphones- this may not be as easy as it sounds, due to the propriatary connection.
All in all, a freakin excellent phone, and hot to boot.
Get one now!
As you no doubt saw in my last post, I got me a new mobile (sigh okay, CELL) phone- the new K850i from Sony Ericsson. For those of you interested, I'm on T-Mobile's Flext35 plan (I'm not entirely sure if the same plan exists in the US, or outside of the UK for that matter) and because I'm what's deemed a "loyal customer", I get a monthly allowance of £200 instead of the usual £180, all for £35 per month. This means I can use said allowance however I want- no pre-set amount of texts or calls each month, just whatever I need.
First, a little about my mobile history. Over the past three years, I've stuck with Motorolas- purely because they were what I was used to. The V3 and V3i both served me well (while they didn't do much, I never demanded much either), and looked sleek to boot. Sure they had a camera, but were VGA and 1.2MP respectively. Video recording was shocking. But like I said, they looked good. But come on, Mike. This is 2007.
So, when choosing my upgrade from T-Mobile, I figured I needed a change- and a phone that could do a little more than just call and text. I wasn't looking for a Blackberry or other "smartphone" - though, I did look at them - so I decided to go for something I knew a little about. My cousin has had the K810i for the past year and a half, and it seemed like a pretty good handset. So when customer services told me they could wangle me a K850i (T-Mobile don't yet sell it here directly, only third-party sellers do), I jumped at the chance.
I won't bother posting pics here, you can see some pretty good views of the handset itself in my last post. But let's face it, it looks hot. I opted for the "blue" model, with black front and back, and silver sides. I never was one for the two-tone look, but... yum. The blue trim around the centre and the "joystick" sets it off perfectly.
Oh yes, about that- you might notice the joystick, or lack thereof. They were always something that pissed me off with mobiles, and were always something that would break, usually first. Great, the way to control your phone's OS is screwed. That'd be like your laptop's touchpad going to the pearly gates and not having the option of plugging in a mouse. Instead, Sony Ericsson have gone for a four-button affair which works surprisingly well. And probably won't break anytime soon.
The screen is lush. If you're interested in numbers, it's a 240x320, 262,144 color TFT affair. I haven't had the chance to playback pre-recorded video yet, but those specs are pretty damn good for a mobile phone. Memory, I hear you ask? 40MB of onboard flash memory, expandable by up to 4GB via the mini-SD slot. I got mine with a free 512MB mini-SD, which is enough for 300 or so photos at 5 Megpixels.
5MP? Yeah, the 850i has a freakin' 5 Megapixel camera. And it's not just tacked on, either. It's a serious, standalone camera- even the controls and OSD (on screen display) are exactly as you'd expect to find them on a digital camera. No optical zoom unfortunately (who am I kidding, it's a cell phone), but it does have 16x digital zoom should you feel so inclined.
Over and above all this, it has all the usual fare of the day- MP3 playback, 3G video calling, internet access, blah blah blah. What wins it for me is that I now have my own digital camera IN MY PHONE. And I got it for free.
My only gripe so far is that the onboard media player doesn't seem to read ID3 tags, instead displaying MP3 filenames instead of track names- a pretty small gripe, I know. Oh, and the supplied headphones - while capable of more than acceptable audio output - tend to start slipping out of your ears if you do anything more strenuous than sitting on your ass, thanks to the integral hands-free unit. My first port of call (no pun intended) will be to get some standalone headphones- this may not be as easy as it sounds, due to the propriatary connection.
All in all, a freakin excellent phone, and hot to boot.
Get one now!