Sales package:
Handset
Battery BST-33
Charger
М2 memory card 64 Mb
CD with software
Wired stereo-headset
Sony Ericsson K550i was called to life due to the wild success of Sony Ericsson K750i that maintains its popularity even nowadays. On the announcement day many were already facing these two handsets off without any spoilers or hints coming from the manufacturer. I would say that these two solutions are utterly similar concept-wise. Up until summer of 2007 neither sales nor production of Sony Ericsson K750i will be stopped, but afterwards its spot in the line-up will be taken over by Sony Ericsson K550i with it’s a tad heftier price tag for a number of new features.
Generally speaking, model K550i packs photographic merits of the K750i, active lens cover, new memory expansion format M2, slim casing, compared to the predecessor, revamped design and also ability to run several third-party Java-applications simultaneously. As you see the changes log is quite lengthy and does justify release of a stand-alone model. In order not to return to that matter as we go deeper into the review, I should say it now that Sony Ericsson K550i is more feature-rich than the K750i in all respects – hence its higher price.
Sony Ericsson K550i has also a twin in the company’s range, specifically Sony Ericsson W610i.
The phone comes in two color solutions: Jet Black and Pearl White. This time both trims look appealing, and I would have a really hard time judging which one is the least attractive. Finished in white the K550i is a white Sony Ericsson W610i’s look-a-like, you might even end up confusing them having both phones in hands.
The K550i measures up at 102x46x14 mm, while the K750i offers 100x46x20.5 mm – be sure you will feel the difference, the newcomer fits in palm well and if you put them head-to-head in hands, then the K550i will definitely come out on top, simply because it is more convenient to manage. The phone weighs in at 95 grams and thus can be carried in any fashion you want, including around the neck, since there are holes for a strap.
The entire design of the rear face is modeled after a digital camera, which comes as no surprise, bearing in mind positioning of the K550i as a CyberShot handset. Compared to Sony Ericsson W610i, apart from the differences in the back cover clip design the K550i has a few more highlights to offer – the M2 memory expansion slot sits on the left side as well, yet is hidden under the battery cover, and you will have to detach it first to hot-swap the card. The uncovered interface socket Fast Port is mounted on the left-hand spine, and accompanied by a dedicated music key, which proves to be easy to work with.
The right plate houses volume rocker and camera shortcut button, and unlike the W610i the latter key is made of ribbed metal, it is bulkier and offers a whole lot more of convenience with its decent tactile feedback. In a nutshell – this is what physically sets positioning of these handsets apart. Completing the exterior is Infrared window on the right and the power button doubling as profile switcher.
Having a diagonal of 1.9 inches (31x40 mm) the K550i’s display shows up to 262 K colors (TFT). The first thing that catches your eyes at the first glance is how big the font size is – bulgy menu items captions is what makes the K550i look different compared to the more advanced models. Reading texts with this handset is a breeze, and the credit here goes to the display itself and its fonts. The screen can accommodate up to 6 text and 3 service lines. Unlike some other offerings, the K550i’s display doesn’t enjoy a protective layer that would guard it from sunlight, however in the sun picture remains visible, even though the colors appear washed out. Maybe they have applied a new finishing technology that makes for better visual experience.
K550i makes use of a 950 mAh Li-Pol battery (BST-33). The maker quotes the lifetime at 7 hours talk time and 350 hours standby time, plus up to 25 hours of music playback.
the handset lasted about 3 days at a bit more than one hour of calls, up to 30 minutes of web surfing and 1,5 hours of music playback a day. We also give its official playback time a go and set the K550i at full blast with default headphones and random playback, which resulted in 23 hours of real lifetime. Apparently, it is the best figure we have seen from a handset – the second best lifetime put up by other company’s proposal makes up 18 hours, while vast majority of cell phones keeps themselves up and running for 10-12 hours in this mode (like the first generation of Walkmans). It takes the K550i about two hours to charge from empty to full.
Camera.
The handset flaunts an auto-focus enabled 2 Mpix CMOS camera. The camera model has been adopted from Sony Ericsson K750i and won’t make anyone’s eyes go round with impression, as it is widely known as one of its type’s best units, the one that has raised the bar so high.
The device supports three possible resolutions - 1632x1224, 1280x960, 640x480 pixels. Two types of data compression, Normal and Fine, are at your disposal. The majority of the photos represented are in the Fine quality. The photos differ in size almost two times depending on the resolution. Thus a photo in the Normal mode takes about 300 KB when the Fine quality gives 500-600 KB. Saving the photo takes the same time not depending on the case, that is about 1-2 seconds, and that is quite well for such a file size.
Video player.
The manufacturer has singled out the player in an individual menu item for the purpose of emphasizing how different it is compared to the music player, and other makers’ offerings, where video and music players share one section. On the plus side is ability to playback QVGA-clips at 30 frames per second, progressive fast-forward feature, landscape mode switcher, auto-scaling of high resolutions down to the display’s size. And the last, but of course not the least, highlight on the list is possibility to get snaps of frames of the played back video, which are saved as pictures and can be used in whatever way you like afterwards.
Radio.
The K550i has memory capable of storing up to 20 FM radio stations and the auto-tuning ability, as well as RDS feature onboard. The Radio application used here is no different from that found on the K750i quality-wise, meaning that it is mostly fine.
Player.
The phone has built-in mp3 (AAC, eAAC+, WMA formats are also supported), 3GP and mpeg4 player. It is a good way to listen to mp3 files. Besides settings you can setup equalizer (there are predefined settings: Bass, Voice, Tremble, etc), as well as the ability to create your custom ones. The sound changes according to the settings, this is noticeable. The bundled player is totally identical to what we can find on first generation of Walkmans or in Sony Ericsson K750i.
Performance.
The model puts up nothing special in terms of performance for the handsets of the company’s latest generation, yet it does better than most of other offerings available on the market. Low screen resolution compared to senior models, has a positive impact on the K550i’s performance – the interface works at the light-speed. There are no caps on JAR files, while HEAP can make up from 512 Kb to 1.5 Mb in size.
Impressions
Despite the polyphony having 40 chords in the K550i, the handset does not provide a breakthrough in sounding of mp3 tunes compared to other Sony Ericsson branded phones. Volume-wise, performing on average level on this front, the K550i is pretty much akin to Sony Ericsson K790/K800/W810. Be sure you will hear the handset outdoors. The silent alert provides average strength. The reception part is on the same level with that of other products by the Sony Ericsson – in other words, it’s very fine.
Generally, the market holds a great many of models that try to be Sony Ericsson K750i-esque offerings and thus act as rivals to the K550i as well. At the same time we haven’t seen a device, from any of the market leaders, that would pack comparable quality of snaps, multitasking and good sonic experience in a casing this small. Some proposals trump the K550i in particular fields, but no other handset shows off all these features in one place. Hence the conclusion that Sony Ericsson K550i is destined to become a milestone, a successor to the K750i, that will shave much of its price off at the turn of 2007 – beginning of 2008. Sound strange, though, but this handset will become Sony Ericsson’s greatest profit generator in the mid range – there is already a great base for that existing.
Handset
Battery BST-33
Charger
М2 memory card 64 Mb
CD with software
Wired stereo-headset
Sony Ericsson K550i was called to life due to the wild success of Sony Ericsson K750i that maintains its popularity even nowadays. On the announcement day many were already facing these two handsets off without any spoilers or hints coming from the manufacturer. I would say that these two solutions are utterly similar concept-wise. Up until summer of 2007 neither sales nor production of Sony Ericsson K750i will be stopped, but afterwards its spot in the line-up will be taken over by Sony Ericsson K550i with it’s a tad heftier price tag for a number of new features.
Generally speaking, model K550i packs photographic merits of the K750i, active lens cover, new memory expansion format M2, slim casing, compared to the predecessor, revamped design and also ability to run several third-party Java-applications simultaneously. As you see the changes log is quite lengthy and does justify release of a stand-alone model. In order not to return to that matter as we go deeper into the review, I should say it now that Sony Ericsson K550i is more feature-rich than the K750i in all respects – hence its higher price.
Sony Ericsson K550i has also a twin in the company’s range, specifically Sony Ericsson W610i.
The phone comes in two color solutions: Jet Black and Pearl White. This time both trims look appealing, and I would have a really hard time judging which one is the least attractive. Finished in white the K550i is a white Sony Ericsson W610i’s look-a-like, you might even end up confusing them having both phones in hands.
The K550i measures up at 102x46x14 mm, while the K750i offers 100x46x20.5 mm – be sure you will feel the difference, the newcomer fits in palm well and if you put them head-to-head in hands, then the K550i will definitely come out on top, simply because it is more convenient to manage. The phone weighs in at 95 grams and thus can be carried in any fashion you want, including around the neck, since there are holes for a strap.
The entire design of the rear face is modeled after a digital camera, which comes as no surprise, bearing in mind positioning of the K550i as a CyberShot handset. Compared to Sony Ericsson W610i, apart from the differences in the back cover clip design the K550i has a few more highlights to offer – the M2 memory expansion slot sits on the left side as well, yet is hidden under the battery cover, and you will have to detach it first to hot-swap the card. The uncovered interface socket Fast Port is mounted on the left-hand spine, and accompanied by a dedicated music key, which proves to be easy to work with.
The right plate houses volume rocker and camera shortcut button, and unlike the W610i the latter key is made of ribbed metal, it is bulkier and offers a whole lot more of convenience with its decent tactile feedback. In a nutshell – this is what physically sets positioning of these handsets apart. Completing the exterior is Infrared window on the right and the power button doubling as profile switcher.
Having a diagonal of 1.9 inches (31x40 mm) the K550i’s display shows up to 262 K colors (TFT). The first thing that catches your eyes at the first glance is how big the font size is – bulgy menu items captions is what makes the K550i look different compared to the more advanced models. Reading texts with this handset is a breeze, and the credit here goes to the display itself and its fonts. The screen can accommodate up to 6 text and 3 service lines. Unlike some other offerings, the K550i’s display doesn’t enjoy a protective layer that would guard it from sunlight, however in the sun picture remains visible, even though the colors appear washed out. Maybe they have applied a new finishing technology that makes for better visual experience.
K550i makes use of a 950 mAh Li-Pol battery (BST-33). The maker quotes the lifetime at 7 hours talk time and 350 hours standby time, plus up to 25 hours of music playback.
the handset lasted about 3 days at a bit more than one hour of calls, up to 30 minutes of web surfing and 1,5 hours of music playback a day. We also give its official playback time a go and set the K550i at full blast with default headphones and random playback, which resulted in 23 hours of real lifetime. Apparently, it is the best figure we have seen from a handset – the second best lifetime put up by other company’s proposal makes up 18 hours, while vast majority of cell phones keeps themselves up and running for 10-12 hours in this mode (like the first generation of Walkmans). It takes the K550i about two hours to charge from empty to full.
Camera.
The handset flaunts an auto-focus enabled 2 Mpix CMOS camera. The camera model has been adopted from Sony Ericsson K750i and won’t make anyone’s eyes go round with impression, as it is widely known as one of its type’s best units, the one that has raised the bar so high.
The device supports three possible resolutions - 1632x1224, 1280x960, 640x480 pixels. Two types of data compression, Normal and Fine, are at your disposal. The majority of the photos represented are in the Fine quality. The photos differ in size almost two times depending on the resolution. Thus a photo in the Normal mode takes about 300 KB when the Fine quality gives 500-600 KB. Saving the photo takes the same time not depending on the case, that is about 1-2 seconds, and that is quite well for such a file size.
Video player.
The manufacturer has singled out the player in an individual menu item for the purpose of emphasizing how different it is compared to the music player, and other makers’ offerings, where video and music players share one section. On the plus side is ability to playback QVGA-clips at 30 frames per second, progressive fast-forward feature, landscape mode switcher, auto-scaling of high resolutions down to the display’s size. And the last, but of course not the least, highlight on the list is possibility to get snaps of frames of the played back video, which are saved as pictures and can be used in whatever way you like afterwards.
Radio.
The K550i has memory capable of storing up to 20 FM radio stations and the auto-tuning ability, as well as RDS feature onboard. The Radio application used here is no different from that found on the K750i quality-wise, meaning that it is mostly fine.
Player.
The phone has built-in mp3 (AAC, eAAC+, WMA formats are also supported), 3GP and mpeg4 player. It is a good way to listen to mp3 files. Besides settings you can setup equalizer (there are predefined settings: Bass, Voice, Tremble, etc), as well as the ability to create your custom ones. The sound changes according to the settings, this is noticeable. The bundled player is totally identical to what we can find on first generation of Walkmans or in Sony Ericsson K750i.
Performance.
The model puts up nothing special in terms of performance for the handsets of the company’s latest generation, yet it does better than most of other offerings available on the market. Low screen resolution compared to senior models, has a positive impact on the K550i’s performance – the interface works at the light-speed. There are no caps on JAR files, while HEAP can make up from 512 Kb to 1.5 Mb in size.
Impressions
Despite the polyphony having 40 chords in the K550i, the handset does not provide a breakthrough in sounding of mp3 tunes compared to other Sony Ericsson branded phones. Volume-wise, performing on average level on this front, the K550i is pretty much akin to Sony Ericsson K790/K800/W810. Be sure you will hear the handset outdoors. The silent alert provides average strength. The reception part is on the same level with that of other products by the Sony Ericsson – in other words, it’s very fine.
Generally, the market holds a great many of models that try to be Sony Ericsson K750i-esque offerings and thus act as rivals to the K550i as well. At the same time we haven’t seen a device, from any of the market leaders, that would pack comparable quality of snaps, multitasking and good sonic experience in a casing this small. Some proposals trump the K550i in particular fields, but no other handset shows off all these features in one place. Hence the conclusion that Sony Ericsson K550i is destined to become a milestone, a successor to the K750i, that will shave much of its price off at the turn of 2007 – beginning of 2008. Sound strange, though, but this handset will become Sony Ericsson’s greatest profit generator in the mid range – there is already a great base for that existing.
No comments:
Post a Comment