Sony Ericsson K750i
After many years of using mobile phones, I’ve not found much impetus to purchase new handsets in the recent five years or so. Colour screens didn’t do very much for me, nor did the ability to take low resolution photos, or to have a bulky PDA combo.
But last week, I found the new K750i on the shelves of mobile phone stores in Singapore, and I was hooked. It boast so much functionality in a handset not much larger than my current Nokia 7210:
- 2 megapixel camera - always handy when my Canon EOS 300D can’t fit into my pocket.
- MP3 music player (including MP3 ringtones).
- Removable storage (even if it only uses Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick Pro Duo), with a supplied 64MB card.
- Integration with Outlook contacts with a supplied USB cable (the previous Nokia’s IR connection didn’t work and a separate USB connector costs as much as $20)
Of course, there are much more features but those were the ones that did it for me. Quite unexpectedly, it also supported MPEG4 video playback (need to check if it supports XVid) and has a couple of LED lights that acts as a torch. The Bluetooth support is welcome although those accessories are still far too expensive for my taste ($200+ for a stereo headphones). Oh, and it supports digital radio (RDS) and POP3/IMAP email - excellent!
All for a neat package costing S$680. I’ve had it for two days now, and I’ve overcome most of the usability differences. Notably, the space and symbol keys are positioned differently in a Nokia keypad, but it’s not difficult to overcome. Also, my meetings that were scheduled in a different time zone appeared in the calendar in the wrong day.
I’ve actually stopped tracking mobile phone features since my Nokia 8210 phone five years ago - then, phones were still getting smaller and lighter. Today, manufacturers are packing more features into the handsets, since phones simply can’t get much smaller.
OK, my newest toy should keep me happy for a few months.