Sony Ericsson K800i - Performance
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This phone went through our de facto standard phone-testing experiments. "What does this process involve?" you ask. Well, in short, it involves trying out every feature that a phone has, intensely searching for specific bugs that might or might not exist, closely watching its level of performance, as well as battery efficiency. And of course we won't forget the major purpose of a cell phone - conversation quality.
Let's start with the actual conversation quality; it's amazing. Both parties can converse with enhanced clarity even if the headset is in use. You can talk with ease.
Since the K800i is wearing the Cyber-shot™ brand we can affirm that the camera is the heart of it. It offers a very high resolution thanks to its 3.2 mega pixels, the auto-focus feature works like a charm, the Xenon flash helps in darkening environments, and red-eye reduction works to cleanse those nasty effects. The K800i's camera seriously competes with dedicated digital cameras. It has all of these features while being a mad performer as a cell phone, too.
There are 4 possible resolutions: 2048x1536 pixels, 1632x1224 pixels, 1280x960 pixels, 640x480 pixels.
Another feature that increases the phone's efficacy is the so-called BestPic™. This technology allows the taking of 9 successive shots of the target, after which the user is able to pick the best shots. Couple this with the image stabilization feature and auto-focus; you can make really impressive pictures even while in traffic taking shots from the inside of your car! You won't lose those oh so important proofs of your drag successes.
(Beautiful and peaceful landscape on a late fall afternoon).
There is no optical zooming feature; however the digital zoom goes up to 16x. But unfortunately after 8x the image starts to get pretty pixilated. Landscape view turns your cell into a dedicated digital camera. It truly behaves and looks like one. Cool, huh?
Just as one would expect, the Xenon flash is a real performer. In a gloomy dark room you can take multiple shots from different objects and then you'd amaze yourself just by checking out the slightest details of those objects that you weren't expecting. And then here's another feature: you can connect to a remote screen via Bluetooth.
The video recording feature, however, isn't all that impressive. Its maximum resolution goes up to 176x128. The stabilization feature eliminates "shaking effects" quite efficiently. There is another camera dedicated strictly to 3G video calls.
The picture viewing works pretty well. Larger images (i.e., 3200x2560) are at first displayed a bit blurry and pixilated but then after a couple milliseconds (typically less than 0.5s) their quality matches the original and you'll have the ability to zoom in/out. Slide shows are possible; the same goes for fast-switching. Manipulating images is possible with the PhotoDJ™. However, you can also edit videos with VideoDJ™.
Videos are at the best possible quality. Seriously, we were completely amazed how terrific the videos were played on 320KB/s Xvid 3gp at 25 FPS with 96kbps AAC sound. Should you watch the videos in landscape view on the 4:3, it looks absolutely superb! Quite easily you'd immerse yourself in the scene and experience the exact same feelings of being at a cinema. Low quality videos can be zoomed in without losing quality.
The K800i sports a media player that supports a wide range of audio formats. Anything from MP3 up to AAC (for more check the features list) could be played with ease. You can create custom playlists, search and sort within the tracks, artists and albums (this is helpful when you have like 300+ songs). The phone boasts a powerful equalizer with enhanced customizing abilities. The media player works really great!
What's really impressive is that even with a couple hundred songs, fast-switching, skipping, fast-forwarding, and searching for specific tracks are done at a blazing fast speed. This isn't that common because we've seen enough phones where after a certain number of tracks and/or size (longer tracks) the player slowed down drastically. Oh, and there's of course the MusicDJ™. You should play around with it...
The sales package comes with a headset of HPM-62. The sound quality of this isn't perfect but they are by far superior to what one usually gets with cell phones. The audio connector is a proprietary one strictly for Sony Ericssons; however you can get higher end headsets (HPM-75, etc.).
There are a few other features that shouldn't be neglected: sound recording or using it as a remote control via Bluetooth, RSS Reader, web browser, e-mailing, organizer, calendar, alarms, tasks, notes, calculator, timer, and so forth.
We shouldn't forget about flight mode. This is one of those must-have features for traveling businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs and CEOs. This feature is required when traveling a lot with planes.
You can send/receive data via Bluetooth and InfraRed (not at the same time). This is really powerful because, benefiting from the phone's multitasking ability, you can be connected to phones sporting older technologies (IR) not only Bluetooth, and then still be able to work on your phone- listen to music, watch videos, or surf the web. The real joy of multitasking... on your cell phone!
Let's talk about battery life. The stand-by time comes close to 8-10 days, talk time to around 6 hours. Leaving the phone on stand-by for 5 hours the battery percentage barely dropped 3%. The 3.6V 950mAh battery being a very powerful lithium-ion they do not suffer from memory effects and they also have a very low self-discharge of 5% per month.
Now let us give you tips to prolong the life of any kind of Lithium-ion Polymer battery: you should recharge your batteries early and often. In case of temporary storage when they aren't being used you should bring their charge level down to 40-60%. Their performance is strongly linked to their lifespan. Therefore, you should only buy a new replacement when they're required, not to store them. Furthermore, charge them often; you don't need to let the level get to 0%. If the chance arises just plug it in...
Next: Final Conclusions >>
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