Review GSM phone Sony Ericsson K300i
Sony
Ericsson K300. Live pictures
Standard kit:
- Headset
- Battery
- Charger
- Manual
Sony Ericsson has been increasing its product line for 2005 by
low-end and middle class solutions also. K300 that had a name of
Kristina during the development belongs to them. The appearance of a
product of this class was prejudged since the company needs a middle
class device with attractive functionality and positioning here such
a passing away model like Ò610
would potentially decrease the sales of new products in higher
segments. T610 distinguished in its body quality too much in its
segments and thus the model had to be changed by a new solution.
K500 became a first step in this direction and was a successful
solution. And now K300 seems quite a logical result of the idea of
increasing the product line.
The manufacturer stresses the difference between the models not
only by their design, production quality but also colour screens.
And if K700 is equipped with a 176x220 pixels screen then K500 has
the resolution of 128x160. That's natural the model with 300 index
has a simplified screen and so it is STN with the resolution of
128x128 pixels. Looking at top models with index 900 we see that the
screen is not larger here but the number of colors increased from
65K to 262K. A line of S index fashion products seems a bit
separated and do not support the concept described. The screens are
similar in models with similar indexes thus Z300 has the same screen
as K300.
K300 doesn't differ from K500 and K700 technologically; this is
the same device with some software changes. The design of the phone
is maximum close to the elder models. And by the way the phone is
hard to call cheap because it looks rather expensive in hands.
Comparing the design with models of the same class we can say it's
better thought over and will suit both youth and adult people. For
instance, Siemens C65 is certainly beaten by K300 in the quality of
the plastic.
The absence of side buttons gives away a low-end solution and
only a camera button is placed on the left side. An interface
connector is traditionally placed on the bottom end of the phone and
is similar to the ones in the rest of the product line. Thus a full
compatibility in accessories is achieved. A On/Off button is on the
top end of the phone and IrDA gap is also here.
Let's return to the screen. The colors are not very bright and
look a bit faded. Subjectively it is not as good as in Siemens
C65 since large physical dimensions tell upon. But when compared
with Motorola
C650 the screen doesn't loose, the displays are comparable. Thus
the screen of K300 is close to the best in its class. And even
comparison with Samsung models that will appear in the market in the
same time and have the same price reveals the equality of the screen
quality. The picture fades in the sun but remains possible to make
out.
The keypad is ordinary, number keys are pleasant to work with and
will suit the majority of users. A separate button for calling a
wap-browser is on the bottom to the left. The first difference from
a usual device of this class is soft keys that are thin metallic
lines. This is a gentle hint at the future models in which the
majority of the keypad will be made this way (but not a clamshell or
a straight rival for Motorola V3 Razr). Soft keys are comfortable to
work with and no any problems appear.
The presence of a joystick really gladdens, no any accidental
pressures happen and a finger doesn't slide away from it. In general
the comfort of use is medium and the ergonomics is typical. The
backlighting is orange and not even thus not all the keys are
lighted in side rows that makes problems from time to time.
A loud speaker gap may be seen on the back panel. It reproduces
melodies and is used for speaker phone working. There is a
VGA-camera gap a bit lower and it is not covered with any shutter
that is another one peculiarity of a cheap device. A mirror is
traditionally present. The camera is completely similar to the one
in K700 in hardware, all the shooting modes excluding a landscape
one are present, and there is an extended resolution mode (Extended
mode - stretching a VGA picture to one megapixel). The quality of
VGA photos is not as bad but we won't consider the camera
separately. Photo samples are available in K700 review or on our
forum.
 
 
A battery module is hidden behind a back cover. A 700 mAh Li-Ion
battery (BST-35) is placed there. According to the manufacturer the
device is capable of working for 420 ours in the standby mode and up
to 3,5 hours in the talk mode. In Moscow the phone worked for 4 days
in case of 45 minutes of talks and 40 minutes of using other
functions (games mainly). Full recharging takes about 1.5 hours. In
Western countries the device worked for 5 days with the same use
terms (a non-commercial prototype, Germany, London and Amsterdam).
The difference in the data may be explained with the consistence of
basic station and network architecture.
Menu
The menu organization is similar to the elder models and that's
why I'll cite previous reviews. On turning the phone on you will be
introduced to your personal helper, who will help you setting up the
phone. In several slides you will find out about the main soft-keys,
will be offered to enter date, time, and copy entries from SIM-card
into the phone's memory. In the very beginning you are offered to
choose menu language/ In future it can be left turned on every time
the phone will be turned on, it is all up to you weather you need
this function or no.
 
Allright, let's imagine that the phone is turned on, you see a
usual design, signatures for soft-keys The main menu is presented by
three rows of icons, three in each row. Icons look pretty, they are
better drawn. In main menu manufacturers decided to review the
animation, while moving from one item to other a circle which will
highlight the current item will appear. Animation is extremely
pleasant and is not annoying at all, even if you use the phone for
long term. Surfing through the menu speed deserves separate praise,
no slow downs, everything works surprisingly fast. The user can use
shortcut number navigation in case he wants to, this way road to the
required menu item will take only 1-2-3 seconds.
The input convenience remained on the same level, by pressing the
# key you will bring up available language list, and be able to
switch between them while text inputting.
The manufacturer decided to take care of additional horizontal
theme bookmarks. This means that now when you are in the call list
menu, which is called by pressing the Call button, you will see not
only the last dialed numbers but gain the ability to switch between
bookmarks with last missed/received calls (horizontal joystick
presses). In the phone's menu such navigation is used in all
possible places, it strongly simplifies usage of phone, menu's
ergonomics in this model is extremely high. I'd like to point out
that similar horizontal panels present in the phone book, settings
menu and several other menu items as well.
File manager, amount of memory. About 8 Mb of
free space are available to a user, here he may keep his data, files
(pictures, video clips, applications). Remaining memory is occupied
with pre-installed applications, which you can delete. Total memory
size is 10 MB.
 
The phone also gained simple file manager, with its help you can
sort files into various folders, create directories in the phone's
memory and store files in them. Using internal memory for file
storage is easily possible just send your fill to the phone. It's
possible to send files via IrDA. Basically we face the fact that the
phone can be used as file carrier for very important files.
The presence of the file manager makes the life significantly
easier, with its help you can sort out loads of pictures, prepare
them for transferring process to PC. The phone still has the same
problems like T610 and T630 had - pictures are taking up twice as
much memory as they do when they are already on your PC. Most likely
this is due to the peculiarities of file system's organization.
Curious fact that when you are viewing properties for the picture,
you will see correct information about picture's size, but if you
look at the free memory amount, it will be decreased twice as much
after taking the picture. Since there is a lot of free memory to use
this problem is not actual.
Player. The phone has built-in mp3 file player,
as well as 3GP. This function came from Sony Ericsson Z1010, which
had support of exchangeable memory cards, in that case this feature
had sense. Here the memory is enough for keeping 5-10 minutes of
poor mp3 file sound quality, there is no use of creating playlists.
At the same time player is actually a nice tool for listening to mp3
files, the phone can be used for file carrying, you can carry one or
two songs in very good quality. This is the only use for using the
player, it can not be used as alternative to mp3 player. Short mp3
compositions are good to set as a call signal.
Equalizer setup is present among the other settings (Bass, Voice,
Tremble etc), as well as the ability of creating your own settings.
Depending on these settings the sound will actually change, this is
noticeable.
 
Phone book. Functional possibilities of the
phonebook remind ones for Sony Ericsson K500. For example, one entry
can be associated with several phone numbers, e-mail address, other
contact information. In settings you can choose the required fields
that will be represented while filling in. There is a sort by
fields, actually by Surname and First Name but only one way for an
input field. Such sorting is important only while transferring data
from PC, for phone's entries it's actually useless. While the
incoming call you will hear a personal ring tone, as well as chosen
image.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While information input you are free to scroll between bookmarks,
on the first one phone number entering and their sorting according
to types. Actually this organization reminds Outlook for some
reason, it is convenient. Ability to add voice dialing to separate
numbers stored under one name was introduced as well, there can be
up to 40 of them in total. If you remember, earlier on voice dialing
was supported only for names, and you had to make additional voice
dialing bookmarks for other phones stored under the same contact.
While viewing the phone book you can scroll the numbers by the
horizontal joystick's keypress, as well as watching other
information. Of course the default number will be bind by you.
Traditionally the company believes that SIM-card and its memory
will be used only in emergency situations, and not for storing
information continuously. Viewing the entries on the SIM-card is
possible from the separate menu item, they are not displayed in the
common entry list.
Messages. All functions are basic for messages,
templates and ability to create your own ones are present. For
messages storing phone's memory as well as SIM-card's is used. Chat
function is supported, on the whole I can say that the features are
pretty common for any other phone. Appeared emoticons should be
mentioned as well, they are made on a new quality level, and support
youth part of the phone.
MMS realization deserves to be mentioned as well, you can
actually create clips, there are a lot of settings and it is not
hard to use them, a truly unique quality that other phones lack.
E-Mail client supports sending and receiving messages, all
possible encodings are supported.
In this menu Instant Messaging is present as well, sort of ICQ
analogue.
Call list. In common list you will see up to 30
entries with date and time assigned to each. Near each of them an
icon will explain to what type of call it refers (missed, received,
dialed). Besides this in common list additional icons are present,
they show if the phone number is present in the phone's memory, or
SIM-card's. The list of missed calls can be viewed separately, it
can store up to 10 entries. In the same menu item information about
cost and length of last, all calls can be viewed. Moving through the
separate lists can be made with the help of bookmarks, this actually
saves your time greatly.
Entertainment. This menu item contains access to
picture album, list of music files. Function MuiscDJ is interesting,
although it is rather niche and will not be in demand around most of
users. In this editor you can create your own ring tones and edit up
to 4 tracks. The company plans to represent the continuation of the
idea of MusicDJ in future phones, the new technology will combine
all the possible information types and not only music. It's some
kind of an MMS editor if compared with other technologies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There are two games preset in the phone. They are 3D darts and
Tic Tac Toe. The device supports Java MIDP 2.0 and thus is possible
to upload new games.
 
 
 
Organizer. In organizer menu a lot of functions
are stored at once, first of all - let's review the calendar. There
are three types of event view, monthly, weekly and daily. In last
case you see the list of all things to do and reminders, in two
other modes you will notice the highlighted time with events or the
day. Fast transfer to the required year, day and month is present.
Everything is pretty simple and traditional, as well as schedule
entry. Basically you get the chance to choose one of the 6 icons
assigned to the action type, specify the place where it will occur,
length and setup reminder (beforehand or in the entered time). I was
unable find a way to setup reoccurrence rate, in my samples this
feature was not present at all. From the editing menu for separate
events you can choose another time and date, and that's it.
Reminders work even if the phone is turned off, in case you turn on
this function in the settings menu. Pleasant peculiarity of this
model is that you can turn on/off automatic switch of profiles after
the event had occurred, as well as return to the earlier set profile
after the event is over. Basically we get analogue of Time Profile
function in Nokia's phones.
 
 
To do list of rather ascetic, only two modes of events, call or
reminder. On the other hand this is pretty enough, simplicity has
its own advantages as well.
The phone has fully-functional search, which is organized for
calendar, you just enter the words (or part of it) and after few
seconds see all events which suit for the searched words. Function
works very fast even if there are more than 100 entries, fast
teleportation to the event is supported as well.
The phone has normal support of sending files to different
devices (like always - IrDA, Bluetooth). You just choose the
required interval (day, week, or month) and send all entries. I'd
like to point out the fact that receiving device must support PIM
function in order to receive and display these data files correctly.
When we tried to send our own schedule to TV-set it was successful,
although it could not be displayed (via IrDA). Same thing can be
sent from your office or desktop PC without any additional software
for synchronization.
Notes. The phone supports recording short text notes, in common
list first word from each is displayed. This is not always
convenient since you have to enter every note with "marker word", in
order to remember what it is all about.
 
Alarm clocks. The phone has single as well as reoccurring alarm
clock, which can be setup by the defined days of week. The alarm
clocks will work even if the phone is turned off.
 
Countdown timer. Everything is pretty simple here, although same
thing can be said about the stop-watch, it supports intervals. The
phone has code storage, which was loved by many, working with
calculator became more convenient.
 
 
Connectivity.From here you can setup all
communication settings of the phone starting with WAP, GPRS and
ending with synchronization. The standard usage will not be
mentioned, it is pretty obvious, everything works. I'd like to
stress that no problems were encountered while synchronizing,
synchronization with devices runs smoothly, all profiles are
supported.
 
Settings. Basically all settings related to the
work with the phone are stored here, partly with the appearance of
screens. I will not describe this menu item, since everything is way
too common. The presence of updated themes should be mentioned
though, they actually differ the appearance nicely.
 
Impressions
The device showed no problems in the connection quality, the
volume of loudspeakers is comfortable in the majority of conditions.
The 40-tones call signal is heard well also. The power of the vibra
call is average and felt not bad.
 
 
Such features as the presence of 10 MB of the internal memory,
mp3 as a call signal support, a Dictaphone working during a
conversation and a fully-functional IrDA should be marked as evident
advantages. The possibilities of the VGA-camera are maximum for a
device of this class. The only straight rival for K300 is Siemens
C65 similar in characteristics. The Siemens product differs in
simpler design and cheaper body materials, less camera resolution
(it is CIF there) and the absence of a Dictaphone. The advantage of
Siemens C65 is more qualitative screen. In general K300 wins
comparison and is technically the best in its class.
The model will be announced officially in January (about January,
5) and will appear on the shelves in February. According to the
Taiwanese newspapers Arima has been manufacturing the model for an
appropriate time and fills he stocks in for the beginning of sales.
The differences between a simplified version K300 and K500 mainly
concern the quality of the screen and its resolution and design. The
fact allows speaking about a competition inside the product line
with a bid price gap. That's why we can suppose Sony Ericsson will
keep the price level for K300 25-30 USD less than for K500. And
considering today prices we can say K300 will cost about 165-170
USD. But this is a today price and all the prices for the whole
product line will be corrected in February. Thus K500 will cost
about 185-190 USD and K300 about 155 USD correspondingly. That is
considerably higher than even a current price for Siemens C65 (about
135 USD). The high margin is explained with the lack of the devices.
The company will saturate the market with the model only in the
middle of the 2Q or the beginning of the 3Q and then prices will be
corrected much and will get almost equal to the ones of Siemens
products. The situation of a fall of the prices for Sony
Ericsson T230 may be remembered and the same is going on with
K500 now.
Summing up all above we can say that Sony Ericsson again has
represented a competitive solution, the device possible to become
dominating in its price segment (if they were produced at the time).
There is also a planer solution called Karina that differs in
changeable panels (covers) and 20-25 USD less price. Technically
Karina is a younger sister of an elder model and has a more youth
funny design. |
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