| Sony Ericsson K700 |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 / Gsm 1900 |
| Announced | 2004, March |
| Status | Available |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 99 X 46 X 19 Mm |
| Weight | 93 G |
| Display |
| Type | Tft, 65k Colors |
| Size | 176 X 220 Pixels, 7 Lines |
| | - Wallpapers, Screensavers |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Polyphonic (40 Channels), Mp3, Recorded |
| Amount | 23 + Custom |
| Customization | Composer, Download, Record, |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 15 Fields, 510 Items, Photo Call |
| Call Records | 30 Received, Dialed And Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| | - 41 Mb Shared Memory
- 50 Voice Dial Slots |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 10 (4+1/3+2 Slots), 32 - 48 Kbps |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | Yes, V1.1 |
| Infrared Port | Yes |
| Usb | Yes |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms, Ems, Mms, Email, Instant Messaging |
| Browser | Wap 2.0/xhtml |
| Games | Yes + Downloadable, |
| Colors | Optic Silver, Blue Tinted Silver |
| Camera | Vga, 640x480 Pixels, Video, Flash |
| | - Java Midp 2.0
- Fm Radio
- Syncml
- Mp3 Player
- Organizer
- T9
- Voice Dial/memo
- Sync Ml
- Image Editor |
| Battery |
| | Standard Battery, Li-po |
| Stand-by | Up To 360 H |
| Talk Time | Up To 7 H |
|
Sony Ericsson - K700Sony Ericsson has unveiled the long awaited successor to the T630 through a series of announcements. Aided with smartphone capabilities, this phone has all the makings to become a bigger hit than the T610, the best seller last year worldwide.
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Design
The exterior of Sony Ericsson has classic lines and curves, and strays little from the largely popular shape of the T610 and T630. However, the rear has been giving a complete makeover to conform to the new design template that SE has decided to incorporate in all new phones.
As described by SE, the phone has a 'dual front' design. The front shows a typical phone while the back side resembles a mini digicam. The phone casing is made from brushed aluminum, giving it a stable feel that plastic does not. Overall, the fit and finish of the phone is exceptional.
Also included is a new connector cover which fits snugly at the bottom and offers added protection against dust and moisture.
It has a compact size of 99 x 47 x 20 mm. The phone weighs in at 93 g and due to it's compact size, it fits easily in the hand. One drawback is that the phone does not sport exchangeable covers.
The built-in VGA camera located on the back of the K700. It supports three resolutions, VGA (640 x 480 px), QVGA (320 x 240 px), and QQVGA (160 x 120 px). Features include 2X or 4X digital zoom, and a photo light which improves overall picture quality in low light conditions. Other useful additions include automatic exposure control, and automatic white balance.
The camera can create panorama pictures by stitching together several different pictures into one large picture. This is done with the help of a unique image processing technique that is user friendly. The user simply takes a picture and then moves the camera slightly sideways and then takes a new picture. This can be repeated several times until the user selects to save the panorama where all the different pictures are stitched together.
But that's not all. The same lens can be used as a camcorder. With a maximum resolution of 176 x 132 px, the camcorder can take video clips encoded in the H.263 codec format.
Basic Features
The phone is tri-band 900 / 1800 / 1900 GSM, making it compatible with GSM networks in North America, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, the K700 comes with a 670 mAh Li-Ion battery that has maximum talk and standby times of 7 and 360 hours respectively under optimal conditions.
Screen
Sony Ericsson has been making spectacular displays recently and the K700 is no different. A brilliant 65K TFT display with a maximum resolution of 176 x 220 px. TFT, as opposed to STN, has the circuit transistors placed on the glass at the pixel location instead of the need to scan the pixel location. This results in greatly increasing the response time and allows for very fast refresh rates, which is needed for fast paced games as will be explained later.
The resolution is incidentally larger than the resolution found in all Series60 smartphones. This added height is used to good effect by displaying the network coverage even when the user is playing games etc. Due to highly effective white colored backlighting, readability is not compromised under any conditions. The K700's screen is top tier compared to most phones on the market today.
Audio
The K700 can play up to 40 simultaneous chords. Additionally, it contains a MP3 player, stereo FM-radio receiver, and loudspeaker. The phone supports many playback formats including AAC, AMR, MIDI, MP3, WAV, MP4 and 3GP. Streaming included.
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It should be noted that the prototype model comes with 15 MB of available free memory. However the production version is expected to have 32 MB of internal storage. Regardless, the lack of an expansion slots is a drawback. At most, 8 to 10 MP3 songs can be stored internally for less than 30 minutes of playtime. This unfortunately makes the K700 a poor replacement for a true MP3 player.
However, for the first time Sony Ericsson has included a built-in FM radio. While fairly commonplace among Nokia phones, this feature has been lacking on SE phones. The stereo FM-radio allows users to store up to 20 predefined channels. The supplied headset also doubles as the antenna. Furthermore, music can be listened through the supplied headset, a Bluetooth headset, or even the loudspeaker.
Messaging
SMS and MMS are used extensively to exchange pictures, jokes and important messages. The maximum size of an MMS message which is supported is 100 KB. The keys and joystick provide excellent tactile feedback which makes composing messages a breeze. The phone supports a wide variety of MIME types for OTA (Over-The-Air) transfers. With the new menu system coming in place, users will find a highly intuitive experience.
Streaming content in MMS is also possible. The MMS subsystem is probably the best from any manufacturer and users can include virtually anything like audio (MP3, MIDI, AMR, iMelody), images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and WBMP) and themes.
The K700 has support for email accounts and protocols for POP3, IMAP4, SSL and SMTP. So staying connected while you're gone is just a reach away.
Wireless Village instant messaging (My Friends) is also included in this phone. It goes beyond previous mobile chat features. The Wireless Village specifications define how the instant messaging provides an open connection with existing IM providers, such as AOL, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN.
The result is a system for sharing personal information about the user's status, (e.g., on-line, off-line, busy), location (home, work), and the moods of their friends and colleagues (happy, angry). In addition, services will allow users to participate in private or public chat rooms with search capabilities. Ultimately network operators will be able to provide meeting and conferencing type of services with shared content.
Entertainment
The phone has an improved UI (User interface). Sony Ericsson has focused on user-centered design and extensive usability testing to solidify the new UI. This ensures visibility in actions and consistency between applications.
As is the case with all the latest Sony Ericsson phones, this phone also includes some neat themes which allow the user to change the look and feel of the menus. Other personalized features are the wallpaper, start-up screen, and screen saver.
On the gaming front, The K700 is based Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME). The K700 has the ability to install and remove downloadable games from the internet. Currently, J2ME is the most popular platform for cellular phone, so many games are available for download. Some for free, some for a fee. But developers can also create applications for the K700 with Java technology, specifically the Mobile Information Device Protocol (MIDP) 2.0.
But even more exciting is that the phone utilizes the popular Mascot Capsule Java 3D gaming engine, and multiplayer games. It renders 3D objects in real-time on a display screen. By incorporating sophisticated APIs the result is more detailed games.
Other useful applications are included as well. Most if not all are fairly commonplace. The K700 comes with a calendar feature with monthly, weekly, and daily views. For keeping track of tasks, the to-do list lets users jot down things to accomplish such as shopping list and meeting notes. And lastly for people who are in to sporting and fitness activities, a Countdown Timer with interval timer and Stopwatch for timing, recording splits or lap times are included for exercise cycles.
The K700 also supports SMIL (Synchronized Integrated Multimedia Language) which allows users to create and transmit PowerPoint style presentations to the phone.
Internet
The K700 has a built-in WAP 2.0 browser and displays pages rendered in xHTML format and CSS. It also supports GPRS 4+2 for increased bandwidth capabilities over standard CSD networks. Most of the features are commonplace. And only so much can be improved upon.
Storage
The phonebook capacity can store up to 510 contacts, while SMS, MMS, email, and notes have a maximum file size limits. And the amount of shared memory available is a large 32 MB.
For smaller file sized features such as pictures, ring tones, messaging or games, the K700 has more than enough. However as mentioned earlier, with the lack of expandable slots, the K700's added features are wasted. Features such as MP3 playback or video storage require amounts of memory larger than what the K700 has internally.
Connectivity
Connecting the K700 shouldn't be difficult with the vast amount of choices. Pictures, ring tones, themes, and games can be download through Bluetooth, infrared, or data cable. Conversely, photos and video taken with the K700 can be transferred to a PC by those same means.
The phone also supports all the latest PAN (Personal Area Network) and OTA (Over-The-Air) technologies for synchronization. For synchronizing between the K700 and a PC, the phone is also SyncML compatible. SyncML is the common language for synchronizing all devices and applications over any network. With SyncML any personal information, such as email, calendars, to-do lists, contact information and other relevant data, will be consistent, accessible and up to date, no matter where the information is stored.
The most interesting feature is the presence of Bluetooth HID (Human Interface Devices) profiles. Once the phone is connect to a PC through Bluetooth, it becomes essentially a combined keyboard and mouse. By assigning specific combinations of computer keyboard key presses to each key on the phone keypad, users can control computer applications with the phone as a remote.
HID configuration files can be downloaded into the phone using the methods stated earlier. Configuration files are needed for keypad controls of individual computer application. These consist of an XML file for the keypad and an image for the display. Users can modify the files themselves on their computers. A few configuration files are pre-loaded in the phone that enables the user to navigate on a computer desktop, control presentations, and media players.
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Conclusion
As can be seen, the K700 is a very capable device. It does everything that you can expect from a cellular phone and much more. However, with competition from Nokia, the K700 will have to be at the proper price point if it has to win against the Nokia 6230.
While offering some innovative features in a very compact case, the only drawback, if you can call it one, is the absence of a memory expansion slot. The K700 will be released by June in most parts of Europe and the expected price is 375-400 Euros ($450 - $475) without a plan. Sony Ericsson plans to release the K700 in North American sometime in Q2 2004. |
| Common misspellings on this brand: swony , ericss0on , soiny |
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