Hi...I bought this cool phone bout a couple of months back...and have been totally hooked onto it ever since..let me start with two words...’’ LOADED ’’ and ’’ VALUE FOR MONEY ’’...I’ll tel you why!..
THE LOOKS : definitely looks a lot better than its elder sibling the k700i, both from the front and in profile. Inspite of the similar layout, the amber backlight keys on the k500 look more aesthetic. In profile, its more sleek. Compact and lightweight (about 80gms) , the 128X160 pixel 65, 000 color display is crisp and bright (it being TFT-which helps in sunlight) on the bac the VGA resolution cam comes with a slidin cover, which again is missing in the 700.
THE FEATURES:
The animated icons in the MENU with that bubble like effect as u navigate with the 5-way JOYSTICK look really cool..complimented by the rather large color screen.
The menu layout needs a little time getting used to, especially if u haven’t used a SE brand before. Trust me, once u’re thro with that, using the rest of the features is a breeze.
The CAMERA can b switchd on using a button on the side, n its time to shoot...in camera mode u get resolution options from 320X240 to an extended 1280X960 pxls..and theres the DIGITAL ZOOM option ranging upto 4x.
Only thing missing is a flash, but then under bright light conditions the images r amazing for a camfone .For moderate indoor lighting conditions, the night mode helps with a lil xtra brightness. And there r like a few fun effects that can be applied to the images u clik like b&w, solarize etc..1 thing is th@, when u clik a pic, the cam goes off with a loud funny old school shutter like sound. VIDEO can be shot in two size modes whilst applying zoom or adjusting the brightness.The refresh rate is good- u end up getting smooth video preview.
MULTIMEDIA :
The built-in media player plays MP3 music and VIDEO . the SPEAKER volume and output CLARITY is more than decent. I actually have a few mp3 clippings (@64kbps) that sound absolutely great.its polyphonic ringtones anyways.n u can RECORD audios as well, as for FUN:.the 3D GAMING using the 5-way joystick and the music-dj COMPOSER take care of that jus fine.
MEMORY AND FILE TRANSFERS :
It’s a flat 12MB..no chances for expanding or anything.which calls for a little clever management of data.. ( for one, theres a time limiting option when u shoot videos) best to have a usb cable to connect to ur pc n keep transferrin frm time to time . mp3, midi, wav formats of audio n jpeg, gif, png, bmp image formats are suported for transferin files to and from ur pc. considering the k500 has IR, buyin a usb IR dongle mebe a cheaper option than the cable.
WAP : this is one opition im totally in love with.. connect to the sonyericsson website n download videos, freegames, ringtones, themes, mms templates, wallpapers, softwares and cool animations..look around for the other free mobile websites as well;-) watz more, u can register for free at the SE website, n upload pics from ur phone and retrieve them whenever u want2..simply put, thats like a secondary storage option(pics only).ain’t that gr8!!...
BATTERY BACKUP :Is very good, tho the IR n the speaker playback while gaming does get a lil heavy on it. power conservation techniques folks...:-)) figure em out according to ur needs.
I’m a heavy user. Hence I would say average battery performance.shud be definetly better under moderate usage. the battery is lithium-polymer :efficiency improves with usage.(up2 a certain point of course:-)) )
OTHER FEATURES: the run of the mill predictive text input for sms, speakerphone, speed dialling, picture phonebook, voice dialling, custom ringtones , WAP, GPRS, MMS, vibration alert etc..
The ORGANIZER however is well evolved and comes in handy. another thng I really find helpful is the screen SHORTCUT option..(u set the joysticks four directional to open any 4 features that u use most) Another is the neatFOLDER management for storing ur sound, video or images.
Initialy I found the keypad a lil cramped, but then its jus a matter of a couplo days usage til u get used to that.
Folks I can go on and on..I keep discoverin new stuf (like cool shortcuts) almost evry other day.
SonyEricsson usually does this easteregg stuff on its models. they’re never mentioned in any of the accompanying booklets..its upto u to explore I guess.. this is one cool phone that grows onto you...
I absolutely love it....and y not??!!.
It’s those two words I started this rather long review with and all the stuff in between I should say;-)) !!! if u still have second thoughts, spare a little time and try finding another phone in the same price range offering similar features.. ;-) my first review folks....hoping that its been helpful ... :-)