After having a trouble free 6 months with T630, I decided to switch over to a K-series phone from Sony Ericsson looking forward to its MP3 ringtones, MP4 videos, better camera and speedy and horizontal tabbed User Interface. Keeping my budget at 10K, I decided to get a ’Twilight Black’ K508i which is basically the K500i with metallic keypads. Since the K500i is the ’little brother’ of K700i in terms of specifications and K508i is just a cosmetic upgrade of K500i ..and hence the title ’LITTLE BROTHER - ACT - II’.
After 1 month with this phone here are my observations:
1.BUILD QUALITY & LOOKS: At 87 grams it is lighter than K700 and T630, but is slightly bulkier at the top.The K508i black finish is top class and looks much better when compared to K500i.
- RECEPTION , CALL QUALITY & BATTERY: The reception of K-series phones is way better than T-series phones and call quality is very clear with minimum of signal fluctuation.A inbuilt speaker phone is available.Battery comes about 2 and 1/2 days with calls, GPRS and browsing through the phone.
3.MENUS:The 65K TFT screen makes the screen look sharp and the color reproduction is good.The horizontal tabbed ’’User Interface’’ of this phone makes browsing through menus easier and getting to a function is made easier by the shortcuts assigned to the joystick. Browsing through the menus are very fast without any lag.
- MESSAGING: Supports SMS/MMS/E-Mail. Through MMS we can send pictures and videos too. But there is a size limit of 100 Kb.POP3 E-Mail ID can be configured with the E-Mail client and we can send/receive E-Mail through GPRS.
5.MULTIMEDIA: The phone has capability to play MID/MP3/MP4/3GP/WAV (16Khz) with the in-built media player. It is possible to set MP3 files as ringtones and alarm tones. Pictures can be in JPG/GIF/PNG/BMP format. Animated themes are also supported.One can create their own themes using Sony Ericsson Theme Creator Software.The total memory is 12 MB. User can create their own folders to store the various files.And there is no FM Radio (But K700i has FM).But the FM Stereo Handsfree is available for those who are interested.The Media Player can stream Videos live through GPRS which makes viewing ’TV Services from operators like AirTel possible’.
6.CONNECTIVITY: This phone has USB/IR support.No bluetooth which is one of the major differences from K700i.You can send and receive any type of files through IR. The phone has GPRS (class 10) support and the inbuilt browser supports CHTML allowing us to view color WAP pages (WAP V2.0).The phone can also be used as a GPRS modem by connecting it to a PC/Laptop via cable or IR.
7.GAMES & APPLICATIONS: The phone supports Java MIDP V2.0 and also has support for 3D Java games. The speed at which Java games run is very fast and there are many games available for this phone which can be played in ’Full Screen’ and also Sony Ericsson gameboard accessory can be used. Java productivity applications like World Clock, JBenchmark and E-Book Reader can be installed.
8.PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: The inbuilt phonebook can store 510 numbers with multiple numbers for a single contact.Users can assign individual ringtones and pictures for a contact. There is a calendar to store appointments, tasks, calculator, timer, stopwatch, code memo and alarm clock. The phonebook and calendar can be synced with Outlook in the PC.
- CAMERA: The camera lens has a sliding cover to protect it. The camera take pictures at a resoltion of 640x480 pixels or at a extended resolution of 1280x960 pixels. There are many settings to tweak the photo and there are funny ’frames’ to overlay on the photo.There is also 4X Digital zoom available. The camera can also take videos at 176x144 pixels.The times of recording is limited only by the memory.
Now at present its rate is at 9.5K Rs. it is a good buy for its features else people can look at Sony Ericsson K300i at 8.3K Rs. only difference is the Screen or people who need bluetooth and more memory can look at SonyEricsson K700i. For details on K508i you can visit my site https://vsoft-sol.netfirms.com/mobile.html