I just purchased this phone from a dealer in Bangalore last week and want to share my experience with folks out there. I have been a sworn Nokia dude all my life and for the first time in some 6 years I have switched to a non-Nokia phone.
The K700 cost me Rs. 20, 500 (about US $ 450) and I consider this a fat price to pay for a phone. However, feeling rich I decided to invest in a state-of-the-art phone with camera, bluetooth etc. I was getting tired of using the Infrared port on my old Nokia 6510 and wanted to buy a phone with Bluetooth so I could exchange info with my Apple Mac Powerbook G4.
Out of the box, the phone is very sleek and impressive. It took me a while to get used to the keypad and display but nevertheless I got comfortable with the phone in a couple of days. I actually read the manual end-to-end on this thing for the first time in my life (!) and read about all the features. Here is a run-down of my experience so far:
Keys and Display: Certainly superior to my old Nokia’s. I love the color and animation.
Rings: Terrible. The rings are designed for a teenager in my opinion. There are no rings that are professional and can be used in business. I can probably download some but I have not looked on sonyericsson.com as yet. The rings available are LOUD and too funky for business users.
Navigation: The navigation is okay. I was a little disappointed with the Navigation Key. It is very sensitive and many times when I think I am pressing down on it to select something, I end up pushing it up, down or sideways and something else happens. Also, when the phone is in idle mode, the display goes off (which is fine) but only comes awake when I hit one of the selection keys. Why on earth would the navigation key not do the same thing?
Text Messaging: This is nice. The T9 (predictive text feature) is nice except for the fact that you have to learn to hit the # key to go to next word while typing but that is cool. The one issue I have again comes from the navigation key. While sending a message that has been typed, you have to be extra careful with the phonebook lookup. If you pick the wrong contact, you cannot go back and pick another one! You have to save the message to the Drafts folder and then forward it. Kinda weird.
Camera: Fantastic! I am very impressed by the quality, the ease-of-use and the images, especially the way the pictures come out despite bad light. This is very cool for a guy who has used first generation phones all his life :-) Bluetooth: It took me a while to sync up with my Mac, but then I am able to transfer files, pictures, sync contacts etc. quite easily now.
Handsfree: The quality of sound is great but I am not a fan of the 2-earpiece thing. It is a pain to keep earplugs in both ears while driving. If I had the money I would try a bluetooth device. Also for some reason, the length of wire for the right earpiece is WAY smaller than the left earpiece. Makes it that much more difficult to put the thing on. Not sure why this is designed so. (I am adding this comment on July 27th. Apparently, the length of the wire to the left earpiece is longer because it is supposed to be wrapped around the neck! Thanks to sandeepmohan for this tip.)
Battery: This is THE MOST DISAPPOINTING thing. I am forced to charge my phone every day even though I barely talk 30 minutes/day on the thing. I am used to charging a phone every 2-3 days. So, if you are a heavy user, you should look into this aspect before buying this phone.
In summary, I would not recommend this phone to a business user because of the poor battery life. For this kind of money you should get at least 2-3 hours of talk time. The dealer claims you can get this but I have not seen this as yet.
Added August 3, 2004
I visited Solara (Sony Ericsson Service Center) and complained to them about my unacceptable battery life and they gave me a new battery without a murmur. The new battery is marginally better but I still end up charging my phone every day which is a pain. So, looks like you are expected to carry the charger with you wherever you go when you buy this phone.