Ok, before I get a flurry of brickbats for the review title, give me a moment to explain my reasoning. You see, the LED Flash in the K750i also doubles us as a very good torch. It has proven to be a Godsend in all those situations when there was no electricity in an area at night. This feature has also been carried over to other Sony Ericsson models like the W700i and the K550i. The attached picture can give you a small indication of how good it is. It’s purposes as a flash though, are less well served.
The Sony Ericsson K750i was introduced back in 2005, and remains till date Sony Ericsson’s most successful model. Indeed, the foundations were so strong, that it spawned a lot of other models on the same platform, namely, the W800i, W700i and W810i, among others.
So, cut to 2008, with a three year old phone for review... is it strictly relevant. Well, yes, for the landmark K750i is still a worthy contender today as well, if not quite the class leading champion that we all used to know.
I bought my K750i in 2006, when the prices were around Rs. 10, 500. These days, you can pick one up for Rs. 7500. Like the Ford Model T, the K750i can be had in any colour, as long as it’s black.
So, lets break it down into various sections, so we cover all the bases:
1. Looks and Build Quality: The K750 comes in a two-tone colour scheme, with Black on the front and back and a silver stripe running down the side. It is a handsome phone in an understated way. It is rather thick though, compared to phones today. At 20.5 mm thickness, it bulges out of the pockets and will be a bit of a squeeze in tight jeans. Just to highlight, the Nokia 6300 is around 10.8mm in thickness. However, you can get the K550i with 14mm thickness if you want a slightly slimmer phone. One key advantage the K750i holds over the K550i is the fact that it has a very good keypad. Nice and with a good white back lighting, the K750i’s keypad definitely rates above average.
Predominantly made of plastic, the K750i still feels quite robust in the hand. However, with 3 years of hard use, it now has some squeaks coming from the body shell. The power, volume and camera shutter button are also of good quality and easy to press, but the chrome finish on the camera shutter button got worn out after a year of use.
Sony Ericsson’s joysticks elicit a love it or hate it emotion. Unlike the 4 way D-Pad which we are familiar with, Sony Ericsson decided to equip its phones with 4-directional Joysticks. Now, they have a great feel and are very comfortable to use, especially when scrolling through menus... just one problem, they accumulate dust under the surface and can get stuck after some usage. You have to ensure that you clean the surface of the joystick at least once a fortnight.
2. Interface: Anyone familiar with Sony Ericsson’s will be right at home with the animated interface of the K750i, with its array of 4 X 3 icons, which results in an easy way of finding whichever option you want. In addition, you can program the main shortcut to key to access various functions. By default, those are torch, calendar and alarm, among others. The sub-menus are also easy to access with the Joystick, enabling one to easily scroll through the list of options. And the Joystick can be customized to act as a shortcut for 4 functions by moving it in the desired direction. Regarding the menu system, it is smooth with less lag and is pretty stable.
3. Calling and Sound Quality: The K750i picks up signal quite well, and its signal strength is good. However, the maximum volume of the earpiece is not as good, and even when cranked up to the max, I have to cover my other ear in order to be able to hear what the caller is saying, especially in a crowed area. Also, wind noise is quite easily picked up by this phone; a problem, when say, you are travelling in an auto. In all other regards, the K750i performs admirably, with clear sound and less distortion. The loudspeaker is also good and reasonably loud.
4. Phonebook and Organizer: The K750i can store upto 500 numbers, and the phonebook has option of storing the address, emails, allocating home, office, mobile numbers and also photos and dedicated ringtones for each particular contact. The phonebook size is enough for many of us, though I would have preferred a larger capacity.
The organizer is fine as well; but one feature which I miss about the Sony Ericsson’s organizer is the lack of an Active Standby screen, something which I find very useful on the S40 and S0 equipped Nokia’s, e.g. the 6300, 5310, E and N Series. But otherwise, the calendar works fine.
5. Messaging: With its good quality keypad, the K750i handles SMSing with aplomb. People have complained that the font size is too small, but I didn’t find it to be a problem. You can view around 5 lines of text on the screen, in addition to the battery / signal status and menu options. The K750i can store around 200 messages, inclusive of sent and received messages.
6. Screen Quality: The screen is around 2 inches and is 262k colours. With that specification and a resolution of 176 X 220 pixels, it is no surprise that the K750i feels just a little bit underclassed in this day and age of 16 million colour screens. But the screen is still good, especially to view the photos that you have clicked. I would, however, not recommend it for viewing video.
7. Camera and Music: The K in K750i, stand for Camera; and the K750i’s trump card is it’s outstanding camera, which is still one of the better ones in the mid-range segment. It has the LED Flash, Autofocus, and other DigiCam options like Self Timer, White Balance, Colour Tone, Exposure Compensation and a Night Mode. The pictures are not as good as a proper digital camera; but I found, that in good lighting, I can make 4 X 6" prints of some photos clicked with the K750i. However, I cannot turn off the shutter sound when clicking a picture, even when turning the phone into silent mode.
Music was not meant to be main focus of the K750i (that was for the W series), and it shows. The bundled earphones are of average quality, the music player is not the improved Walkman music player, and well, the bundled memory card is only 64MB, hardly enough for storing 12 songs. Also, unlike the Xpressmusic Nokia’s, the K750i does not come with a 3.5mm headphone jack, hence, you can’s just attach and earphone and use it. You need to buy an adapter. In spite of all this, the K750i still delivers good quality sound.
8. Battery Life: With a 950mAh capacity battery, the K750i delivers decent battery life. With one hour of calls a day, the phone should last for around 3 days without needing a charge. However, with extended use of the music player and camera, battery life falls to 2 or even 1 day, depending on the usage level.
Another disadvantage of the K750i is that it does not support 3G, and with 3G starting to be offered in India, at least on a trial basis, if you want your phone to be future proof as regards net surfing on 3G, you may want to look elsewhere. But for those of us who want a phone with a Powerful Camera below Rs. 10, 000, the K750i (now also K550i at the same price), or the upgraded K790i (costing around Rs. 9, 700), may be worth a look.