Features
4.7
The Sony Ericsson K790/K800 has a lot of advanced features as well. The Bluetooth is version 2.0 and is fast when sending data. There is also a preinstalled application called Bluetooth Remote which lets you control your computer’s media player or slide show presenter. The Bluetooth remote also lets you use the phone’s joystick as a mouse. In order to do this your computer needs to have built in Bluetooth or you need a Bluetooth USB key inserted. The K790/K800 also supports Stereo over Bluetooth which enables you to listen to your music wirelessly. I will discuss more on the stereo over Bluetooth under the Audio section of this review.
Radio is another key feature but you have to have the headphones connected in order to listen. If you do not have the headphones plugged in and try to access the radio it will say “Please insert the hands-free. The cord works as an antenna.” Since the headphones use the same port as the phone’s charger, you may think that you cannot listen to music or the radio while it is charging, but in fact you can. All you have to do is plug the headphones into the bottom of the charger port, this way you can have a radio station set for your alarm clock while the phone charges overnight.
Another cool feature I like in this phone is that you can charge the phone while it is plugged into the computer via USB. While you are loading your phones with media, it charges simultaneously. If you want to disable this feature, you cannot do it through the normal phone menu. There is a secret menu on most Sony Ericsson phones and you can access it by pressing: right, star, left, left, star, left, star. At this menu you can do all sorts of stuff like service checks to ensure everything on the phone is in perfect working condition, disabling USB charge and more. If you are buying this phone second hand or buying it brand new and feel that it might be used you can check the real life-timer minutes through the secret menu. In the normal menu you can easily reset all timers so you never know if its real or not.
Cyber-Shot Camera
The Camera is by far the most advanced feature on the K790/K800. This is the first phone to have the “Cyber-Shot” logo on it which in the past has made an excellent name for itself when it comes to digital cameras. The camera is 3.2 mega pixels which is the first Sony Ericsson phone to offer a camera over 3 mega pixels. The phone also has a built in Xenon flash which makes night pictures look like day. This is a major upgrade from the k750 which had a LED flash. There are many features that have been added that make this phone truly a
Cyber-shot camera-phone.
- The camera features include:
- “BestPic” Which takes 9 photos instantly and you can choose the best one out of the 9.
- Image Stabilizer in both image and video mode.
- Red Eye Reduction
- Panorama feature which takes three pictures and combines them into one. (meant for wide pictures)
- AF Illuminator
- Options to switch between: Macro, Standard AF and fixed focus.
- Self- timer
Although the k790/k800 has all of these features does it produce good pictures? The answer is definitely yes. To date I have not seen any better camera phone that can produce high resolution pictures like this. Although there are digital cameras that are more than 5 mega-pixels, people think they must be better. This is a big misconception because even though a camera has more mega-pixels does not necessarily mean that it produces better pictures, all it means is that the size of the picture will be bigger. So in fact a camera that has less mega pixels can still produce a better picture than that of a camera with more mega pixels and just because a camera has more mega-pixels does not always mean it is better.
What makes this phone stand out from the others is the Camera lens cover. Like other Cyber-Shot cameras the lens cover slides down seamlessly and looks awesome!! It also does great job of protecting the camera lens, but the lens cover sometimes opens when the phone is in your pocket. Also you have to be careful because the camera lens cover sticks out, so when placing it on a table it rests on the cover and might get scratched.
The Samsung D900 also has a 3 mega-pixel camera and is also very good in quality. When taking pictures outdoors the quality is almost the same. When taking pictures in low lighting or indoors, the K790/K800 is much superior due to the excellent Xenon flash.
The Cyber-Shot camera has 8 different scene settings to best fit the type of photo you’re taking.
- Auto: This is the default setting
- Landscape
- Portrait
- Twilight Landscape: for far night pictures, no flash
- Twilight Portrait: white balancing
- Sports: for fast moving pictures
- Beach/Snow
- Document: for taking close-ups of word documents
Overall I loved the K790/K800’s Cyber-Shot camera for still pictures, but I did not like the video capabilities. For some strange reason the video resolution is only QCIF 176x144. I would think that this phone having a Cyber-Shot camera would make better videos, but I was wrong. The most disappointing part about it is the fact that the Sony Ericsson W900 is capable of recording video at a resolution of QVGA 320x240. If Sony Ericsson has the ability to make QVGA quality videos, why is it not included on their Cyber-Shot camera phone? The W900 has a 2 mega-pixel camera and is capable of making better videos does not make sense to me.
