Price Range: $192.16 to $399.00

Send a smile, share a moment

Share a little happiness. The 2 megapixel K550i Cyber-shot phone is ideal for catching and sharing smiles on the fly.

Just open the lens cover and you’re ready to shoot. Move in close with the digital zoom. Or go for the broad picture - try a panorama view. Use your shots to keep in touch. Send a picture message. Upload to your blog for all to see. You can also connect a USB cable and send straight to a printer.

The 2 Megapixel camera on the back has an active lens cover that protects it. You can quickly access the camera by sliding down the lens cover. Right next to the camera, you will barely notice the external speaker. Unfortunately, the M2 memory slot card has been placed under the hood of the back cover, but at least you won’t be forced to pull out the battery. The thin buttons of the keypad might look very hard to use at first glance, but don’t worry, as you’ll get used to it. Even for those that are heavy SMS-text users it won’t be a real issue after 2 days of use. The exact measures of the phone 102 x 46 x 14 mm and its weight (85 grams including battery), make it one of the smallest handsets of the Cyber-shot series. Overall, the phone looks compact and sturdy, but in terms of design, it totally lacks the X-factor.

The high quality camera feature provides the user with an easy to use 2 megapixel camera Cyber-shot™ camera. The user can take photos instantly by simply sliding the lens cover & away they go. The Cyber-shot™ camera provides the user with a high resolution digital camera which allows the user to view their shots on the TFT colour screen. The camera feature comes complete with a digital zoom, photo light, auto focus & dedicated camera features menu. The auto focus feature will automatically focus on the subject & allows the user to capture a focused & clear photo every time. The digital zoom is a 2.25 x zoom which allows the user to zoom in & out of the subject & still gain a clear & precise photo. The user can send their photos to a picture blog site which allows the user to share their photos with others easily. The user simply takes a photo using their integrated 2 megapixel camera Cyber-shot™ camera, adds some text about the photo & publishes it for all to view.

The phone delivers on the music front too. It includes an FM radio as well as a music player. Sound quality is excellent, as you’d expect from the company that makes the top-selling Walkman range of music phones. The K550i is compatible with stereo headphones and Bluetooth wireless stereo headsets - both are available as optional accessories from Sony Ericsson. A very welcome feature is the generous amount of internal memory (64 Mbytes - enough for about a dozen songs) and the support for a Memory Stick Micro™ card, available in sizes up to 2 Gbytes. As with the Walkman phones, the K550i is equipped with two useful music features: TrackID™ & PlayNow™. TrackID lets you record a few seconds of a song, and then get the track, artist and album information sent directly to your phone. PlayNow is a service for downloading music and games to your phone (you have to pay for these.)

Camera
* Auto focus
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 2.25x
* Photo light
* Picture blogging
* Video record

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* Music tones
* PlayNow™
* TrackID™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* PictBridge
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 am and is filed under Candy Bar, Cyber-shot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.