Sony Ericsson K750 review: Get excited!

The display of Sony Ericsson K750 is brilliant indeed. No visible ridges can be seen between the pixels, so the grid of the screen does not counteract with the picture. It seems though that no display is able to create the perfect pure white tone. K750 is no exception: its white color has a slight rose shade. Backlighting is completely even. You will not spot a single ghost on the white surface. It makes the margins of the display turn somewhat lighter only if you decide to put black wallpaper on it. The display shows good quality when looked at from an acute angle, but, of course, performs best when the sight falls perpendicularly on it. The layer under the display is partly reflexive, so pictures are visible even under direct sunlight. The phone also offers a new brightness control option.

Shortcuts are back

As the display has been mounted relatively high on the top side of the phone, there is enough space left for the keypad. The buttons of the functional part are distributed exactly in the way we would expect them to be from a high-class Sony Ericsson phone. As for phone calls, they are managed by the buttons situated just below the display. The green and the red receivers are missing. Here you will also find the back key and the correction C button.

Below the display, between the functional buttons there is another key, whose icon is unidentifiable. I would dare predict that in final version phones, distributed by mobile operators, by pressing this key one will be able to directly enter WAP. In the rest of the devices it opens a menu, which consists of three folders:

A new key opens the menu for fast operations

New events: focused here are all incoming unread messages, missed calls or alerts of certain events from the calendar. Inside the setup options you can choose whether you want to use the new function, or you prefer to be alerted about new or planned events in the standard way: in a separate window.
 

Demonstration of new events

Shortcuts: Users' favorite function is back. In this menu you can arrange the functions you use most frequently. As a result, they are much quicker to access.

Shortucts menu

Bookmarks: references to favorite WAP and Internet pages.

Internet bookmarks

The left functional button below the display controls the call list (all calls as well as received, outgoing and missed calls); a press on the right button or the joystick takes you into the main menu.

Sensitive control

I have not become used to the joystick yet. I still find it much too sensitive. Fortunately, its top stays in perfect alignment with the surrounding surface, so incidental pressings are out of the question. Yet, the well around the joystick is relatively big, which could probably eventuate in an unwilling touch of its sharp edge. In any case, the joystick reacted so finely during the tests that it left a feeling of uncertainty in me even though I did not make any keying mistakes. The joystick recognizes diagonals and has nine ways altogether. Despite its high characteristics though, you will probably end up using the four basic world directions only, if we do not take account of the few special applications, of course. All four ways can be assigned user's shortcuts.

Joystick is very sensitive

Let me explain right away how shortcut functions are selected in Sony Ericsson. The phone does not offer a list of all options. You need to simply browse the menu; when the function you are looking for appears on the display, mark it by pressing the button.

The number keys are grouped into a rectangle. They alone are oblong too, except for the number 2 key, which is limited by the joystick. The keys are good. Even though the dividing lines between them are sufficient for successful touch orientation, they are so narrow that writing is not as comfortable as expected. After several days of testing I still felt a little bit uncertain when using the keypad. All keys are made of solid plastics. They do not sag, but rather waggle in their beddings.

All keys of the keypad but the one with number 2 are strictly oblong

Keypad can be locked both manually and automatically. For a manual lock press the asterisk and the right functional button. The same short-cut unlocks the keypad. As for auto locking, it is activated after 20 seconds of inactivity of the keypad, which I consider a bit short interval of time.

Keypad is accompanied by rich white backlights

The memory card slot

The three outlets for the receiver have been fit into the tiny space between the top edge of the phone and the display. Here you will also find the manufacturer's logotype. Another detail on the front cover, which draws attention, is the QuickShare sign, located below the keypad. In our case, it is gummed down a little bit askew, in result of which its silver margin becomes visible on the black background.

Not much space has left for the receiver and the manufacturer's logo • the askew gummed down QuickShare logo

The phone is equipped with a built-in antenna and works at frequencies of 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. On its top side there is a simple switch-off button, a semicircular slot for the infrared port and a well for the holder.

Phone's top side with the switch-off button and the infrared port

Mounted on the bottom side of the phone is the new Fast Port system connector. It is a different type connector, which, I am afraid, is incompatible with the old Sony Ericsson accessories. The main reason for the new connector to be developed is its ability to transfer data quickly.

The new Fast Port connector and the male plug connector of the ear-phones with its long "arms"

On phone's bottom side you will also find a microphone and an eyelet for interlacing a strip. On its left side is the button, which starts the music player or the radio. To choose between the two applications, use the settings in the menu. Optionally, you can assign this button the function of playing the last music application, you have used. In any case, to activate the MP3 player with this button you will need to plug in the ear-phones. They can be replaced by the loud speaker only if you start the player from the main menu.

Eyelet for a strip • music button

In the bottom part of phone's left side is the slot for the Memory Stick Duo memory card (incl. the Pro version). It is protected by elastic gum cover; to pull out the card, press on it a bit and it will jump out itself. The card can be removed while the phone is on. A standard part of the Sony Ericsson K750's delivery package is a 64 MB memory card. If you happen to need more capacity, you will have to pay additionally. At present, the maximum capacity a mobile phone can take in is 2 GB. Memory cards are, however, quite expensive. An original 1GB Memory Stick card in a cheap internet shop costs no less than 130 euros. At the same time, a MMC card can be found for half this price. Together with the phone Sony Ericsson also offers an adapter which makes possible the use of the tiny Memory Stick Duo card in card readers of a standard size.

Memory card slot • memory card and adapter

What else can be found?

On the right side of phone there is a double button, whose main function is to control the volume. If the phone is in a stand-by mode, a press on this button opens the Phone state information window. Besides other details, the window provides you with information about the unoccupied memory both in the phone and on the memory card, the current state of the battery expressed in percentages (formerly, Sony Ericsson knew how to provide us with life time expectations as well).

Volume control key

Details about the phone and the battery's current state

A bit lower is situated the camera button. A longer press on it activates the camera application. The same thing could be done by simply removing the lens cover (which you will need to do anyway). After the cover has been removed, a white diode mounted under the button gives a wink. By the way, this phone is not equipped with a key for a quick access to WAP.

Special button for the camera

We have finally reached the back cover of Sony Ericsson K750. A sliding little cover reveals the camera lens as well as a tiny mirror for self-portraits. Under a small plate, which can be hulled out, is hidden the connector for the external antenna. An extra is the silver grip, where one can rest their fingers while shooting.

Camera's cover • camera's lens and a mirror • an external antenna connector • silver grip for resting your fingers while taking pictures

The phone is equipped with two light diodes, whose purpose is to add light to the scene. They can also serve as a flashlight - a function Sony Ericsson has installed in the phone's menu. The diodes can be set to beam for a non-limited period of time or for a minute as well as broadcast the Morse SOS signal. Although the light can be switched on by using the menu, it would have been more suitable if it got activated by a longer press on a key, for example. The diodes are pretty strong and can therefore easily assume the functions of a flashlight.

Additional light diodes

Light control

On the back cover of the phone there is a plate grid, under which the loud speaker is hidden. Situated at the very edge of the projecting silver cover of the camera lens, the grid does not touch the table surface. In fact, the quality of the sound in the middle of a phone call or a music program does not depend on whether the display is placed with its face up or down.

The outlet of the loud speaker

Let's not forget the batteries. They are a Li-Pol type, with a capacity of 900 mAh. It is not possible to remove the whole back cover, but a small part of it only. For this reason the battery needs to be tucked into the gap. The SIM card is placed under the battery and is therefore relatively difficult to pull out. What should I add about the duration? For now I can only quote the officially presented statements: up to 400 hours in a stand-by mode or nearly 540 min of phone calls. I do not dare guess the real duration time. The comments on it published by SEMania in its last review were not very positive, so I would say two days of heavy use will be about the maximum.

Battery is partly tucked into the tunnel

On the other hand, the new Sony Ericsson model needs no more than two hours to get recharged and what's more, it can also be recharged by getting connected to the computer's USB port through a data cable delivered together with the phone. Unlike the Siemens mobile phones, whose recharge can be controlled by means of a switch mounted on the cable, in the case of K750 you do not have a choice. The phone gets recharged in any case, left alone the fact that the recharging process is far from optimized.

The camera: the best two megapixels

In my hand I am holding today's best photo mobile phone. Coming very soon is its one and only competitor - Nokia N90. As Nokia has not accomplished the final version of its newly prepared model, I would rather leave the comparison between the pictures of both phones for later. Anyway, Sony Ericsson has already gained several points by edging two mega pixels in such small phone like K750. Nokia's new smartphone is a bit overgrown.

The photos K750 takes are brilliant for a mobile phone. You have already had the chance to look through the photo gallery and read the comparisons with other top-class photo mobile phones. While I was writing this review, I took only few new pictures with K750 for I was preparing a separate article about its camera, in which pictures would prevail. So let me now tell you more about the functions of the camera.

Sony Ericsson K750 takes pictures in a 1632 × 1224 pixels resolution and is therefore a two megapixel camera phone. A lower resolution of 640 × 480 or 160 × 120 pixels is also available. You can choose between two quality options. A best quality JPEG file in the highest possible resolution takes about 400 KB.

Camera's environment

To start taking pictures, simply remove the plate covering the lens on the back side of the phone. The display immediately changes into a viewfinder. Turn the phone into a horizontal position and your point finger will bed directly onto the release button. The latter is very much like the two stage shutter of a regular camera because Sony Ericsson K750 is one of the first photo mobile phones to offer an auto focus function, which is activated by a light press on the release button. For a good result you need to wait until a peep sound comes out and the point on the display turns green. Then fully press the release button and the camera will expose. The moment of exposure is always accompanied by a kind of a shutter sound. Unfortunately, neither the peep, nor the shutter sound is possible to get rid of. In the firmware version we were given, both sounds could be heard even when the phone was in a silent mode.

Video: how to work with the camera - starting applications, focusing and scene capturing (0.81 MB)

Due to its auto-focus function Sony Ericsson K750 is a little bit slower than other photo mobiles:

• first picture: 4.11 seconds
• reaction speed after the release button has been pressed: 2.32 seconds
• interval between two pictures (shots): 7.35 seconds

On the other hand, the exact focus - especially in the micro mode - is a sure advantage. K750 makes excellent photos of texts or other close objects. All details are perfectly clear, including the photo corners.

Close-up samples: the heavy weapon of Sony Ericsson K750

The camera offers a digital zoom only. The latter is almost continuous. It offers 30 steps and is managed by the volume control double button. Additional light for the darker scenes is provided by a flash; the two diodes are another means for increasing the intensity of the light, which accompanies the moment of pressing the release button. An additional flash light can also be mounted to the phone.

In twilight: a standard mode • night mode • flash

Beaming diodes • a dark scene • a double close-up lighted by Sony Ericsson; the pictures were taken with a studio camera

The joystick helps you control the compensation of the exposure. Make sure you learn how to use this option, because if you don't, your pictures will often be overexposed.

A press on the joystick opens a menu, which is similar to the menus of the Sony CyberShot cameras. The annoying moment here is that the menu closes down every time a choice is confirmed, so it is necessary to open it again when a new setting is required. Fortunately, the most frequent functions like resolution setup, macro, the night mode or the flash have their correspondent key short-cuts and can be started outright.

Camera's menu

Among other functions we could mention the white color balance option, which is often necessary to use for the auto mode does not cope with more complicated light conditions.

A demonstration of the difference the manual balance of the white can make (right picture). I took about 10 photos using the manual balance and I wonder why each of them came out a little bit unfocused. Whereas all pictures taken with activated auto white-balance were beautifully clear, the ones I took using glow lamps were all somewhat worse.

The camera offers plenty of options for picture modifications: effects, frames, continuous shooting, panoramic photos divided into three parts. All details about the exposure and the settings are saved in the EXIF header of the JPEG file. For modifying the ready pictures use the PhotoDJ application.

According to unofficial information shortly before launching its new model Sony Ericsson replaced the sensor in the built-in camera. The chip that was supposed to be mounted in the place of the current CCD chip was of the CMOS type. The phone itself does not give any information about this, but certain signs point to the conclusion that the camera's sensor belongs to the CMOS type.

More sample photos:

Sony Ericsson K750 is equipped to record videos as well. The maximum resolution it can perform remains within the standard 176 × 144 pixels. The length of a video record depends on the free memory availability. While shooting, you can use a zoom, but you are not allowed to turn off the sound. In the end you can play your videos horizontally. Modifications like editing, combining etc. are possible thanks to the VideoDJ application.

Video records review • playing video record in a standard and a whole-screen mode

VideoDJ application for work with video records

Environment: animation everywhere you go

The graphics of the user's environment, which origin in the previous K700 model, have been innovated. Animation can be found literally at each step:

• Entrance to the main menu: the icons expand form the center to the margins of the display
• Moves in the main menu: the selected icon gets gradually bigger and starts pulsing together with its enclosing circle
• Next level menu: it unrolls down form the heading
• Moves in the next level menu: all cursor moves are animated
• Folders(in the settings, for example): when you pass over to the next folder, it zooms in from aside

Main menu • settings inside the folders

Consider also the animated wallpapers on the main display and the moving background behind the accentuated menus. At the very beginning I thought the animations were stunning, but after a couple of days they started to annoy me a bit. What a pity they are fixed in the phone with no chance to be skipped over.

Video: a demonstration of the main display and the menu, creating SMS (1.23 MB)

How fast is actually Sony Ericsson K750? There is no definite answer to this question. The phone would react instantly to my orders; well, perhaps with an imperceptible delay. Added the animation, however, it became a bit slower. Left alone the fact that in terms of speed Sony Ericsson K750 could hardly be considered a top-class phone, it is so fast that the majority of the customers will be fully satisfied. Yet, an option that would allow the user turn off the animation could have come in handy.

How to control the Sony Ericsson K750

The main display is decorated with wallpaper, which can be animated too. Texts occupy the top and the bottom part of the display only, so most of its surface is reserved for pictures. The wallpaper is often a part of the graphic theme, which modifies the background behind the menus as well as other details of the user's environment. The phone has four preinstalled graphic themes, which are both light and inverse. More themes of various qualities can be found and downloaded from Internet.

Main display

4 standard graphic themes

A screen saver in the form of a big digital clock gets activated after a few moments of inactivity. It also displays the icons of missed events. The only way to exit the screen saver is to press the arrow key.

Screen saver, backlighting goes out completely within moments

The icons in the main menu are grouped in a matrix, which consists of four lines and three columns. They are colorful and very well elaborated and are thus easy to recognize. The joystick helps you move inside the matrix. I.e., if you need to quickly go from the bottom to the first icon, simply press the arrow downwards. To fasten your work the phone offers you key shortcuts which correspond with the positions of the icons in the matrix - it is easy, because the number keypad also has four lines and three columns. The numeric shortcuts can also be used in other menu levels, but do not forget to count down from the first line for numbers are not displayed here.

The control system is remarkably consistent. You can be sure that a click on the arrow will take you a level back and that pressing and holding it will send you straight to the main display. The C key erases everything that is possible to erase.

What could we say about the memory?

The capacity of the internal memory of Sony Ericsson K750 is about 34 MB. The phone manager does not separate the files according to their position or tree structure, but sorts them according to their type. As a result, you will see files from both the internal memory and the memory card placed next to each other. The memory is divided into sections: pictures (placed in a subfolder), video files, and sounds, graphic themes, saved web pages, games and applications. The last folder is reserved for files of all types that do not fit anywhere else.

File manager

Once you have installed the PC Suite software package, an entry called Sony Ericsson File Manager pops up among the programs. It helps you get into both the phone's memory and the memory card - all that from your PC. The trip to the memory capacities can be simplified though: you can also get there from a common file manager using a cable. In this case the manager gets displayed as a disk. Yet, since Sony Ericsson does not support USB Mass Storage the File Manager does not appear as a disk right after a common connection through a cable has been established. To make it show up you will need to install special drivers. The process is a bit time-consuming for you have to install about five different services. As a result the phone is not capable of establishing a cable connection with any computer, so its use as a portable storage is limited.

If the phone is connected through a cable, you are denied access to the memory card content. For example, you cannot get to the ringing melodies saved on the card. The cable connection also causes that the phone rings using its standard tone only. All functions and applications revert back to normality after the cable is disconnected.

How fast are data copied into the phone? A transfer of 38 MB of MP3 files took 115 seconds, which means that 1 MB is copied in 3 sec. or, in other words, 20 MB get transferred in a minute. The speed is not bad at all. Transfers get even faster if you use a memory card reader.

Looking through pictures

When you go through pictures in the phone, you can choose whether the views should be displayed in a 2 × 2 or 3 × 3 matrix scheme. All text views are not available. It takes some time to generate a view, so the view sequence is not utterly fluent. Still, it is faster than in K700.

Pictures in a 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 matrix scheme • viewing pictures

A click spreads the picture all over the display. If you work with standard horizontal photos, you may want to press the button for horizontal views, so that the photo fills up the entire display. The menu offers a zoom, which helps you enlarge a selected part of the photo. The phone, however, counts the zoom steps, in result of which the zooming process is not smooth. The cutout, which appears on the display, can be saved as an independent file that is basically the only way you could cut your pictures. As the zoom works in steps it is impossible to create a precisely defined cutout. In this menu you could also choose the size of the elaborated picture.

Horizontal views • zooming (Press Save to crop your picture)

Sony Ericsson offers a slideshow function that lets you present pictures on the display. The Remote Screen function does the same, but sends photos to a Bluetooth adapter, which can be attached to a TV. This adapter is not included in the box, it must be purchased separately.

Menu for a Remote control through Bluetooth

Thanks to the QuickShare concept, you can easily send emails as components of a MMS through Bluetooth or the infrared port. You can mark more than one file and then send them or delete them too. Files can be copied or moved from the inner memory onto the memory card and vice versa.

Phone calls: sound and other details

And here we are - finally in the section which makes any phone a real phone and where most characteristics never change. The sound of the phone calls made with Sony Ericsson K750 is of a very high quality, with pronounced bass elements. Loudness is also tolerable, but could have been even better. The built-in handsfree is activated from the context menu. Its sound is loud enough for a common environment, but is insufficient if the background is noisier. The phone is delivered together with a handsfree set and a set of stereophonic ear-phones. The sound performed by the ear-phones is louder than the one that comes out from the receiver. It is especially clear if both ear-phones are simultaneously used.

Dialing a phone number • calling

Calls can be recorded with the built-in sound recorder, which gets started from the context menu. The recorder is elementary: it offers no other functions but the Start and the Stop ones. Every 20 seconds a peep sound comes out in order to alert the person at the other end of the line that the conversation is being recorded. The duration of the record depends on the capacity of free memory only. The final result is a slightly indistinct AMR file.

Although the list with calls is mixed, you can check the groups of received, dialed and missed calls separately. The inconvenience here is that only the last of all calls, which were dialed, received or missed from or to the same phone number, is displayed. While you are talking a photo of the person, whose number you have dialed appears on the display - of course, provided you have assigned one to their contact details. The photo does not show up on the entire display, but uses its width only. The same thing happens when the call is incoming. In this case you could also turn down the ringing tone by pressing the side volume control button.

Calls list • filter for missed calls • picture of the calling person

Ringing melodies can be based on common MID (40 voices), MP3 or AMR files. They all can be saved into the phone or on the memory card. However, the quality of the MP3 ringing melodies is not good: the bass elements are missing while the heights are harsh and far from pleasant. It is strange because the sound of the MP3 files played by the built-in player is quite good, even if it comes out through the loud speaker. The difference becomes especially obvious if you first play a ringing melody in the MP3 player and then call your phone: it is as different as chalk and cheese. The ringing is loud enough, even though it depends on the characteristics of the original MP3 file.

A selection of ringing melodies, the corresponding icon marks location in the memory • MusicDJ application helps you create your own melodies

A proper phonebook - at last

The phonebook of the older Sony Ericsson models used to be the main reason why they were rarely recommend by the specialists. 500 numbers (but not names) were much too few, especially if you use synchronization with a computer. K750 is the first model from Sony Ericsson, which offers more: 500 names and an amount of numbers assigned to each of them. Even though it is not ideal yet (just consider: my phonebook from Outlook did not fit in the phone), 500 names surely make one breathe more easily. The address books on the SIM card and in the phone are displayed separately.

View at the phonebook • memory details

Searching contacts by entering the initial letters of the name is a new function for Sony Ericsson K750. The K700 model did not have it when it was first launched, but got it later, when the phone was already on the shelves. Yes, there is no doubt the phonebook is praiseworthy. As for the excellent mark, I prefer to keep it for the coming Sony Ericsson S600i, which is expected to offer a phonebook with 1000 name positions.

A standard view in the phonebook only shows the first number which you can call outright by pressing the corresponding button. Using the arrows, however, you can browse horizontally through all numbers and addresses. When you enter or edit a name the phone allows you to choose out of 5 types of numbers. Each contact, however, can be assigned each type of number only once: for example, it is not possible to save two mobile numbers in one contact. In addition, each number can be assigned a different melody for voice dialing.

Six tabs in one contact entry

Inside the phonebook there is also space for other details like email address, ID for instant messaging, web address, title, company, street address, note and birth date. Contact details can be copied and pasted into the calendar. Each contact person can be assigned a picture, which appears on the display when the person calls you, as well as an individual ringing melody.

You may want to pay more attention to synchronizing. When you set up the phonebook you can choose which name should be placed first - the first or the last one. Make sure, however, you do so in advance. The phone does not offer a second choice, or - to be more exact - it does, but to use it you will have to synchronize the phone once again. You should also be aware of the fact that certain entries in the phone are quite short, so some details from your Outlook phonebook may be shortened - a typical title or text note, for example.

Sorting while synchronizing

Names from the phonebook can be sorted into groups, which help you to both filter the incoming calls and send bulk messages. People, who are not included into the approved group, are automatically sent a busy signal.

Ringing melodies are set centrally. They receive no influence from the ringing profiles. An important element here is the loudness and the type of ringing as well as other sounds. You can also set up certain profiles to be redirected. To quickly switch to silent mode press and hold the hash key.

Messages and T9

Sony Ericsson K750 offers the following types of messages: SMS, EMS, MMS, independent sound MMS, email and instant messages.

Messages; main menu • a new message menu

K750 uses a different, bigger font for SMS writing than the previous Sony Ericsson models. The display takes in a maximum of 4 lines. Far from space-saving and thus a bit inconvenient is the way words are transferred to the next line when they do not fit into the current one. The incoming messages however are displayed in an extremely small and thin font. The memory is said to take in 100 SMS, but we cannot confirm this information, because the phone does not have a counter.

Writing SMS • word help

The phone is equipped with a T9 dictionary, which helps you write faster. Even though T9 can be fully switched off, do not do it for it is very intelligent and can significantly ease your work. When it offers you words, it follows the ones you use most frequently by moving them to a first position.

View at incoming messages • reading SMS

Sony Ericsson has kept the old method of writing, in which you can reach the other characters on the key by pressing the top or the bottom part of the volume control button. The latter has been moved to the right side of the phone and has therefore become almost inaccessible for those who are right-handed.

As usual, the text editor counts down the messages when the final characters are written. At every jump into another message a short alert appears on the display. The process of writing is fast. The speed remains unchanged even if a very long message is on the way. Addressees are selected by searching their name in the phonebook or by direct dialing of their phone number. The names or the numbers of the last few people you have sent a message to appear in a quick list, from which they can be easily picked up.

A new option: you can assign your own melodies to the text messages. The option is somewhat hidden. At first sight the menu seems to consist of standard familiar sounds only. At the end of the list, however, you will see an entry, which will directly take you to the MP3 files in the memory.

Hidden on the last position is the option for choosing one's own message sounds

The MMS editor is very well organized. Each MMS can take in pictures, videos, sounds and a text. It can be up to 300 KB big. Yet, a 2 megapixel photo will not fit in it; all the pictures I took were bigger. You cannot be 100% sure that such a big message will be successfully delivered either, because not all mobile operators support MMS of such a big size.

MMS editor

Inside the main menu there is an independent entry called Voice Message. In fact, it is a sound MMS. Once again, Sony Ericsson offers the My friends service for sending instant messages. To activate it your provider must support it.

Email: 2 MP photos can be attached

Now let us have a special look at the email client. If you still remember how poor work with attachments used to be in older Sony Ericsson models, forget about it. It is no more true. The email client knows how to work with them and is capable of managing the service of up to 10 accounts on the POP3 or IMAP4 servers. In contrast to the other applications in the phone the email client is not very fast. It showed significant delays when I was browsing through the received emails.

List of emails

Inside the setup options you can choose whether the client should outright download the whole messages or it should stick to their headers only. If you go for the headers, you will be able to download only the emails that interest you - either one by one, or as a group. You can also set intervals in the range of 5 min to 12 hours, in which your mailbox will be periodically checked. Messages are transferred in blocks. It is not possible to download the whole content of a mailbox at once. If you delete an email from the memory of the phone, the next time you get connected to the net, the same message is removed from the mailbox in the server as well.

The email client ignores formatting. The inserted pictures appear directly in the attachment. Here they can be viewed and saved into the phone's memory. Whereas Sony Ericsson worked very well with sounds and pictures, the text document I attached to my email disappeared. The file in a XLS format was successfully saved into the memory, but the phone did not manage to view it. Anyway, K750 knows how to send attachments. The new Sony Ericsson model also knows how to attach a photo in a full 2 MP resolution.

Email with an attachment (see clip in the corner) • message in HTML format

A standard alarm clock, a standard calendar

The new Sony Ericsson model displays hours and time. It also supports a repeated alarm clock. You can select the days when the alarm should be activated, its sound and -optionally- the start of a radio broadcast instead of a standard alarm melody. The alarm clock gets activated even if the phone is switched off.

Main menu of the organizational functions • setting the alarm clock • "I am ringing!"

The time organizing application has not undergone major modifications. You can open the standard month view at the calendar as well as a week or a day view. And here comes the change: we used to complain that the time details take up so much space that the text of the event itself can hardly be seen. In Sony Ericsson K750 this drawback has been eliminated with the text being displayed on a separate line.

A month, a week and a day view at the calendar

The phone offers one event type only, but it goes round. Each note can be assigned a reminder. Just like in the previous SE model of this series, the new model's editor does not let you insert a repeated event into the calendar either. This type of event can be used provided the phone has been synchronized with a computer only. As for the synchronization itself, I really appreciate the fact that in addition to all other details it also transfers info about the meeting place and a reminder.

Repeated events appear in the phone after the latter has been synchronized with a computer only

The editor allows you to uncheck the tasks which have been accomplished. A note can contain a text of up to 250 characters. But as only 20 notes were transferred when I was synchronizing the phone with the computer I tried to add more notes directly in the phone and it worked. Notes can be viewed in a frame right on the stand-by display.

Notes

The sound recorder built in the phone is elementary. As soon as you select its entry in the menu, it starts to record. The only option you have left after the recording has been accomplished is to save the result. The recorder is not very sensitive. Its records are barely heard in the loud speaker. They come out in a much higher quality, when performed through the ear-phones. Unfortunately, the built-in MP3 player does not recognize the records made with the sound recorder. As a consequence, functions like stop, forward or skip remain unused. You can only play the record, stop it and then play it once again from its very beginning. The duration of the record seems to be limited by the capacity of the unoccupied memory only. I think I did not manage to reach the memory limits, but I cannot be sure for the phone did not display how much time I had left.

Sound recorder is much too simplified, unfortunately

I have not mentioned the technicalities yet: the stopwatch, countdown timer, the memory for secret codes (Code memo), the calculator and Java application, which shows the time in various parts of the world.

Calculator • world time • SIM Toolkit

Music: a radio with RDS

With Sony Ericsson K750 in hand you can listen to the radio or play MP3 files. The MP3 files were not a problem for the previous SE model either. In K700, however, this function was not recognized due to the lack of memory cards and the insufficient capacity of the inner memory.

To have a functional radio, you will have to plug in the ear-phones, which serve as an antenna. After the radio has been once started, its sound can be redirected to the loud speaker too. The radio built in Sony Ericsson K750 offers a fantastic innovation: RDS. Thanks to it, in a moment or so after the radio has been tuned, the station which is being listened to as well as further info, if broadcasted by RDS (like the song name, for example) appear on the display. Sony Ericsson goes even further: it supports even more RDS functions, like auto tuning of nation-wide stations. What a pity that the name provided by RDS cannot be used when the stations are saved into the memory (max. of 20 positions). Here you can only see details about the frequency. Fortunately, all saved frequencies can be additionally given a name.

A moment after the radio starts playing the name of the station shows up automatically • only the frequency however gets saved into the memory

The radio broadcast all frequencies from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz. The quality of the received sound depends to a great extent on the position of the antenna. I had to often make do with a monophonic sound only. What was jarring on my nerves, however, was the clunky sound, which could be heard every second in the background of the broadcast of all station throughout the entire scale. I did not come to find out its origin though.

Radio can run as a background, but I had the impression that it slowed down the work of the phone a bit. Of course, the music stops every time a call comes into the phone and starts playing again when the call has been finished. Do not expect too good sound quality from the radio for its bass components are not accentuated enough.

Music: MP3 player

Being accustomed to listening to a good MP3 player with not bad ear-phones I rather suffer whenever I have to test a MP3 player in a mobile phone. Sony Ericsson K750 is, however, one of the few phones I would not hesitate to use as a substitute for a regular MP3 player. What's more, K750 is the best among those I would dare use.

MP3 files are easily downloaded and saved onto the memory card by means of the reader or - optionally - through a USB cable connection with the computer. Avoid sending info through Bluetooth or the infrared port for it is a waste of time. When MP3 files are already in the phone, they can be played as a whole list or sorted into separate playlists.

MP3 and video player • the phone is playing • equalizer

To my surprise, when I tried to use a playlist I received several weird reactions from the sideway music button. When I pressed it, the file that was being played, stopped. When I selected it once again, it did not start from the moment, when it had stopped. The device started playing all files saved in the memory from the very beginning of the playlist. Fortunately, I did not have the same difficulty when I was listening to files form the complete file list. Another piece of news is the play forward option.

As usual, when I was testing the sound quality I tried to compare the way K750 and Apple iPod performed one and the same song. As I was not equipped with a device to reduce the Sony Ericsson system connector towards a standard 3.5" jack (a device, which is however expected to appear on the market soon) I did not give the iPod any advantage. I used a pair of standard ear-phones with it too. As for Sony Ericsson, I activated both its MegaBass option and its equalizer.

Sony Ericsson K750 and its original ear-phones

I cannot say I did not recognize the difference. The iPod sound is more natural, it is more open into the space; it is just different. Nevertheless, if I had to make a blind test and state which one of the devices - the Sony Ericsson or the iPod - is playing, I would hardly strike home each time. The MP3 sound performed by Sony Ericsson K750 is really fantastic. Thanks to the MegaBass option it has clear bass elements and is perfectly balanced in the entire frequency spectrum. I blame the ear-phones for the above mentioned difference the most, because those of the Apple are just very good, even though they feature standard characteristics. Sony Ericsson is not planning to offer better ear-phones before the new W800 Walkman is launched. I would have appreciated a test with better ear-phones, of course, but without reduction I would have not been able to plug them into the phone.

The phone works with MP3 file in the background too.

Java and a little bit of entertainment

Sony Ericsson K750 supports Java in its Mascot Capsule Micro3D version. The result is a graphic performance of truly high quality. According to the JBenchmark program K750 is the best among all common mobile phones:

• JBenchmark 1.0: 3892
• JBenchmark 2.0: 337

Menu with java applications and games

There are three preinstalled games in the phone. The first one - Super Real Tennis - is well-known from older mobiles. We have already seen the second game - the jigsaw PuzzleSlider too. In it you select a picture, which disintegrates into squares that have to be put back together again. A new one is the Aero Mission 3D fighter, which fully uses 3D Java capabilities.

Fighter • jigsaw • tennis

Running java programs or games can be minimized and then exited. Later, you can always get back and start form the point where you stopped. In the meantime, however, no other java applications can be opened.

Java program can be exited even if not finished

Data communication: still no EDGE...

Sony Ericsson K750 does not support EDGE. So many comments have already been written on this topic that any additional one seems unnecessary to me. Even though I myself consider this a significant disadvantage for SE, let's not make too much fuss about it. Who thinks they need EDGE or expects to have to use it in the future, will just not go for Sony Ericsson K750. Who does not mind the absence of this technology should not be concerned about it and should enjoy the phone. There is no doubt, however, that the lack of EDGE is a minus for every mobile phone on the today's competitive market.

The phone transfers data by supporting the dialed CSD and HSCSD technologies and GPRS Class 10 (4/2 timeslots). The phone has a built-in WAP browser, which manages uncomplicated regular internet pages (HTML) and can get connected through Internet APN.

Main menu of the WAP browser • WAP and Internet pages

Sony Ericsson K750 gets connected to the computer in three ways: through the infrared port, through Bluetooth or by means of the USB cable, which is delivered with the mobile. I set up the connection in the Mobile Networking Wizard program (see further). It was stable... but slow. My advice is: do not lay too big hopes in GPRS.

Sony Ericsson is thinking about giving its customers the opportunity to update firmware in domestic conditions - just like it did with its smartphones. You download the firmware file you need into your computer and then transfer it into the phone by using a cable. To do so, however, you will need a special service driver.

Again, Bluetooth supports the HID technology, which lets you manage certain programs in the computer directly from the phone. K750 is equipped with profiles for a presentation program, a multimedia player as well as for employing the phone as a mouse driver.

How does Sony Ericsson work with computers?

The phone is sold together with a CD, which includes a PC Suite program and a few other programs that help the phone communicate properly with the computer:

File Manager: provides access both to the phone's memory and the memory card. The memory card is also accessible directly from any common file manager, which is basically the only available option if the phone is connected through a cable. In a cable connection the File Manager displays the capacity of the inner memory only.

Image Editor: an application for work with pictures - it helps create wallpaper on the display.

MMS Home Studio: designed to help you create a master form for your MMS. The multimedia messages are recorded into the phone and then sent to the addressee.

Sync Station: a program, which synchronizes data with the computer, i.e. with Microsoft Outlook or the address book in Windows. The first synchronization I started was not only quite slow, but also led to an error in the middle of the process. Synchronizing became much faster as soon as the phone was loaded with data and only information alternations had to be transferred.

Mobile Networking Wizard: its purpose is to quickly set up data connections. Even if my first impression was that the Wizard was not able to detect the network correctly, in the end everything worked properly. The standard setup managed the connection successfully too.

All mentioned programs are available for free download on Sony Ericsson's internet site.

Is this the best present-day mobile phone?

What could I conclude this review with? Sony Ericsson K750 is one of the best mobile phones ever. Its new phonebook comes to correct one of the main disadvantages of the forerunners - the much too small contact list. The new model is equipped with a memory card, which makes the MP3 player usable. What's more, the sound performed by the player is excellent.

As a matter of course, the phone features some less attractive characteristics. I really hope I managed to mention all of them in this article. None of them is however so crucial to make me warn you against buying Sony Ericsson K750… except for the damnable EDGE, which may lure away a significant amount of customers! In Europe Sony Ericsson focuses on 3G in particular.

Here is my final conclusion: Sony Ericsson K750 is a brilliant mobile phone, which is going to hit the market at a relatively acceptable price (if you do not consider the price reasonable enough, just wait for a while).

Standard delivery package content

• Mobile phone
• Memory Stick Duo 64 MB memory card
• Adapter for magnetic card readers of standard size
• USB cable
• Stereophonic ear-phones combined with handsfree
• Charger
• CD with software
• Documentation