mobile, Telecoms

Sony Ericsson k800i?

In response to my last post about which replacement phone to get for my dead Nokia N70, several people have suggested that I get a Sony Ericcson k800i.

Despite my bad experiences with the N70 (and worse with my wife’s N91) I am slow to move away from Nokia. Why? Well, almost all my phones back to 1995 have been Nokia’s. I’m used to Nokia’s and for the most part they have suited me well.

The two non-Nokia phones I have had were the Siemens S55 and the Sony Ericsson z600. I hated them both. The S55 had a lousy screen. The Z600 had no memory (I had to constantly delete texts to make room for more). And they both had terrible user interfaces.

I went running back to Nokia and bought a 6230, before buying myself the N70 last year. The 6230 was rock solid, if a little limited in functionality, the N70 had the functionality but was flaky!

I guess, to a certain extent too, I fear change!

Looking at the spec for the K800i though, it does seem to be an impressive phone. The only thing it is missing, that I can see, is wifi.  I’m not sure how useful wifi on mobiles is yet. Is it any good?

At €325 from Expansys, it is well within budget.

What do you think, have Sony Ericsson phones improved enough that I should consider abandoning Nokia once more? Are the Sony Ericsson phones more reliable than the Nokia ones?

18 thoughts on “Sony Ericsson k800i?”

  1. My Nokia E61 has wifi although I’ve only fiddled with it around the house, it can be useful. I wouldn’t recommend the E61 specifically for wifi though, the interface it comes with is shite; I had to install an addon to get it to work the way it should.

    I’m finding myself disagreeing with this “can’t go wrong with a nokia” thing since I bought this phone, Nokia seem to have lost the plot on the UI front at this stage. I have to make about eight keystrokes to select an item in message view, for example; wtf?

    I had a SonyEricsson P910i before this and it was a great phone, although again the UI was somewhat clunky. TBH I think the phone companies need to steal a few usability guys from the OS companies. They’re essentially running full-blown OS’s these days anyway.

  2. I have an S700 Tom and it is very stable – much more so than any of the other complex phones (I hate to use the word smart!) that I have used.

    I am not particularly a fan of Sony and do not have any tolerance for phones that cannot be used for the basics – ie making and receiving calls without freezing or collapsing so that is praise indeed.

    And UI is good.

    keith

  3. I made the move from Nokia to SonyEricsson a couple of years ago and I haven’t looked back. My only teething trouble was getting used to the texting, which Sony have dramatically improved in the K750 and K800.

    I got a platinum upgrade a while back and got the 800i – which my wife immediately purloined. It’s an excellent phone. Calls, texts and syncing are our major apps and the 800 does them all seamlessly and with no fuss. The very occasional photo that we use it for have all been of very high quality too.

    (I also like the swapability of the memory cards with my Sony cameras.)

  4. I have the K800i and I like it a lot. A while ago I had to test about 40 different phones with an application I was testing and I liked the Sony Ericssons a lot more than any of the other brands (had always used nokia up to that point).

    The K800i is a great phone and it has a decent camera. However I only use my phone for calls and texts. Your requirements may be different to mine – I like a small form factor and a nice interface for texting and calling. I don’t care about any extra features like wifi or web access.

    One other thing – K800i is not currently supported by iSync (there is a 3rd party free plugin available on the web though). Hopefully they’ll add it soon as the earlier Sony Ericsson phones work fine with iSync.

  5. Having gotten used to being able to put on additional software on my phone, I would not be able to “go back” to a phone I couldn’t do this with.

    A Spanish English Dictionary from MSDict is quite possibly the most used feature of my phone: http://www.mobisystems.com/platform.html?c=1&sc=6

    100% recommended but you won’t find a version for K800i.

  6. I’ll have to question Aidan on the K800i not working with iSync, I synced mine up only yesterday and it worked fine, even get a nice K800i icon in iSync, no problems whatsoever using it with the mac.

    I’ve done the rounds with Nokia and last year moved to the HP iPAQ 6515w as a mobile messenger – rubbish. Pure waste of 500 bucks at the time, when you look back at it now. Had a new main board put into the phone as well, came back worse than ever.

    So, when it finally gave up the ghost i moved to the K800i last year – haven’t looked back. Love it so much that my father has upgraded to it, brother is on it and I take it everywhere. Love the camera, bluetooth, easy of navigation through the menus, sync capability, size in my hand, size in my pocket, battery life and all the rest.

    Brought the phone to Canada at Christmas, worked like a charm, haven’t had any freezing problems whatsoever and its a pure joy to use. I was a p900i user for a year during college and wouldn’t have any problem using or suggesting Sony Ericsson to anyone. Sure, it doesn’t have the wifi but it is no big loss at all…

  7. Tom,

    My wife was using Nokias until Christmas when she got the K800i. We gave up on Nokia due to dodgy quality – last two phones had to be replaced after a few weeks, and one of those relacements is sitting in a box to go back again (A pink 6111 so perhaps not relevant to what you are looking for). The last good one she had was the big 6310i one which she still misses.
    I had a 6680 last year for a while, one of the first 3G phones here, but found the UI slow and connection flakey when handing over from cell to cell. It sometimes even needed a reboot to switch from “3g” back to “2G” to maintain a reliable call.
    The only issue so far is that the 800i drops the bluetooth connection to a Nokia car-kit frequently and randomly, but I’ve found that Nokia car-kits prefer Nokia phones.
    Other than that the Sony hasn’t been pushed to hard on syncing, etc. but the kids like the golf game.
    Cheers, dB.

  9. I have the k800i and love it, though I am a bit of a SE fan boy. I also managed to find a really good quality os x “lookie like” theme. SO it’s not quite an iPhone but a small consolation.

  11. One word of warning about the k800i – I absolutely love it but I’m a little concerned with the lens cover on the back. It’s a little flimsy and opens too easily (so can drain the battery if you’re not paying attention).

    My boyfriend has the N73 which is nice too – similar specs, but one advantage is that you can open excel/word files etc on it. Plus because it comes with a 1GB mini SD card, it worked out much better value. My k800i came with a pathetic 64MB card.

    All that said, I’d still get the k800i again if I had the choice 🙂

  12. i find that the k800i also crashes a lot. I am looking through the photos whe suddenly it wont move. It is a bit irritating when you’re in a rush.

  13. Tom,

    I bought a k800i a few months ago and I love it, mainly for the absolutely sensational pictures it takes.

    Joe.

  14. 1. More camperaphone images on Flickr come from the K800i than any other cameraphone. If you want quality images from a solid phone, get the K800i.

    2. I have no problems syncing the phone across with data on the Nokia 9500, including images to and from the phone’s contact databases.

    3. You will be surprised and delighted by the quality video footage captured by the K800i but you will need an irritatingly small M2 gig card to handle your addition.

    4. We have dropped our K800i down the carpeted stairs and it still lives on. We have left it outside on a wooden chair for an overnight frosting and it still works.

    5. You need to use your mobile phone for more outgoing calls. I got the K800i for free because O2 thought they owed me a phone for all the calls I make.

  16. another vote for the k800i, it is really great. I’m very happy with it. I recommend you get a decent screen protector to go with it though – mines a few months old, not a scratch to be seen 🙂

    re the memory issue? Mine has never been emptied (sms that is). I think there are 250ish in there. I’m not a big smser though. I’m actually not sure how many it can hold?

  17. I have used many Ericssons in the past and I never exsperianced any problems,for me there is no equal and will never be.
    I upgraded my contract on 17 July and I demanded to be issued the K 800i, man what a phone.
    Since my first Ericsson the T 20 I was taken.
    Thanks Sony Ericsson for keeping me in touch with my loved ones without any complecations.

  18. i like this telephon so much and like this desine any thing it have

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