Sony Ericsson K618i Review - Introduction and Digital Camera/Basic Features

Introduction

August 8 th 2006 was the day that Sony Ericsson announced the future release of as what is said to be the ideal cell phone for both multimedia and business: Sony Ericsson K618i. Built on the same idea as the K610, the K618i could be, in fact, thought of as the clone of W810i with a 3G add-on. Sony Ericsson K618i gives the most when it comes to communication, entertainment and efficiency, boasting a 2MegaPixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom, video recorder, MP3 player, Bluetooth, offering high speed email, web access and much more.

Functioning in 3 bands, GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 the cellphone is also UMTS (2100MHz) compatible. UMTS is a 3G technology standard capable of data transfer up to 384 kbps. Having the UMTS feature built in, this cell phone is not designed for the US , unlike the W810i cellphone which will be launched by Cingular, in the US .

One of the pros of K618i is that it is a very slim, lightweight mobile phone, weighing only 89 grams and having the dimensions of 102mm x 45mm x 16mm.

Digital Camera and Other Basic Features

Sony Ericsson K618i supports a 2.0 MegaPixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom, less than W810i that can zoom up to 4x. The camera gives the user high quality images and the digital zoom digitally crops and magnifies the centre of an image to make the subject appear nearer or further away. Press once the dedicated camera button and the integrated camera activates. The 2.0 Megapixel camera has 256MB internal memory with extra memory available through memory stick micro cards. Further more, it comes with Mobile Blogger, a application that allows users to post their pictures directly to their own website or blog spot on the web. This way family and friends can easily access the site and view the pictures in no time. You can also record motion video to your phone with the video recorder. Thanks to the viewfinder display, you can you can see what will be in the picture before you take it.

The cellphone is also ready to make video calls. When making a video call, you can see the person you're talking to in the main display and they can see you. The service requires that you have UMTS. A video call can be made using the front facing video VGA camera, that has a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels.

Basic Features

• Alarm Clock
• Business Card Exchange (a function that lets you send and receive digital business cards with name, numbers and other contact information)
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Conference Calls
• Contacts (phone book with fields for name, numbers, email information)
• File Manager (folder structure storage to help you store and organize pictures, sounds and other phone content)
• Memory Stick (flexible storage system that makes it easy to transfer files between devices)
• Notes
• PIM Sync (synchronize organizer in PC with phone)
• Phone Book
• Speakerphone (loud speaker suitable for using the phone as an office handsfree)
• Stopwatch
• Tasks
• Timer
• MusicDJ (a sampler music tool with MIDI drum, guitar, keyboard, bass and brass loops in different music styles that you can combine to make your own polyphonic ringtones)
• 3D Gaming
• Mobile Blogging
• HTML Browser with RSS Reader and Smart-Fit Rendering
• USB mass storage