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Sony Ericsson Announces K850 5 Megapixel Camera Phone

Richard Baguley Published on June 14, 2007 Comment on this

14th June 2007 - Sony Ericsson has just unveiled its latest weapon in the war of the high-end smartphones: the Cyber-shot K850. The new GSM handset includes a 5 megapixel camera that Sony Ericsson claims takes pictures at a “quality similar to a digital camera”. The new handset also includes quad-band GSM and a tri-band HSDPA radio and will be available in the US in the fall.

The camera on the K850 is based around a 5 megapixel sensor (Sony Ericsson did not specify the size) and a lens with auto focus and an accompanying Xenon flash, which is a definite step up from the LED flash used on most other cell phone cameras. However, the lens on the K850 does not include an optical zoom; it offers only a 16x digital zoom. It does offer an interesting sounding feature called BestPic, which takes 9 images in quick succession and picks the sharpest one to keep.

The screen of the K850 is a 2.2-inch model with QVGA (240 by 320) resolution that auto-rotates to the right orientation, depending on how you hold the phone. The keypad is below the screen. We haven’t tested the phone ourselves yet, but the keys do look to be a little on the small side. Sony Ericsson also makes much of the multimedia capabilities of the K850; they claim that their new media browser software allows for easy access to music, photos and videos in one place. It also supports the direct downloading of Podcasts; a big boon for frequent travelers who want to while away long airport waits with news and entertainment. Media can be stored on either a MemoryStick Micro (AKA M2) card or a MicroSD card; the combination memory slot supports both types of memory card.

The K850 itself is a small phone; at just 4 by 1.9 by 0.66 inches, it’s significantly thinner than the Nokia N95 (which is 3.9 by 2.1 by 0.82 inches), but otherwise similarly sized.  It’s available in two colors: Velvet Blue or Luminous Green. Sony Ericsson says that the K850 will be available in North America this fall, but didn’t specify a price or if it will be sold through a carrier or directly to users.