Sony Ericsson K610 review: Sure 3G choice

A snapshot or two

The 2 megapixel camera of K610 does its job satisfactory without any bells and whistles. We've seen better quality cameras from Sony Ericsson, not to mention the lack of autofocus or a LED flash. The camera offers night mode, self-timer, panorama, frames, and burst shooting modes. It also features white balance correction. Several color effects are available too.

View finder • some menu options • Blog this on Blogger.com!

The shooting is performed in landscape mode by using the camera shortcut button as a shutter key. You can, of course, take a picture in portrait mode too, but the camera menu is meant to be used in landscape mode. Once you've taken a picture with the phone you can immediately blog it on the Internet and thus share it with your friends. The camera options are in a menu that we have seen on all recent phones by Sony Ericsson so if you've had one, you would feel perfectly at home here.

In good light conditions the camera performs well enough. The colors are oversaturated, which makes them pleasant for the eye, but are definitely not natural. Also, it seems that Sony Ericsson are experimenting with new noise reduction routines in this model - the noise is indeed low in good light (look at the sky), but this comes at a price - the fine detail is lost in some cases (look at the foliage).

Sony Ericsson K610 samples in full resolution

In low light the results are plain horrible. Instead the grain we've used to see in most phones under low light conditions, we see here blotches of color noise, which are a lot more unpleasant to the eye and also harder to fix with noise reduction software.

Sony Ericsson has no dedicated macro mode, everything closer than say 80 cm from the lens will be out of focus (look at the roses for example).

The auto white balance is not always reliable • forget about shooting macros

K610 pictures resampled to 1024 x 768 pixels

The videos taken with K610 are captured at a low QCIF resolution. You can choose if you would like to limit the video duration in order to fit it on a MMS message or whether you would like to make unlimited recordings. The options for the video camera are pretty much the same as those for the still camera with very minor differences.

Video viewfinder • choosing the video files length

Video samples

We should also mention the video calls camera on the front of K610 since after all we are reviewing a 3G phone here that is capable of making video calls. We are pleasantly surprised by the functionality that this tiny VGA camera offers. The other party's video feed is viewed in a large frame in the middle of the screen while you see your own image in the very same time in a small frame in the lower left corner. There is also a possibility to view your own image mirror-like, meaning that the image gets reversed and looks as if you are staring at yourself in a mirror. It's much more natural that way.

You can also digitally zoom your image at a 2x degree or choose to replace your live video feed with a picture of your taste or with a live feed from the main camera. You can also do that during an actual video call. The options don't end here. You can further on control the exposure compensation of the camera or even switch it into a night mode.

There are 3 different video quality modes: Smooth, Sharp and Normal. Smooth delivers a smoother picture flow while Sharp provides more detailed images.

Regular setup • replacing the two pictures • live feed from the main camera