Sony Ericsson K750 review: Get excited!

Sony Ericsson K750 - one of the most important and most anxiously expected mobile phones of this year has finally hit the market. We are being offered a top-class device, which outruns most of the competition. No doubt a phone of its class naturally deserves a special review ... our is a little bit longer than usual.

Key features

• Very high quality camera with auto focus function
• Memory card
• Brilliant sound quality in the MP3 player
• Good quality display
• New Activity menu
• Built-in radio equipped with RDS
• Recharge through a USB cable
• Flashlight function

Main disadvantages

• No EDGE
• Display is not imbedded
• Lower quality touch orientation on the keypad
• Menu animation cannot be switched off
• No standard support for USB Mass Storage
• MP3 ringtones of average quality
• Camera shutter sound can't be switched off (update - on some firmware versions it can be switched off)

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Sony Ericsson - just like the former independent Ericsson - has never missed to prove its competency in equipping its mobile phones with the latest high-class technologies. Taking into account the reasonable prices Sony Ericsson models are usually sold at, I think they have always managed to offer the customers a little more equipment than the competition of the same category. Let me remind you of mobiles like R320, R520, T39, T68, as well as of the latest T610/T630 and K700 models. Those were phones that would worm the cockles of any technoid's heart. They did not put themselves on airs, nor did the manufacturer use bumptious marketing statements in its promoting campaigns - the phones were simply good and functional. In proportion to price and performance they often did better than the competition.

The new Sony Ericsson K750 homes into the king class of the so called manager mobile phones. Once again quite boring at first sight, the phone invites you to peep into what is hidden inside its shell. By the way, this review comes out exactly a year after the publishing of the tests of the previous K700 model.

Official pictures of Sony Ericsson K750

It has been some time since Sony Ericsson K750 first hit the markets in Europe. On internet it is being offered for approximately 370 euros.

As you see, the price is not high. What's more, a notable price cut is to be expected too. The previous Sony Ericsson model K700 was launched in July last year at an official price of about 470 euros. Within a few months its price went down by 130 euros.

We are testing the marketing sample of the phone, the constructional work on which has not been carried through yet (see creaky sounds, for example).

At the beginning, let us make one last "organizational" remark. When we write our reviews, our purpose is not to praise the phones (no matter how good they are) from the very beginning to the very end of the article, but to rather call readers' attention to certain details, which may seem irrelative in theory, but could vex you unpleasantly in practice. There is no doubt Sony Ericsson K750 is a brilliant mobile phone, one of the best on the market. Yet, it is not perfect and has its minuses as any other phone, so if we sometimes stress its cons too much, please do not take it as an offense.

Nice-looking, but for whom?

The construction of Sony Ericsson K750 is standard. It has quite a conservative design, accentuated by the dark color tone, which is also the most frequent one. The phone we are testing is elaborated in the same dark version. The light version looks a little bit happier. Having in mind the target customer group of the phone, there could hardly be found a more appropriate look than the conservative design of the new K750. Yet, the new model is not the type of phone that everyone gets to like and excitement is not the only feeling it evokes in the customers.

Gone far back in the past are the times when Ericsson mobile phones used to have a metal frame. K750 is made of plastics, just like the rest of all present-day phones. Its silver sides are covered with fine metallic-paint finish; the black-brown plastics are matt in order to make finger prints invisible - a very comfortable characteristic indeed. The only parts of the phone surface that get easily "filthy" are the glass cover of the display and the triad of glossy functional keys. This time Sony Ericsson has not put a cleaning cloth in the phone's box. What alarms even more, however, is the fact that the display is not imbedded - a detail, which could eventually lead to its scratching.

In our first comparative article we were complaining of creaky sounds in the construction. Not that we are backing it down now - the device we are testing reacts angrily any time its body is touched. The sales version, however, is said to be solid enough. We have made sure of this talking to people who had already had the chance to buy Sony Ericsson K750. Let's hope it will stand the test of time. The phone does not waggle when put on a table surface, but starts to easily slew round when having been touched.

The size of Sony Ericsson K750 is 100 × 46 × 20 mm. The phone weighs 99 g. Its size characteristics send it into the category of small phones. On the background of today's mobile tendencies, however, its 99 g do for a place in the medium-weight category only. Let's now have a look at a small comparative table with a few related mobile phones

Model	Size	Rough volume	Weight	Rough density
Sony Ericsson K750i	100 × 46 × 20 mm	92 cm3	99 g	1,08 g/cm3
Sony Ericsson K700	99 × 47 × 20 mm	93 cm3	93 g	1,00 g/cm3
Sony Ericsson T630	102 × 43 × 17 mm	75 cm3	93 g	1,25 g/cm3
Nokia 6230i	103 × 44 × 20 mm	91 cm3	99 g	1,09 g/cm3
Siemens S65	109 × 48 × 18 mm	94 cm3	98 g	1,04 g/cm3
Motorola E398	108 × 46 × 21 mm	104 cm3	110 g	1,05 g/cm3

The display climbs a step up

Sony Ericsson K750's display is no different from the one of its forerunner K700. Resolution details have not been changed either. What differentiates both models is the number of performed colors. As I do not have K700 at my command at the moment, I can hardly verify how significant this difference is, but I could try to evaluate it in absolute terms. The display is brilliant. Despite the fact that the 176 × 220 pixels resolution is no more a surprise in today's mobile world, the display is far from monstrous and its picture is therefore extremely fine. Have another look at the comparative table:

Model	Display
	Size	Surface	Resolution	Colors	Pixels per cm2
Sony Ericsson K750	29 × 36 mm	10,44 cm2	176 × 220	262K	3709
Sony Ericsson K700	29 × 36 mm	10,44 cm2	176 × 220	65K	3709
Sony Ericsson T630	28 × 36 mm	10,08 cm2	128 × 160	65K	2032
Nokia 6230i	30 × 30 mm	9,00 cm2	208 × 208	65K	4807
Siemens S65	31 × 42 mm	13,02 cm2	132 × 176	65K	1784
Motorola E398	30 × 37 mm	11,1 cm2	176 × 220	65K	3488