Review: Sony Ericsson's Sleek K770 Cyber-shot Cameraphone

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson's K770, launched in August of last year, is a compact and good looking member of the company's Cyber-shot line of cameraphones. While it might lack some of the firepower and style of its big brother, the K850, it still manages to put together a solid offering that makes it a practical choice for photo enthusiasts. As a product not intended for the North American market, the device lacks U.S. 3G and 850MHz GSM support, which means that it won't be a good choice for AT&T customers, but it might find a nice home with a T-Mobile subscriber.

Physical Aspects

Sony Ericsson's K770i has a very classic candybar design. The lines are very clean, the keypad is very straight forward, and the modest use of chrome adds an element of fashion to it. While the 1.9", 262k color main display might look small by today's standards, it works well. It is sufficiently bright even at its lower brightness settings, and it provides crisp graphics and good color rendition - even in direct sunlight. It even has a light sensor that helps it deal with differing ambient lighting conditions easily while using as little power as possible.

The square d-pad is quite easy to use, and can easily be found by touch alone. The two softkeys and the dedicated back and C keys that surround it are a bit stiff, and can be slightly frustrating at times since they are hinged at one edge rather than being fully pressable. This means that even if you press firmly on the top edge of a softkey or the bottom edge of the back button, nothing will happen, which is unfortunate. The small web and shortcut menu buttons that are in the same control cluster have no such problems, though the alphanumeric keypad is a bit stiff feeling. The backlighting for the keypad and controls is white and quite effective.

When the camera is activated, however, the white backlighting turns off and a blue backlight illuminates the keypad's dedicated camera shortcuts and the two-stage camera shutter key. The camera shutter is one of the best I have come across in a long time. It requires a light initial touch to activate the camera's auto-focus system, while a firmer press will cause the camera to snap a photo. This, of course, assumes that the camera has been turned on, which is accomplished by sliding the lens' beautiful metal protective cover. The cover, which is embossed with the Cyber-shot name, is both functional and attractive.

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson K770

Sony Ericsson K770

There are a few small misses with the K770's design, though. The Sony Ericsson fast port connector is located inconveniently on the left side of the device instead of on the bottom. The power key and the rear cover release that are located on the top of the phone are quite narrow. This isn't a problem for the rear cover latch so much, but it does make the menu that the power key calls up slightly less convenient to access. Also inconvenient is the M2 memory card slot's position under the rear cover. The card slot is hot swappable, though.

Overall, I find the K770 to be well designed and built. It is fairly light, at 98g (3.5oz), and pretty compact overall at 105mm x 47mm x 15.5mm (4.1" x 1.8" x 0.6"). The few niggles in the design are small enough so as to probably not bother too many people.