# >>Review : Sony Ericsson K790i<<



## devilhead_satish (Jan 27, 2007)

Every once in a while comes a phone that will want to make you throw or hide your own phone.The K790i is one such gem of a cell phone which will the send the expletives rolling from your mouth as you initially work your way around the phone.

*Looks And Build Quality *


*img250.imageshack.us/img250/9534/sonyericssonk790i13wl.th.jpg​
Absolutely clean and uncluttered design. In hardware terms the K790i isn’t much to look at. Small (105 x 47 x 22 mm)and light (115g) with shades of slate grey and silver and white highlights. The front facing controls are dominated by a small joystick which is one of the better ones I’ve used. It is responsive and has plenty of travel. You can program its four directions for specific functions.

There are two absolutely tiny buttons to the far left and right of the joystick that need to be approached with a fingernail if you are to hit them accurately. One launches the web browser, the other is the Activity Menu key which contains four tabbed sections: these are more shortcuts to applications, web bookmarks, notifications about missed calls and new messages, and, helpfully the chance to close any running applications that might be slowing the handset down.

The hardware controls are very well thought through. Both softkey buttons and the joystick help you access features and settings quickly, and two further small buttons above the screen give access to more. One of these calls up thumbnail images regardless of what else you are doing with the handset at the time. If you have ever fumbled on a handset for a particular shot to show to a friend you will know how valuable this is. To the back of the handset is the USP of the phone, the camera, which is accessed by sliding a cover. Also present is a xenon flash which is nice and effective.

*Screen and UI*

*img250.imageshack.us/img250/4065/sonyericssonk790i38ga.th.jpg​
Absolutely delicious. 262k at 240×320 pixels. And you can flip from landscape to portrait modes in a jiffy. The screen is pretty readable in bright sunlight too.

*Performance* 

Nice and fast, is usually why people steer clear of Nokia’s and get Sony Ericsson’s. This one’s no exception. Everything usually loads up when you hit a key and there’s hardly any waiting period, except when you’re playing around with the images that have taken at the max resolution of 3.2MP’s.

*Battery Life *

Absolutely good(Li-Po 900 mAh ) .Talk time is a good 7hrs and you can play MP3’s continuously for around 11hrs. So looking at a real world scenario(around an hour of talking, 2 hours of music playback, and some shots with the camera), the battery should offer you juice for up to 2 days without the phone needing a dash to the mains.

*Connectivity*
A plethora of connectivity options greet you on the K790i, there’s GPRS Class 10, EDGE, HSCSD, Bluetooth v2, Infrared and USB 2.0. So you’re never probably gonna have a problem connecting to the world…

*Music Playback *

This is a SE phone, so you’d be forgiven to take for granted the fact that the phone is gonna be a good music player. And it does not disappoint. We plugged in the SE W810i’s earphones and I have to say, it has to be one of the best sounding phones around. Good enough whilst travelling anyway.

And oh, there is an FM player as well. Thank you very much.

*Camera *
When I wrote the article on the W800i sometime in 2005, I said it was the best camera at that time. Nothing new about this one, that it raises the bar for cell phone cameras to an all new high. I’ll just post the pictures taken from the phone and you can decide as to how good it really is. (Coming soon..)Video capture is in the ancient QCIF format which is not all that good, considering what the camera is really capable of.

*Memory *

The phone comes with 64MB of internal memory and comes with an expansion slot which accepts Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick Micro format. The size of the card is as big (or small rather) as the MicroSD cards, about as much as your fingernail. These cards are pretty expensive and a 2GB card can set you back by almost a Rs3-4000k.

*Applications*

The phone has so many applications that I can do little more than just list the highlights. You’ve got the usual ring tone composer, an excellent web browser, an RSS reader (God bless SE), video and image editors(quite effective, this one). Then there is the picture blogging fetaure. You take a picture, then you can choose ‘Blog this’. The picture is resized, and you give it a name and a description then send it to your photo blog. Et voila, the picture is now ready for the world to see!

*Affiramtive!! *

+Great Camera!

+Nice and fast interface

+Good large screen and resolution

+Good looks

+Good battery life

+Functional In built applications

*Negative*

-M2 memory expansion

-QCIF video capture

Price 16000-17000

*Conclusion *

A great buy at the current price. Its got just about everything you need and you should certainly be a happy soul buying it. Apart from the camera, there are loads of other nifty features that’ll seal the deal.

Rating *9/10*


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## Pathik (Jan 27, 2007)

nice review wit a personal touch..


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## techtronic (Jan 28, 2007)

*Where's the source for this Review ?*


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## koolbluez (Jan 28, 2007)

any pics uploaded yet... unedited pics...


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## madrasi (Jan 28, 2007)

source is *www.satishsays.com/


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## blueshift (Jan 28, 2007)

thats his site.

Thanks for the review but you must have posted tis in Mobile Monsters thread.


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## rockthegod (Jan 28, 2007)

Now here I hate it.... SE shud release a phone which contains both the features of W and K series.... i.e. the xcellent 3.2 MP CAM + the Xcellent Walkman player + MS Pro DUo Expansion ....

I will be the first one to get such a phone if SE ever releases one. !!!! Currently, I am quite happy with my W850i.....

Anyways Satish, its a very good review !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## sabret00the (Feb 10, 2007)

^^^bought the SE k790i last Sunday(4th Feb,07) for around Rs.17500(including a walkman headset)...awesome gizmo!!!

I think the cybershot cam lives up to its name and so talk about walkman feature my colleague has a W800i...I compared the sounds...there's hardly any diff apart from the fact that there's MEGA BASE_™ _in the walkman's that's missin in the cybershot......that's where the comparison ends.......


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## shaunak (Feb 10, 2007)

How much does the phone cost, street price ex. Mumbai?


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## Tech Geek (Feb 10, 2007)

Thanks
Cool Review


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## DDIF (Feb 12, 2007)

Yeah it is almost good! But Although it has 3.2 MP camera but still its only good just for capturing snaps in clear days. And video quality is not good. Not much good sound quality as compared to other sony phones[Personal Experience and usage]


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## koolbluez (Feb 12, 2007)

Well... mani... most digital cameras behave the same. The more the light, the lesser dust. Some cameras handle this better, some worse. All depending on the iso & lighting conditions its shot @. The quality decreases only when it's dusky or lower in light. Well, we've a Xenon flash to deal with the lower light. The most powerful, right now, in cam phones. And not to forget image stabilization, not present in many of the other phones. This is a Sony Cybershot camera with features of a phone!

And from my "personal experience" SE handles these problems much better than the other cam models... reason.. they r backed by an already excellent consumer camera research they've been doin from long time.
*Nuthin beats a SE in cam quality* & probably even in headphone music quality too, among phones of course. Their walkman series rock. About this phone... ok music...
 it's not walkman branded.. its cybershot branded 

I'm lookin out for the next level after my W800i... the 3.2 megapix.. cybershot walkman phone... kab aayega?

-------------------------------------------------------​ Wanna take better photos... here r some quick tips...
1. Stay away from dim light as much as possible.
2. If unavoidable, definitely use the flash.
3. Avoid backlighting. Let stong light come from behind u, rather than from behind the subject.
4. Adjust the white balance too if u find the colors different. Best approach.. look @ the whites thru the camera. If they appear different, adjust the white balance till the _white _is seen as _white_ in the camera.
5. Experiment with the brightness levels. They r put for a purpose!
6. Keep ur subject close, around 3-5 ft away max. Cam phones has shallow focal lengths, the more distant the subject, the lesser details captured.
7. Don't _digital zoom_. It sucks... big time.


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## Venks (Mar 3, 2009)

. Well, I am using SE- k790i, from past 2years, Its Camera is Awesome and having a 
Xenon Flash with 3.2MP of Camera with Red Eye Reduction. This is a Cyber Shot Model..

                                                                                    Venky


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## Coool (Mar 3, 2009)

^  2years old thread


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## Indyan (Mar 3, 2009)

*Thread Closed*
Venks please dont bump old thread unnecessarily.


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