| Author |
K850 Firmware Overview |
darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
Ok I have been using the K850i R1DA038 for a week now so i thought it was about time to place my findings on here.
My phone is a K850i with R1DA038 Western Europe (o2) 4gb M2 Sandisk card
Now if i have missed anything out please either pm or post on here i will try to answer them all best i can.
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One thing that i will advise any body to do, when you update the phone to the R1DA038, I suggest master resetting the phone. When i first installed the R1DA038 GPRS didnt work and the phone was slow and camera still poor, after master reseting the phone behaved very differently. (When master resetting make sure you have backed up all your data onto a memory card and saved all you contacts etc#
Master resetting your phone causes you to loose everything currnelty on the phone.
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A bit of history first, This is the 5th K850i.
And i have had all the the current 3 firmwares at present.
1) The camera takes better shots all round (Inside and Out) However more noticeable that the the phone doesnt take black photos as much (This doesnt mean that its 100% perfect as its not) The phone on occasions can still take them, but its a lot less now.
However the phone can still take dark shots if you are not careful.
2) Media player is much faster in browsing songs and playing music when pressed. (Big improvement over R1CA029-037).
However there is still much more improvement needed. Some videos (mp4)are still out of sync by a quiet a few seconds and on occasion when playing videos (Any video formwat), the video will suddenly go into supper fast mode for no reason.
3) Java is much faster in response and I have also seen peoples comments that it takes an application a slightly longer time to load, On my phone thats not been the case.
4) Phone calls are very clear on either 2g and 3g singal and no transfer over problems from 3g to 2g
5) No video call problems at all which is the same as ther other 2 firmwares.
6) SMS and MMS icons are now shows as the same on the main screen when you receives a SMS or MMS, The Icons have also changed for T9 and Ab (Much nicer in my opion and clearer) Sms listing has also changed
7) Battery life is very good, I get on average 3 days with normal usage (eg 30 mins wap usage, 50 sms, 10-15 mins calls)
 The phone menu (S) in generaly is much faster in opperating. However the phone will still lag if you are asking it to do too much at once or 2 things together, but no where near as back as R1CA029 - 037.
9) I havnt had one freeze or lockup on the phone since being used.
Now to some questions i know people are asking and a couple of bugs.
1) Time in the standby screen - This will never be ava on the K850i as the screen is TFT Technology, K810 and earlier models use TFD Technology.
2) Date and time isnt present on the photos which is very strange, Im not sure why SE omit this function, but there must be a reason.
3) I have still had a corruption on a couple of pics using media browser. The bottom half of the pics are showing blue lines. The pic is displayed fine using file manager and on my computer.
4) Why is alarms and not filemanager in the main menu is a puzzle, but from what i understand, SE would like us to use the media menu instead.
Like i said if i have missed anything out then please let me know 
R1DA038 is ava at SE service centers to be updated.
However SE are still placing R1DA038 on the SEUS and can take upto 4 weeks from the start to place on there. From what i understand SE are hoping to have most of the firmwares on there by W05 / W06.
The current networks can be updated using SEUS
O2, Voda, T-Mobile, Tim.
Some Generic phones can also now be updated (Although this is still a bit uknown)
HK Branded
Central Euro
Nordic
**** Its still recomended to reboot your phone at least once a day to gain the most optimal performance and memory from the device ****
[ This Message was edited by: darrengf on 2008-01-02 21:09 ] |
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numb
Joined: Feb 07, 2005
Posts: > 500
PM |
that is truly sad news
I was so hoping the 038 firmware would make drastic improvements to the camera performance - its almost impossible not to since the performance of 029 and 037 are so unbeleivably poor, but it seems 038 doesnt help. I was also hoping for general speed up of phone operations, but no.
so sad - the K850 is the only SE phone I ever regret buying, I just want to throw it into the bin.
Camera is rubbish (my K750 is better), the touch buttons doesnt work 2/3 of the time, handling speed is painfully slow in all operations (my w910 is much quicker)
so sad  |
darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
numb, I can assure you that the camera on the K850i using R1DA038 is much better than R1CA029-037, the phone is alot faster too, but like i said there are still improvements to be made.
The K850i is a new bread of phone using the A200 platform and therefore has many many bugs. The phone will improve over time, but i can honestly say that it wont be until 6 more months that we really see some major improvements.
My own personal opion though and I am a loyal SE fan, I am also disapointed with the K850i expecting much more that wasnt delivered.
I still think that the build quality is poor for a flagship model and think that the designers have got it horrible wrong with the battery cover.
Missing features of like time and date stamp on photos is to me poor and the software and design team really need to come up with something better, or infact changes need to be made to management?
I think that SE will release a newer version of the K series sooner than we think, The K850 is a headache for them, bad publicity, poor returns, customer complaints isnt helping either.
I think even SE are embarresed about the phone too, here in the UK there is very little publicity about the phone, most shops have removed the K850 photos and there are very few adverts in books about the phone.
The nokia N82 also beat the K850 for photo quality and won the phone camera of the year.
K850 has also got a poor start of, being delayed due to problems and its still having problems now. The A200 platform is very good, but i think SE didnt relise how many problems it was going to cause. but the A200 platform is ready and future upgradeabiltiy in new SE phones. So its here to stay, just lets hope it has more success in future SE phones.
The K850i will be one phone that will come and go very quickly with the K800 and K810 out living it.
Little bit more info, Se return return rate on the phone is high 20.2% which is 1 in every 5 phones being returned.
[ This Message was edited by: darrengf on 2008-01-02 21:04 ] |
larry 68
Joined: Nov 09, 2007
Posts: > 500
PM |
I've had the new firmware for a few days now and can concur it is an improvement on the 1st update we had, phone defiantely feels faster but I'll reserve judgement as to if this is a permanant fix or partly due to the removal of the battery and reboot as thats helped mine a little before.
I hope this wasnt the BIG fix as its far from perfect, I still get some dark pics, no where near as many but they do randomly happen. I also had the phone freeze in the 1st 12 hrs after updating.
Im gradually learning to love this phone after the major shock of it not living up to expectation and the hype of a flagship product. |
Sebby
Joined: Dec 12, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: London, UK
PM |
It's strange that the new firmware is available for some branded handsets, but not unbranded!
[addsig] |
darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
The High Returns of the handsets are mostly branded ones i beleive at the min.
However the fault isnt with the branded software, but with the software in general |
MadRabbit
Joined: Nov 12, 2007
Posts: 31
PM |
Thanks for detail information darrengf,
I would like to ask some improvement from 037 to 038 which you did not mention above...
When you select playlist on media player, it shows music list which you added on the list.. however it shows "Unknown Artist" instead of correct artist name on the mp3 files's tag. Is it fixed?
When you add new shortcut to nav.button, it shows normal menu, not flash menu although your theme is laser precision... how about this? It still shows normal menus?
Someone said now your manual eq setting can be saved and it does not return to presets anymore when you stop playing... Is it really fixed?
Anyway unbranded western-euro generic isn't on seus yet... Netherlands...
[ This Message was edited by: MadRabbit on 2008-01-02 23:14 ] |
darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
On 2008-01-03 00:13:34, MadRabbit wrote:
Thanks for detail information darrengf,
I would like to ask some improvement from 037 to 038 which you did not mention above...
When you select playlist on media player, it shows music list which you added on the list.. however it shows "Unknown Artist" instead of correct artist name on the mp3 files's tag. Is it fixed?
When you add new shortcut to nav.button, it shows normal menu, not flash menu although your theme is laser precision... how about this? It still shows normal menus?
Someone said now your manual eq setting can be saved and it does not return to presets anymore when you stop playing... Is it really fixed?
Anyway unbranded western-euro generic isn't on seus yet... Netherlands...
[ This Message was edited by: MadRabbit on 2008-01-02 23:14 ]
Ok first question, On the media list it shows the artist name and title of the song, but browsing through the music it still shows uknown artist if its not on there correctly etc. (I think i answered that one correct) But to mainly answer the question, must of my music now comes up with artist and names of songs as most of them before did come up with uknown. I hope this makes sense to you
Laser theme when using the shortcut still shows the normal menu icons and not the laser icons when shortcutting.
Yep manual Eq are now saved
Hope this helps
[ This Message was edited by: darrengf on 2008-01-02 23:26 ] |
MadRabbit
Joined: Nov 12, 2007
Posts: 31
PM |
Thanks darrengf,
I think k850 firmware is really buggy ever!
I hope SE fix ASAP... but still wait 038... :S |
darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
I agree and as i said I dont think the K850i will be any good for at least another 6 months.
The only thing we can do is wait for better release.
There is a anouncement soom about a cosmetic change model for the K850i, like the K810 was for the K800.
Its sooner that SE hoped for. That will teach them!! Customer power is greater than they think |
angelm713
Joined: Nov 09, 2007
Posts: 13
PM |
Mucho thanks, Darrengf for your details about your 038 experience. One thing I'm dying to know while I wait indefinitely for it...
With my phone, in Media Player, I can browse my 1600 Tracks very quickly by letter. But, searching in Album or Artist (447, 383 respectively), takes 1 1/2 to 2 minutes to pull up by name. Even when I had about half of that amount, it took over a minute to pull up, say "Rush" after typing RU.
Please tell me it is better with 038!
Thanks!
[ This Message was edited by: angelm713 on 2008-01-02 23:55 ] |
obentou
Joined: Sep 19, 2005
Posts: 364
From: Toronto
PM |
On 2008-01-03 00:37:10, darrengf wrote:
I agree and as i said I dont think the K850i will be any good for at least another 6 months.
The only thing we can do is wait for better release.
There is a anouncement soom about a cosmetic change model for the K850i, like the K810 was for the K800.
Its sooner that SE hoped for. That will teach them!! Customer power is greater than they think
What are your sources for this cosmetic change for the K850i? Will the new model be called K860i or something?
This is good news. |
Rookwise
Joined: Mar 22, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: UK. Phone:Samsung Galaxy A54 5
PM |
I have just one question. I have quite a few entries in my K850's calender and am wondering if when using SEUS to update the phone. Will they still be on after updating or will I have to put everything back on again.
This is very important to for me to know as I have all our maternity dates (baby scans, midwife appointments etc) in my K850's calender.
I tried sniffing coke once but didnt like it. The bubbles kept going up my nose  |
Duran
Joined: Aug 25, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Netherlands
PM |
On 2008-01-03 01:05:26, obentou wrote:
On 2008-01-03 00:37:10, darrengf wrote:
I agree and as i said I dont think the K850i will be any good for at least another 6 months.
The only thing we can do is wait for better release.
There is a anouncement soom about a cosmetic change model for the K850i, like the K810 was for the K800.
Its sooner that SE hoped for. That will teach them!! Customer power is greater than they think
What are your sources for this cosmetic change for the K850i? Will the new model be called K860i or something?
This is good news.
its not good news unless i can trade my 850 for 860 ;/ |
fullforce
Joined: Oct 12, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Sweden
PM |
On 2008-01-03 01:17:03, Rookwise wrote:
I have just one question. I have quite a few entries in my K850's calender and am wondering if when using SEUS to update the phone. Will they still be on after updating or will I have to put everything back on again.
This is very important to for me to know as I have all our maternity dates (baby scans, midwife appointments etc) in my K850's calender.
Why don't you just synchronize your calendar with outlook and put it back after the update then? |
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Posted: 2008-01-02 21:35
