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K700 user reviews |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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This thread is for K700 user reviews only. Feel free to post your K700 experience here. “Irrelevant” remarks will be deleted without notice. And it is up to the moderators to define irrelevant.
The intention is to start one single review thread for each new model. Feel free to start other threads in the Review forum.
Comments about the reviews should be posted in other threads.
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thanks to member vojta66 I was tipped off about the immediate availability of the K700 from nowicom for €519.99, a price I was happy to pay. A few days later the following box of goodies arrived
Clearly an imported model from Hong Kong it came with a UK plug and a european adaptor, both english and chinese manuals, a wrist strap and a headset with a microphone and button for answering and ending calls.
on the side of the box it shows the various features of the phone
including 32mb memory which we now know is in fact 40mb. Indeed the first thing I checked when I first powered the phone on was the memory and it showed 41174kb.
a quick comparison with a few other models also shows the K700 to be a little shorter than the T630. Indeed whereas the T630 fits tightly into its krusell case the K700 slides into the same case easily.
but then I powered it on and... wow! what a fantastic screen
some general pics around the phone
back showing camera etc
top showing power switch and IR port
the bottom showing the port cover (which cannot be removed btw) and the holes where the wriststrap goes
the port uncovered
so, thats a few pictures, now some details.
on opening the back cover to insert my sim and battery I found it to be quite plasticy but I guess this keeps the weight down. The sim card goes in the same way as it does on the p900, into a guide on each side, rather than the T630 style with a guide on one side and a push down clip for the other side.
once powered on you are first first offered the "Setup wizard" which takes you through some of the basic settings such as time and date etc.
You are then presented with a screen which has much the same content as the rest of the T/Z-series with signal meters in the top left, battery level in the top right, time in the bottom left and date in the bottom right and the calls and more softkeys.
The default theme on my K700 was "waip" which includes an animated gif as the main wallpaper and this is where the differences start hen compared to earlier models.
my next natural action was to move the joystick right to get to the desktop icons, however on the K700 this causes a prompt to be displayed which asks if I want to assign a shortcut to that action. Indeed all 4 joystick directions can be assigned an actoin and by default left is "write new", up is "media player", down is "phonebook" and right is not assigned. I assigned right to be "main menu" which now makes this react as it did in the T630, i.e. show the desktop icons. If you choose not to assign any joystick directions to "main menu" then you will need to press the joystick in to get there.
once in the desktop the icons are as follows, left to right, top to bottom
Sony Ericsson, Internet Services, Entertainment
Camera, Messaging, Radio
File Manager, Phone Book, Media Player
Connectivity, Organizer, Settings
Sony Ericsson
This just takes you to the Sony Ericsson wap site
Internet Services
This is similar in concept to the T630 but with Search internet, Picture gallery, Video gallery, Settings and also another way to get into the Sony Ericsson wap page.
In Internet Services you can press the more key to get to wap bookmarks, enter address, history etc
Entertainment
In here you have Games and on mine came RiverRiders, Super Real Tennis and 3d darts all in java as there is no mophun on the K700. I also downloaded Alien Scum from the Sony Ericsson wap site. This is identical to the version for the T series, if a little faster  , but in java again of course
in Entertainment you also find MusicDJ and Record sound in which you can record any sound and use it as a ringtone!
Camera
In camera mode there are two tabs which are accessed by moving the joystick left or right. To the right is the still picture and to the left is the video
The still pictures are stored in their own folder within the still picture application as are the videos in their own folders.
The more menu for still pictures offers "view all pictures" where you can view the still pictures taken and the more menu there offers:
"send" them as email, bluetooth or infrared.
"use" them as wallpaper, screen saver, startup screen, add to contact
"edit" (for 160x120 size)
"rotate" though none of the picture sizes seems to make this function available and its not mentioned in the manual (except when actually taking the picture).
then there is manage files where you can move the pictures from the special pictures folder to the general pictures folder where images you have uploaded from pc etc are stored.
next comes slide show, then remote screen (which searches for bluetooth devices such as the Bluetooth Media Viewer MMV-100
finally comes "delete", "info" and "mark several" which allows you to mark several pictures to act on at the same time.
after "view all pictures" in the main more menu comes "switch to video", then picture size which can be Large (640x480), Medium (320x240), Small (160x120) and Extended which is where the software interpolates the Large photo to 1280x960, and quite effectively too compared to the Extended mode of the T630
then there is "night mode" then "effects" which includes off, panoram where the camera takes up to 3 pictures and stitches them together, then black and white, egative, sepia and solarize
next comes "frames". this is cool and provides and image within which the photo taken is placed, these are angel, baby, behind bars, bunny, double heart (for two people), extra (news paper), hip hop, hippie, monkey, superhere, tv star, wanted, amber, brass, brushed alu, bubble, camo, jelly, mediterranean, soccer, wriggle plant
then comes "picture quality" which can be normal or fine
then light, which is the built in light on the back of the phone which functions similarly to the MPF-10 accessory
(interestingly, the MPF-10 itself still FULLY works on the K700)
finally comes "self-timer" and "default name" which allows you to provide the text for the naming of the pictures.
Note: although the camera is claimed to have a 4x digital zoom this is only available in certain pictures sizes. The K700 faq describes this well...
Camera:
1280x960 pixels (Extended) - Zoom is not available
640x480 pixels (VGA) - Zoom is not available
320x240 pixels (QVGA)- 2x zoom
160x120 pixels (QQVGA) - 4x zoom
Video:
176x144 pixels - 2x zoom
128x96 pixels - 4x zoom
shortcut keys are as follows
1 - cycles through picture sizes
2 - toggles night mode on or off
3 - cycles through the effects
4 - toggles self-timer on or off
5 - turns the light on or off
You get a loud shutter noise when taking still pictures and a beep for video. this can be turned off by either choosing meeting profile or changing volume in the profile to zero. silent mode does not make any difference to this!
Moving over to video the more menu has similar options to the still pictures except that "video size" can be Large (176x144) or Small (128x96). Night mode, light, default name are available as is effect (except panorama of course) and video length which can be "Limited" for mms messages or "Unlimited" which is limited only by memory as far as I can tell.
shortcut keys are as follows
1 - toggles video size
2 - toggles night mode on or off
3 - cycles through the effects
5 - turns the light on or off
Small picture (160x120)
Medium picture (320x240)
Large picture (640x480)
Extended picture (1280x960)
Panorama picture which I am absolutely amazed at!
Sample video clip
Messaging
The options here are much the same as the T630 but has changed slightly in that picture messaging and text messaging use the same menus, you are simply prompted for which one you want to do.
The email facility is much better now and does support the viewing and saving of picture and video attachments, which I have tested, and probably others that I have not tested yet
The phone also vibrates (and presumably sounds a tune) when new email arrives, just as it does on the P900
Radio
The radio is pretty cool. you need the supplied headset attached for it to work as the headset cable is also the antennae. There radio has memory for 20 preset stations and it can even auto scan for the strongest available and assign them to the memory. You move between the presets using the up and down joystick movements. You can key the frequency in manually, or manually increase or decrease the current frequency using the left and right joystick movements. The search softkey is available to find the next station with a string signal. Volume is changed using the side volume buttons and finally you can turn the loud speaker on to listen to the radio, although the headset still needs to be attached for the antennae reason already mentioned.
The Radio also has a minimise option which lets you listen to the radio while doing other things such as playing games or sending text etc
File manager
This provides similar functionality to "Pictures and Sounds" on the T630 in that it has Pictures, Sounds, Videos, Themes, Games, Applications and other (whatever that maybe)
Phonebook
This is again a little similar to previous models. One big difference is the speed dial facility which provides the usual 9 numbers for speed dial but now you select them from the phone book, none of this faffing around with positions in the sim card
Another big change is that you can also now store addresses in the contacts and there is an area for info which can be synchronised across from out like it does on P900 and iPAQ.
There is also an option to view sim numbers in a nicer format than before and also now in "Advanced" you can copy to or from sim, one or all numbers. There is also an option to "Auto save on SIM" which will automatically save contacts that are added or edited to the sim. nice!
Media player
This can play MP3, MP4, 3GP and WAV and can be minimised in much the same way as the Radio and also has a graphic equaliser!. Random play is available and you can send non copyright songs as picture message, email, bluetooth or infrared.
The media player plays by default through the loudspeaker but of course can be heard through the headphones
There are some very interesting sounds provided by default and I can not help but laugh when I hear Baby
(I'll put the others up when I get a bit more time)
Connectivity
Again, similar to what appears in previous phones except that "wap profiles" is now called "internet settings" and the settings for streaming and for java are also in here
Organiser
This is similar to before with minor changes in some of the menus and still no recurrent appointments available
Settings
Once again similar to before and still limited to the fixed message alert sounds. You can also access the "Setup Wizard" here too
The settings are, however, set out in tabs which you move between using the right and left joysticks. The tabs are "general", "sounds and alerts", "display" and "calls"
Calls softkey
in the standby screen the calls menu now offers tabulated call listings. The tabs are "All", "Answered", "Dialled" and "Missed" which separates them nicely.
Synchronisation
The K700 sync software looks exactly the same as the P800/P900 sync software and is also called sync station. It does install separately, however, if you already have the P800/P900 software installed.
One problem I found is that unlike the P900 sync this only transfers the business addresses and so you end up with no address for personal contacts. I will probably have to go through in outlook and move personal addresses to the business address fields.
Also, the phone only allows 10 notes whereas I have 30 or so in outlook. This causes the sync to fail with an out of memory error and I cannot choose which 10 I would like to transfer.
File Manager
A file manager application is provided to enable access to the phones content from the pc. This again looks identical to "MY P900" and when the K700 is connected it shows it as "MY K700i". The folders available under "Phone memory" are other, pictures and under pictures is camera_semc for those pictures taken by the camera, sounds, themes, videos and under videos is camera for those videos taken by the camera
Ok, now my impressions and general comments.
I did find a bug. I use the phone lock in automatic mode on all  models. This means that when another sim card is used the phone prompts for the phone lock code when it is switched on. On the K700 it is asking everytime I switch on so automatic is working just like the ON settings. I guess they will fix this.
It has started being reported, and I have experienced it myself, that the 2 key gets stuck occassionally under the housing at the top of the key. The work around is to be sure to press directly down on the key and not towards the top of it.
The clock that is normally displayed after the screen saver on earlier models is not on by default. The screen just goes black. You can activate it by going to settings, display, light and setting it to automatic. not an obvious place but that will then show the clock moving around the screen as before.
Its also worth mentioning at this point that the standby screen show icons for missed call, text messages received
In screensaver mode the joystick does not reactivate the phone so don't be surprised by that. nor does the camera or internet buttons.
The keylock is now the opposite of what it was. to lock the keyboard you press * and then unlock which is shown as the right soft key. To unlock its the same sequence.
Reception seems heaps better. I am getting full strength on the K700 where the T630 shows about 2/3rds for the same sim card
Call quality is excellent and the in call options, accessed by pressing the joystick in during a call, include the ability to turn on the loudspeaker and this works quite well but does sound a little tinny at times
The joystick is nicer too. It has a larger surface area than the T630 giving a much better feel when moving it
The style of the keys is similar to the T630 but where in the T630 they are opaque, they are clear in the K700 and much more readable in my opinion. As vlam commented earlier today, I don't need to use my glasses.
It does have the Quickshare logo at the bottom which people have commented about but it honestly doesn't bother me
Ok, well I love the K700. The screen is fantastic with the higher resolution and brighter colours, the pictures it takes are heaps better than previous models and I would even say that VGA mode is better than the P900. Video will be useful from time to time. The shape is still growing on me, especially the back, but I feel I will come to love it totally. I never used the radio on Nokias but have been using it all day today on this!
I will probably update this from time to time as I find new things I would like to mention so check back occassionally
thanks also go to caff for a couple of extra details
thanks also go now to Ivan Kusturin for hosting the K700i Original Content zip file I made
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...Unless I'm very much mistaken
[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2005-07-23 15:37 ] | |
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Superluminova
Joined: Feb 24, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: ...Mummies Tummy!
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fantastic review, that panorama picture is truly amazing, i can't wait till i can give my opinion's on the k700.
OBEY GAINT |
Lynx69
Joined: Feb 22, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: [ENGLAND]
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Very good review. The camera looks amazing, especially the panorama picture, damn your lucky  i have to wait until November
 >>*Wow 2100+ posts*<< |
Jim
Joined: Jan 20, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Belgium
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Well at least you guys know when it comes out in your country 
Anyway it looks really great but why on the panoramic picture the right is more white ?
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[ This Message was edited by: Jim on 2004-06-14 22:57 ] |
*Jojo*
Joined: Oct 15, 2003
Posts: > 500
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@masseur - Looks like you're kinda 'strict' with this thread you just authored! 'Irrelevant' comments/posts will be deleted by the mods (without prior notice) or perhaps best wording should be at your own 'disposal' ??? Whhhhhhhhy !
My only comment about this fone is that: It's a nice fone, back panel (cam) is similar to that of the Nokia 6600. Over-all, nice presentation! If I don't see my post (this one), then I guess, I am the initial/first casualty of your new 'ruling' here mate . . . Cheers! |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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jim, unfortunately the 3rd picture taken to make the panorama was taken more towards the sun than I would have liked. I didn't think about that until after I already started and with so much to do I didn't do another.. so put it down to my photography framing skills
I still looks pretty good though
jojo, that comment is on all the user review threads originally started by laffen and which I have just copied
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...Unless I'm very much mistaken
[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2004-06-14 23:08 ] |
Del
Joined: Jan 11, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Kent, UK
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Great review masseur I cant wait to get my hands on one of these 
Brought to you straight from the event horizon of a quantum singularity.  |
bico
Joined: May 19, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Stockholm, Sweden.
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@masseur: Excellent review! Thanks a lot!
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*Jojo*
Joined: Oct 15, 2003
Posts: > 500
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@masseur - So, 'twas an original idea of @laffen . . . . So, no other recourse but to - 'concur' ! Nice work back there mate! Also, looks like you've just created a 'user's manual' here mate, very detailed though very informative! Very useful for potential buyers.
[ This Message was edited by: jojo51069 on 2004-06-14 23:25 ] |
Sir-SonyEricsson-man
Joined: May 30, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Norway
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We over here in Norway loved it.. I'll send it tomorrow around at my jobb this link..
Sony Xperia 1 II, Xperia 5, Huawei P30 Pro |
Syphon
Joined: Jun 15, 2004
Posts: 6
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What exactly is the problem with having the Quickshare logo on the bottom? I would rather have that than operator branding, and it is somewhat reflective too which looks cool. |
moogoo
Joined: Oct 25, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: NYC
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*DROOOOOLL* =)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I DONT KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN WAIT FOR MINE..... COME ON EXPANSYS.. SPEED THINGS UP!!!
oh one thing i wanted to ask... it says that the phone is made out of brushed aluminum which is similar to the old nokia 8290.. the last phone i can think of that had brushed aluminum. but you said that when you were handling it, it felt like plastic? so which is it? is it fake brushed aluminum?
also.. how scratch resistant is it? i usually keep my phone in my pocket.. what's the likeliness that it would get scratched up and look like crap within a month or two?
[ This Message was edited by: moogoo on 2004-06-15 01:14 ] |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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@syphon, welcome to Esato Ö-)
not sure what the problem is but a few people commented on not liking it in the Sony Ericsson K700 discussion thread
@moogoo, no, I only mentioned the back cover that you remove to get at the battery and sim felt very plasticy. The top part at the back and alot of the front of the phone may well be brushed aluminium but its hard to say
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b-chill
Joined: Jun 05, 2003
Posts: 246
From: The Land of Confusion
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masseur: So, does the equalizer and bassboost work with the radio?
t10s t29s t39m s868 R380s MC 16 t68i p800 z200 k500i s700 k700 k750 k608 |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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there is no access to them from the radio and changing the settings in media player doesn't seem to have any effect. In radio all you have is the ability to switch between mono and stereo
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Posted: 2004-06-14 23:42
>>*Wow 2100+ posts*<< 
