Sony Ericsson K850i with 5.0 Megapixel Camera...

Sony Ericsson reaches for the 5 megapixel barrier with its new Sony Ericsson K850 Cyber-shot cameraphone. The handset features all the goodies seen in the previous Cyber-shot handsets but besides the resolution punch it also packs in full HSDPA support.

The Sony Ericsson K850 Cyber-shot is the next generation of powerful cameraphones by Sony Ericsson which have long kept the first place when it comes to camera-in-phone performance. Today they are making the next step and move on to using a 5 megapixel camera.

Beside that, the Sony Ericsson K850 comes with a number of updates over previously released handsets: it has an automatic camera cover, a renovated camera interface, and a spanking new media browser with picture auto rotate feature. It has a larger, 2.2" TFT display, and features extended network support such as tri-band HSDPA and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. That sort of a solution is uncommon for Sony Ericsson since up until now they offered identical EDGE-enabled and UMTS-enabled devices separately. Now for the first time we see 3G plus EDGE all-in-one.

Other than that, the handset retains all the original K810 specs such as a secondary video calls camera, stereo Bluetooth, USB support, FM radio and a M2 memory card slot (with a 512MB card to be included in the retail package). The memory card slot deserves a special attention since this is the first SE attempt in using a dual card support - it can host both a M2 card as well as a microSD card. In terms of its size, the new K850 will be identical with the Sony Ericsson K810 keeping the same measurements and adding only 3g of additional weight. Sony Ericsson K850 carries a really innovative design solution - the navigation D-pad (marked by the green rectangle on the photo) is made part of the alphanumeric keypad, while the softkeys are really small. The most probable reason for such a solution is obvious the need to fit a larger display while keeping the older size and form factor.

In regards to video capabilities Sony Ericsson has finally made a mark in their portfolio - this is the the first of their handsets to feature video recording in QVGA resolution at 30 fps. Regular feature phones produced by SE so far were well known with their meager QCIF@15fps video recording, while their latest smartphones had reached only QVGA@15fps. We certainly hope that VGA@30fps will not be far away.

The Sony Ericsson K850 will be available in Velvet Blue or Luminous Green in the beginning of Q4 2007.