Design
Available in white, red or silver, Sony Ericsson's K610i is designed for mass market appeal with its small 102 by 45 by 17 millimetre dimensions and good looks. Tipping the scales at a mere 92 grams, it's possibly the lightest 3G-capable handset we've seen, 6 grams lighter than Samsung's slender Z510 flip phone.
Sony Ericsson has replaced the tiny navigation joystick found on earlier models such as the K750i with a small four-way directional keypad with a selection key in the middle. We're quite fond of this swap as, unlike the joystick, it is next to impossible to accidentally hit the wrong direction. We've also heard from some Sony Ericsson users that the joysticks tended to lose sensitivity over time.
The K610i's numerical keypad is small but comfortable to use, with equally sized and shaped buttons. Its bright screen supports up to 262K colours and acts as a landscape-oriented viewfinder when taking photos. Below the display are six shortcut keys with functions including Internet, call log, menu, back and cancel. On the flanks are launch keys for camera, volume and music.
Features
As a mid-range 3G phone, the K610i isn't exactly brimming with features, although it does have a handful of fun applications and useful tools.
On the imaging and entertainment side, there's a 2-megapixel camera for stills and videos and an MP3 player with a loudspeaker for music. Unlike Sony Ericsson's Walkman-branded phones, no headphones come with the K610i. Two time-filler Java games come pre-installed: a Tetris-like puzzle game called QuadraPop and a graphic-rich 3D tennis game, which allows you to play against a partner over Bluetooth. The K610i allows you to download extra content to customise the phone, such as themes, ringtones, message alert tones, games and applications through the Fun & Downloads section of Sony Ericsson's Web site, which is accessible from the phone's browser.
Business and productivity features include the NetFront browser -- the same one on Sony Ericsson's baby Walkman, the W300i -- for rendering HTML, xHTML and WAP pages on its 4.8 centimetre, 176-by-220-pixel screen. Another way to stay on top of your favourite news sites and blogs is with the K610i's RSS reader. Tucked away in the Messaging menu, the reader allows you to subscribe to valid RSS feeds and receive updates directly to the phone, either periodically or when you choose to check for new content.
Performance
Although the K610i sports a 2-megapixel camera, the photos and videos it captured didn't impress us. As there is no flash of any kind, night time shots turned out dark and grainy, even when we set the camera to night mode. Perhaps we were spoiled by the exceptional 3-megapixel Sony Ericsson K800i, but there were still a couple of aspects of the K610i's camera that let it down. While landscape and portrait photos focussed well enough, we ended up with a whole bunch of blurry pics when we tried to take close-ups shots. Images taken in the highest resolution were jagged when viewed at actual resolution and seemed quite pixelated. Other features absent include autofocus and macro mode.
Video capture didn't fare much better. At 176 by 144 pixels and around 10 frames per second, they don't look too bad on the K610i's screen. However, when viewed on a PC we found ourselves squinting at the footage, which was only slightly bigger than a postage stamp.
In our experience, the pre-loaded NetFront browser didn't cope as well as Opera Mini when navigating graphic-heavy Web pages, although it was good for WAP and built-for-mobile sites. The K610i locked up twice when we were browsing Web sites, both times required us to take the battery out to power cycle the phone.
With only 16MB of internal memory and a rather crumby 64MB in the box, don't expect the K610i to store much more than an album of music, as well as a couple of photos and videos. With a hotswappable card slot concealed under the battery cover, you are able to expand the memory with Sony's Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards while keeping the phone switched on.
We can't fault what are arguably the K610's -- and any mobile phone's -- core features: battery life and call quality. Sony Ericsson rates the K610i's battery to be good for 7 hours of talk time on GSM, or up to 2.5 hours on 3G networks. Testing the phone under normal usage conditions -- with a 2G SIM -- we got around 4 days before needing to recharge the handset.
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cazz
03/10/2008, 12:15 PM
rating
7/10
i bought this phone june 2007 for $199 and its great but ive have many problems with it
Pros: great features for the price
awsome colour
looks good
Cons: keeps turning off every few minutes
keeps deleting my stuff (pictures and music)
wont record any calls, (missed, recieved and dialled)
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stevo_arod
01/10/2008, 10:40 AM
rating
6/10
What i like about the k610i is i've had it for 1 and a 1/2 years and i've been a bit rough on it (eg. dropping the phone) and it still works the same as when i got it. I think this is one of the best cheapest phones on the market.
Pros: -MP3 Player
-Can play WMA files
-Predictive Text
-Cheap
-Worth What You Pay For
-Strong
-Indestructable
Cons: -Bad camera
-Only 64MB included in box
-M2 costs too much
-Turns off and on
-Freezes
-No FM Radio
-Slow at times
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tlefan
26/08/2008, 12:03 AM
rating
4/10
I have had this phone for a little over 18 months now, and for the first few months it was fine, but then problems started happening. Turns out the battery holder is too big so the phone keeps turning off, my mic is stuffed and some how all my games and apps were erased and i cant put nemore on.
Pros: Light, attractive phone
Cons: Many many cons
Battery holder too large
Poor speaker phone
only 64mb m2 card in box
Randomly erases memory
Cant get m2 card out as the slot eject has broken???
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rose29
19/08/2008, 06:58 AM
rating
8/10
i like this cell phone v much wen i first bought it,i had sum difficulties cuz it was v complicated but then i got used to it...its so easy to use..and fast...it has alot of gr8 features ..
hey can any1 plz tell me how can i create a security code for my cellfone ?
Pros: small,fast,stereo speakers,gr8 camera and quick-capture,video calling,shorcut button
Cons: no FM radio,small LCD,64MB M2,bad camera quailty at night !
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sony boy
01/08/2008, 07:10 PM
rating
7/10
Hey i want to purchase an M2 card for mine, but in any user manual there isn't the limit for the m2 card. could i purchase an 8GB? will it work or it will not be compatible??? pls help. this phone is massive!!
Pros: nice interface, durable, best 3G and media compatibility (MP3, WAV etc ... )
Cons: sometimes it just turns off even with a brand new battery !!! i don't know why!!
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joe
29/06/2008, 05:56 PM
rating
8/10
I have one, and it is very reliable phone that does the job.
Pros: Video Calls, Strong, Light, easily upgradable, good speakers, mp3
Cons: Bad camera quality despite 2mp
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fovobaki
12/06/2008, 11:46 PM
rating
5/10
the buttons are way too small, so if you send alot of sms like I do its harsh on the fingers!!
predictive text isn't as good as nokia's
other than that its good for a block phone. I like that you can set several different alarms for days of the week.
good for a block phone, but I prefer a flip or a slide
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arif
24/05/2008, 06:07 PM
rating
8/10
its a nice phone. its outloock is great. the red one is the sexy one, which i have. service is also excellent. If u buy this one than everybody will ask about it and u will feel proud.
Pros: loud speaker, mp3, modem, nice themes and greatest outloock.
Cons: picture in night mode is not good. it hanged sometime.
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arif
24/05/2008, 06:06 PM
rating
8/10
its a nice phone. its outloock is great. the red one is the sexy one, which i have. service is also excellent. If u buy this one than everybody will ask about it and u will feel proud.
Pros: loud speaker, mp3, modem, nice themes and greatest outloock.
Cons: picture in night mode is not good. it hanged sometime.
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a
17/05/2008, 07:06 PM
rating
5/10
ive had this phone for just over a year when it broke! 3 admitted it was their fault but i still have to pay for a new phone
Pros: nice themes
wont break, even if dropped
red colour looks nice - lots of nice comments from friends
Cons: doesnt have password requirement for text messages
somehow broke my sim card - still have to pay
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