Mid Range Cybershot

Sony Ericsson has been selective with its Cyber-shot range and the mid-range K550i is only the third instalment. While Sony Ericsson seemingly can’t stop spawning an army of Walkman phones, until recently, its Cyber-shot range consisted of one phone – the K800i.

Of course, this has now been upgraded to the K810i, but it has taken the manufacturer a while to roll out its second proper instalment in the guise of the K550i.

This handset offers the Cyber-shot experience at a supposedly reasonable prepay price, as well as on contract. Prepay prices start at around £120, but when you consider you can get the K800i for about £160 if you shop around, it doesn’t seem like such a great deal. For the extra £40, you get a 3.2-megapixel camera and 3G capabilities compared to the K550i’s two-megapixel lens and EDGE.

Still, if you can’t afford the extra outlay, the K550i is a great mid-range camera phone with an emphasis on mobile imaging.

It closely follows the design and build of the W610i Walkman phone (see our review on page 18) and flaunts the new tiny lozenge keypad design that Sony Ericsson has fitted into the W610i and W880i. We are critical of this new layout, feeling especially sorry for the more fat-fingered fraternity. While the new design proved thorny to use on the slimline W880i, it’s not such a problem on the slightly chunkier K550i. We suspect having more weight and girth behind it is the key to this increased usability.

The rear battery cover is fixed into place with two lock switches, which feels creaky, and this rear cover hides the side-located microSD slot. Everything from the intuitive phone and camera user interface to the great-sounding music player and web browser mirrors both Sony Ericsson’s K800i and K810i. Bonus inclusions include an FM radio and Sony Ericsson’s Shazam-esque music recognition software, TrackID.

You’re no doubt sniffing around the K550i for the camera and, while you don’t get the Photo Fix or BestPic photographic trickery of fellow Cyber-shooters, the phone still retains the brand’s quality camera control

The active sliding lens cover is a tad sticky, but is sturdy protection and fires up the camera. It shoots in a 1632x1224-pixel resolution and is comparable to the W810i and K750i for picture quality. The auto-focus works well, but sadly, the flash isn’t a proper automatic Xenon job like the K800i/K810i, but is an LED light that needs manual activating. It’s pretty crude, but you must expect some sacrifices lower down the rung.

However, the K550i still possesses all the other photo features for the amateur snappers among you, including macro focus for close-ups, white balance, multiple scene modes, effects, self timer and metering mode.

We can understand where Sony Ericsson has positioned the K550i, but right now, it’s too close to the K800i on prepay to represent a bargain Nevertheless, it’s still one of the most user-friendly and feature-packed mid-range camera phones out there.

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