Sony Ericsson K770i Cyber-shot review

The Sony Ericsson K770i Cyber-shot might be branded as a Cyber-shot camera phone, but there's more to this handset than just its ability to take pretty pictures -- it also has a great music player and a whole load of other neat features.

It's available for free on 3 and some contracts or for around £200 as a pay as you go or SIM-free phone.

Strengths
Our K770i was supplied by 3 so it came in the striking purple colour scheme which is exclusive to that network, but it has to be said that purple or not, this is a great looking handset. The metallic strip keypad looks the business and the phone feels beautifully proportioned in your hand.

As this is a Cyber-shot phone, you'd expect the camera to be better than the usual mobile phone fare. Thankfully, it doesn't disappoint. You can activate the 3.2-megapixel snapper by either sliding open the lens cover on the rear of the phone or by pressing the shutter button on the right hand edge of the phone.

The camera has an LED flash and micro mirror for taking self portraits and the snaps it takes are very good, although not quite up to the level of the more expensive K850i. Nevertheless, most people will find they're more than good enough to be printed as glossy snaps. We also love the 'Photo fix' application that you can use to touch up your photos directly on the phone.

Sony Ericsson currently seems to have music on mobiles licked, so it's no surprise to find that the K770i is a very accomplished music machine. It sports a similar music player to that found on the Walkman phones so it's incredibly easy to use and the sound quality can't be faulted thanks to the thunderous bass, pleasing mid range and crisp high frequencies.

The phone's call quality and reception were also excellent and the battery life is good too. You can expect to get around 10 hours of talk time out of it and it'll keep ticking over on standby for around 16 days.

Weaknesses
The camera takes good shots, but we can't help thinking that Sony could have pushed the boat out further and equipped it with a Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flash like those used on the higher-end K850i.

Also, although the headphones supplied in the box are pretty decent, they're not as good as the sound-isolating ones you get with the Walkman branded handsets. The phone isn't supplied with a headphone adaptor either, so you can't easily swap them for your own set of cans. And if you really want to use the phone for music, then you'll need to invest in a larger memory card because the handset is only supplied with a 256MB M2 Memory Stick.

Conclusion
The K770i may not match Sony Ericsson's top of the range Cyber-shot or Walkman phones blow for blow when it comes to features, but as an overall package this handset is hard to beat. It looks great, is easy to use, doesn't cost the earth at £200 SIM-free or pay as you go, while it's free on 3 and some other contracts and is an impressive all rounder. What more could you want?

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire