Sony Ericsson K700 & S700

PhoenixRising

Has anyone heard anything about the release dates for these phones in Ireland, and whether or not any of the networks have plans to pick these phones up ?

I gather that the K700 is due out in the next month or so, and that the S700 is due in Q4. I saw that Carphone Warehouse are expecting the S700 in October. Here

I must say I can't wait for the S700. It'll definitely be my next handset. Looks like an amazing phone.

flywheel

best place to hear this kind of news, dates/first sightings would be on esato.com...

K700 was a decent handset pity about the lack of memory expansion though...

the S700 was still in pre-production stage when i had a chance to play with it in March, the screen size was great and good to see the memory expansion capability, i came away liking it but will have to have some time with production model to put it through it's paces a bit more

anyhow here's some pics with the device in hand... again they have carried on their 'double face', with the back looking like the front of a camera...



BrianG

PhoenixRising

Thanks for those links Brian. Those pictures are great. Any idea when reviewers might get a few test models from SE to review ?

The expandable memory is definitely a bonus, with it's imaging and MP3 capabilities.

kevmac

First review here:

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-k700-en.shtml

This Russian guy tests all the new phones first.

My K700 is on order from Expansys.

SE Dutch site says that it will cost €489. See here:

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=nl&lc=nl&ver=4000&template=pc1_1_1&zone=pc&lm=pc1&prid=1655

flywheel

Originally posted by PhoenixRising
Any idea when reviewers might get a few test models from SE to review ?

the mobile-review.com site kevmac mentions with the K700 is one of the first places to review most handsets so the S700 should appear there too when it comes out - mobileburn.com is also good at getting early reviews up too

keep an eye on esato.com anyhow as they will either have a review or news of others available when they appear - they currently have some video footage of the S700 (same handset as the one above!) available here if you haven't seen it already

BrianG

kevmac

Yeah, I forgot about Esato's review:

http://www.esato.com/reviews/sonyericsson_k700/

PhoenixRising

@ Brian, I had a look at that video and the handset is definitely smaller than some of the pictures would lead you to believe. What is it like "comfort-wise" when the keypad is out for texting etc.. ?

@ kevmac, have you paid for your K700 yet ? If so what did you pay for it ? There's no price quoted on the expansys site. Mphone in the UK are selling it for £329 Stg. (approx €492).

flywheel

Originally posted by PhoenixRising
[Bthe handset is definitely smaller than some of the pictures would lead you to believe. What is it like "comfort-wise" when the keypad is out for texting etc.. ?
[/B]

it's not huge - but not 'small' for anyone thinking along the lines of a T68i or even the T610 - more along a smaller 'volume' than the P900 - the S700 is a bit smaller/shorter (when closed) but just as deep as the p900 (with flip attached)... their S700 spec quotes 107.5x49x24.5 - to compare the P900 (with flip attached) is 115x57x24 and the T610 is 102x44x19 - [all measurements (height x width x depth in mm)]

they weren't really up for people interacting with the OS much as it was was just a partial build - but holding it in the open position it felt ok - i would have to write a real email or sms/mms before i could say exactly how comfortable it was though and it wasn't possible at that demo...

BrianG

kevmac

I buy a new phone every 12 months and because SE phones work seamlessly with Apple's Mac OSX, I always opt for them.

Once a week I turn on Bluetooth and my phone book is updated on my Mac and phone through iSync.

I now appreciate how intuitive SE phone's are after spending weeks trying to get a mate's phone book transfered to his new Motorola V525 - absolute hell as the V525 doesn't use vCArd as standard.

I have had good experiences with Expansys over the years and their price is usually competitive.

I expect to pay around €500 including Fed Ex charges.

Going by my T610 experience it took Vodafone six months to bring that phone out in Ireland after I got my SIM free version in June 2003 but the Vodafone Live version had all the crappy branding on it in the menus.

Ste.phen

Originally posted by kevmac
[...] but the Vodafone Live version had all the crappy branding on it in the menus.

That can be removed though, right? I have a May 2003 T610 myself (SIM free from Asia) and i even though my software is woefully out of date i prefer it to the voda-badged ones, even if they work better :P

PhoenixRising

AFAIK the Vodafone software cannot be removed by a firmware update.

Ro-76

Originally posted by PhoenixRising
AFAIK the Vodafone software cannot be removed by a firmware update.

It can be removed by flashing the phone, but not merely a firmware upgrade.

PhoenixRising

Just looking around expansys.com and found that they are taking pre-orders for the S700 already.

S700 expansys

A bit premature I would have thought for a phone not due out until October at the earliest!

kevmac

I have also booked the S700 with Expansys - it'll be my Christmas pressie from the wife!

They give you first refusal for a product when you order from them and if you say no then they ask the guy behind you in the queue.

I will make up my mind when I see what www.mobile-review.com have to say about it and the €700 plus price will also make me think twice.

As the S700 will probably be the coolest phone around for most of next year getting in line is probably wise.

whizzbang

Try out the UI for the K700 yourself here!

http://www.mobile9.com/jump.php?url=www.sonyericsson.com/trythephone/k700/en/try/index.htm

looks nice

sharkman

According to this site the K700 will be available from 5th of June @ $589.99 .

sharkman

Now available on E-bay for $679.00

PhoenixRising

There are some great pics of the S700 over on the esato forums. Here (you might have to register on esato to view them)

I really liked the pic which compares the size of the S700 with the T610.

Stephen

That S700 is sexy, but I don't think I will ever be spending that much money on a phone.

PhoenixRising

Originally posted by Stephen
That S700 is sexy

Yeah it's a beautiful looking phone when the swivel is closed, not so sure though when it's open for typing etc..

They'll probably be around €450 when they are first released. It is a crazy amount of money for a phone, but considering it's an MP3 player, a megapixel camera and it's very sexy looking, I think I'll just have to get one!:D

Fidelis

Looks as though the K700 won't be offered by Vodafone Ireland due to high unit costs! :dunno:

PhoenixRising

Well I finally caved in and ordered a K700 to keep me amused while I'm waiting for the S700.:D It's with the Fedex man at the moment so I hope to have it in the morning.

sharkman

Did you get it yet . I have one on order from Expansys . Where did you order yours ??

PhoenixRising

Yeah it arrived this morning at 11:30. I've been playing with it all afternoon, and I have to say that's it's a superb phone. By far and away the best phone I've ever had. I've tested most of it's features and have had no problems. The radio is great and it plays MP3's really well, either through the headphones or it's speaker. I've also tested bluetooth to synchronise my phonebook and to transfer some files to and from the phone with no problems at all. It's definitely a big improvement over the T610 in nearly all areas. The camera quality is miles ahead of the T610, the menu's are much better, and the texting lag problem found in the T610 has been completely fixed so it now texts at nokia-like speeds.

I got mine from mphone.co.uk. Their service is excellent. It's the second phone I've ordered off them and I can't rate them highly enough. The most impressive thing is their speed - in both cases I had the phone at my door in less than 48hrs.

sharkman

Cant wait .. They are in stock so should ship on Monday .. Please post more . Can you post a photo from the phone ?

PhoenixRising

Here's a pic taken this morning from the phone.


The first thing that will strike you when you take it out of the box is how small it is. It's smaller and lighter than the T610. Another thing I've noticed is that WAP browsing seems a lot faster and smoother than the T610, and the K700's WAP browser can also handle HTML. One thing which I'm still getting used to is the fact that the joystick right shortcut, which on the T610 brought you to the desktop menu doesn't on the K700. When you first press it asks if you want to assign a shortcut. I haven't been able to figure out a way of getting it to assign a shortcut to the desktop so at the moment I have it set to bring me to the organiser for my calender and notes etc. So the only way to get to the desktop is to press the joystick down.

There have been some issues raised about the battery life, especially over on esato. I fully charged the battery yesterday morning before switching on the phone for the first time, and it lasted until about 1AM before it started giving me the low battery warning. I charged it then overnight, so I'll see how long it lasts today. Bear in mind that I was playing around with it a lot yesterday, using bluetooth, playing the radio and MP3's through the speaker etc.. The battery life should improve though after I've given it a few full discharge and recharge cycles.

Thats about all I can think of for now. If you've any other questions just ask.

kevmac

Mine was shipped by Expansys on Friday so should get it on Monday.

sharkman

Did you get it Kev . Any updates on the phone ....Too early for a review ???

See some shams are selling the S700 on e-bay .....

jesus_thats_gre

I thought I was gonna spend the day playing with a Vodafone branded K700 today but the bleedin thing would not accept my sim card. A Vodafone sim card at that!


From just holding it though, the keypad is going to be a pain in the ass for some people. Not only are the keys close, i.e. no space between them at all, they are mounted on a sort of gel base which allows them to more up and down slightly. This really annoyed me. However, the design of the phone is good and the short experience I have using the screen (message telling me to "insert correct sim" have left me with a good opinion.

Will see what I can do tomorrow.

kevmac

My first impressions of the phone.

Best screen on the market.

Very fast action compared to the laggy T610.

I can't think of anything that SE left out.

Bluetooth iSync with my Apple Mac is, as usual, seamless with all my numbers on the phone in less than a minute.

Can hold about 30 minutes of video so I downloaded an episode of the Simpsons and showed people - they were amazed at the quality.

BTW DO NOT get a Vodafone branded K700 - there are huge problems with Vodas buggy software as detailed on Esato.

Why does Vodafone ruin perfectly good phone software with their crappy logos and icons.

I buy one new phone every year and it's always Sim Free.

All in all, I'm very happy with the K700.

sharkman

It has just arrived . Bloody nice . will have to charge before I can really get to work on it .

sharkman

OK Guye , Some help needed here . I've gone through the setup on Se's site for MMS and E-Mail . but when i go to send pic msg or mail it moves it to OUTBOX and no further ..

Did you get through setup ok ???

kevmac

MMS now goes to Outbox before it's sent a few moments later.

It just worked for me.

sharkman

not for me . Going to Outbox and staying put ...

halenger

Looks like a good phone. Looks like one of the only decent new phones.

I'd like to get my hands on one before I'd think about buying it but it looks like no network here is gonna get it. As previously posted Vodafone wont, not that I want one from them, O2 also wont and I highly doubt Meteor will.

Try it out <- that's as good as I've gotten so far.

After having the phone for a while now what are peoples opinions on it? Still as good as they thought or are there any little things that bug you about it?

PhoenixRising

Well I'm still really happy with mine. One of the features which hasn't really been mentioned is the ability to play 3gp video files. I've a few clips from friends and seinfeld on my phone.:) There are also several programs available which will convert almost any video file format into 3gp so you can use it on your phone. The only downside is the lack of expandable memory, even though the built-in 41MB is pretty generous compared to most other phones with no expandable memory.

Like kevmac said, I can't really think of anything that SE missed in this phone (apart from expanable memory, but the S700 will have this). It has a radio, MP3 player, video player(3gp), good camera, video camera and great connectivity options. It's also surprisingly small. Oh, and it's not a Nokia.:D

halenger

When you say not expandable do you mean you wont even be able to get an add on gizmo - twas on the T610 I think or something like that.

Hmm... I can't find it as an accessory on SEs page for either phone. Maybe it was something unofficial that might be released for the K700?

Must ask him about it next time I see him.

Thanks. The phone looks like one of the best/the best option available at the moment. Hopefully will win something in the lottery now.

PhoenixRising

By expandable I meant the ability to add memory to the phone in the form of some sort of memory card. The S700, due in Q4, is compatable with Sony Memory stick duo.

There was an MP3 player attachment for the T610 which clipped on to the bottom of the phone and took MMC memory cards. Maybe that's what you're thinking about?

kevmac

Carphone Warehouse's new Irish brochure lists the K700 for September 1 release in Ireland.

I presume that means Sim free, and Network branded phones.

Don't get the Vodafone, unless you really have to, as they have blocked off the phones ability to use MP3s as ringtones unless you buy the jingle through Voda Live.

halenger

Yeah the MP3 player attachment was what I was thinking of. Didn't see it listed on SE's accessories page for the phone. They have a standalone bluetooth mp3 player for the K700 which takes some sorta expandable memory. It's only interaction with the phone is to cut off when you get a phone call and cut back in afterwards. Nifty enough but I'd never bother with it unless if could be used as expandable memory.

Come to think of it Carphone Warehouse brochure was the first place I noticed it. Silly me for not remembering. Wonder how much it'll be. Wouldn't expect it to be terribly reasonable unsubsidised. I'd never touch a Vodafone version. I hate the look of that Vodafone live rubbish. Thanks for the advice!

flywheel

Originally posted by halenger
They have a standalone bluetooth mp3 player for the K700 which takes some sorta expandable memory. It's only interaction with the phone is to cut off when you get a phone call and cut back in afterwards.

it's the HBM-30, a great little device and come down a lot in price since i got it

had a spare 128MB MS Duo already (comes with a 64MB one) and needed to get a decent pair of headphones and NiMH batteries to use with it though...

BrianG

PhoenixRising

I was just looking at the forum over on esato and it looks like Sony Ericsson have implemented an end-user update system for the K700i, so we'll all be able to update to the latest firmware ourselves.:) A few people over on esato have tried it but can't seem to get it to work yet. It's probably not fully functional yet and besides, there probably hasn't been a firmware update released by SE yet. The only drawback is that you have to have one of the SE USB Sync Stations. I think P800 and P900 users have these, but they can also be ordered from the SE E-shop or mobilefun etc.

Anyway, pretty cool I thought.:)

The link to the thread is Here.

And here's the Sony Ericsson K700i update portal. Link

flywheel

mobile-review.com have a S700 preview up including example pictures taken with the handset...

Sony Ericsson S700 – abilities of the mega-pixel camera

BrianG

kevmac

Now the full review is up:

http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-s700-en.shtml

Very disapointing- it has the exact same software as my K700.

I thought that SE would have made it even more cutting edge.

The only thing going for it is the big screen and memory card slot

carrotcake

i got a k700i last week, and i love it. lots of great features, but the battery life is a drawback. at the moment i find 2 days is pushing it... but all in all, it's the best €100 i ever spent!

Fidelis

Been using the S700i now for the last week and it's possibly the best phone I've used all year, it might even be a worthy successor to my venerable N7650!

Not much point uploading images as they'd be no different to the ones posted earlier by DubWireless, bar a minor re-design on the rear casing which can be seen over on the mobile-review.com page.

Just quickly: reasonable battery life - say maybe 48hrs tops with moderate use of all features i.e. camera/mp3 player/radio/phone call/SMS etc. The screen is brilliant, very rich in colour. Camera is quite impressive (wait for the new Sharp 2.0MP camera though ) and the flashlight feature works OK, I'm thinking the Sharp GX20 + GX30 have better camera flashlight brightness. MP3 player is a bit buggy for now but works nicely, the sound is nice and clear through the supplied SE handsfree headset. The radio is very good too, very fast at scrolling through the stations, very crisp too.

The keypad lights up blue, that's always a plus in my book. It sits perfectly int he hand, nice weight to it, very solid feel to it. Browsing through the images and some menus can be a bit slow at times but it's tolerable at the worst of times. E-mail client works a charm, Bluetooth works fine but I'm hoping SE expand its usefullness a bit more, some limited transfer options at present.

There's almost no sound from the keys when texting away, practically silent. The side-button lock feature works well too. The best world clock feature I've ever seen... well it's got a map of the world, in colour, and you can navigate around with a little dot to select different cities and such - it's the little things that count

A great phone overall. An MP3 player, 1.2MP camera and phone all in one!

My 2 ¢

PhoenixRising

Hi Fidelis, how did you get your hands on a working S700?

If you still have it, could you post a picture taken with the camera? What's it like to use with the keypad out for texting etc..?

MiCr0

Fidelis always gets the best toys

Stephen

carrotcake: where'd you get it for €100??

carrotcake

german contract

Stephen

bastid.

None of the networks here have em

I'm not due an upgrade until march anyway.