Forget the SE Xperia X1...

[dysfunction]

I want one of these instead!

Video: Sony Ericsson Idou 12-megapixel camera phone - Crave at CNET UK

 

[TdC]

erk, that looks pretty sweet tbh!

 

[Ch3tan]

It's advertised on the sony site now, it's still a concept, I doubt we will see it till the end of the year - and as with the c905, and k850i before it, I think it promises more than sony are capable of delivering. Bar the X1 sony have been very disappointing with their phones.

I just passed up on x1 on upgrade and went with an lg renoir instead, it may not be a super powerful smartphone, but it does wi-fi and is fully featured and with a decent camera. Considering they brand all their phones with cybershot, you would think they would actually try and make the camera part of the phone half decent.

 

[dysfunction]

I see the Nokia N97 is due out soon (Possibly end of March)....that could be a better alternative to the X1....

 

[Ch3tan]

I have been largely dissapointed with all nokia and sony offerings recently. They refuse to bundle all the features into one "top end" handset, and instead my you compromise. They are losing ground to the likes of samsung and LG, and the iphone continues to be stupidly popular despite it's limitations.

It is a joke that the n95 offers higher end features than the newer and more expensive n96. I wonder what they will leave out of the n97?

 

[Bodhi]

It's advertised on the sony site now, it's still a concept, I doubt we will see it till the end of the year - and as with the c905, and k850i before it, I think it promises more than sony are capable of delivering. Bar the X1 sony have been very disappointing with their phones.

I just passed up on x1 on upgrade and went with an lg renoir instead, it may not be a super powerful smartphone, but it does wi-fi and is fully featured and with a decent camera. Considering they brand all their phones with cybershot, you would think they would actually try and make the camera part of the phone half decent.

There is not a single Cybershot branding on the X1. The only SE phones to get that branding are the ones with shit-hot cameras, funnily enough. The C905 and the K850 were both excellent cameraphones, all that let down the K850i was the software on the initial release batch. After that they were excellent.

And from working in the industry for 18 months I can tell you that Samsung and LG phones are utter dogshit. Both featured highly in the returns list, along with Motorola and the N-series phones. Vanilla Nokias and the SE models all went out and stayed out.

Oh and from the sounds of things what they've left out of the N97 is a useable interface. But then I'd argue the N95 didn't have one of those either.

Me? More than happy with my X1, will do me nicely until the X2 or the one mentioned above comes out.

 

[Sar]

I've had my N80 for donkeys and never had a single problem with it. Wish I could've said that about my old SE phone though.

 

[Syri]

Only problem I see with throwing up the megapixel count, is that you can put as many pixels in as you can, if the lens is bad, the picture will still be bad, just bigger.
The optics you can put into a phone really restrict what you can do with it. I'd rather get something like a 5 or 8 with decent size lens, than a 12 with a pin-hole lens that will produce bad results.
Not saying the lens is bad on that particular phone, it's not out yet, so that remains to be seen. Just saying I think the focus on big numbers to catch people's attention can end up as a bad thing in a lot of cases.

 

[soze]

You want to see promise on a phone check out the Omnia HD it looks fantastic the Omnia is a great bit of kit with a great UI. Best thing the on screen keyboard with the vibrate on press feature it is a dodle to type on. The Omnia HD is moving from WinMo to Symbain which will please the MS haters. Depending on how they get the UI working this could be truly epic.

Tosh TG01 also looks standout the Touch HD has some big competition coming up.

 

[old.user4556]

I concur, 12 megapixels with such a 'shit' lens is just totally pointless, they'd be better investing the space/money into a slidey keyboard or bigger/better flash.

That phone in the video looks awesome, I loved my SE K800i when I had it, I have an N95 now which I love just as much but I sometimes miss the lack of xenon flash for nightclub/pub shots.

 

[Ch3tan]

Have to disagree bods, the cameras on the cybershot branded phones are shite. Crap slow auto focus, and awful quality. I have had a k850i for over a year, and it is a nice phone, but it wasn't the camera phone I wanted. Having used both the LG and Samsung offerings, they are great camera phones. Sony really let me down here.

 

[old.user4556]

I find the autofocus on my N95 pretty slow too, about as bad as the K800i.

 

[Zenith.UK]

I get a phone to be a phone first, PDA second. The camera on the back is a pleasant addition but not something that I pay much attention to.
Like Bodhi, I have an X1 and I'm very happy with it. It fulfills my need to tweak and customise and (amazingly) make and break phone calls.

 

[Bodhi]

Have to disagree bods, the cameras on the cybershot branded phones are shite. Crap slow auto focus, and awful quality. I have had a k850i for over a year, and it is a nice phone, but it wasn't the camera phone I wanted. Having used both the LG and Samsung offerings, they are great camera phones. Sony really let me down here.

I'd disagree, as I reckon you can get better results out of a K800i than an N95. There wasn't a great increase in quality from the K800 to the K850, but I'd only describe the image quality as awful if I'd just recorded an album called "Songs in the Key of Life".

 

[Ch3tan]

It was awful, friends with n95's got better results. The flash tended to be unable to cope with dark and light skin in the same shot, auto focus was slow and at some times never focused. For a camera as the main selling point I expected more than my previous phones. In truth my 6680 and sony s700 performed better at capturing shots. It was only ever fine in bright daylight at close range. The c905 is not much better, and is a brick to boot. Sony need to sort this now. If they are going to classify phones as "music" and "camera" phones, they need to excel at these things, not be worse than the competition.

 

[soze]

I though only the C series were cybershoot and sold as camera phones i though K were the middle of the road drvices.That being said the k850 was a poor phone and should not have been released as a replacement to the brilliant k750 or the k800

 

[dysfunction]

My contract is coming to an end very soon and I am wondering if I should get the Sony X1 or wait for the N97...

I think I'll go for the X1 as it would mean waiting longer for a new phone!

The last Sony Ericsson phone I had was the T610 and I hated it...

hmmm

 

[Ch3tan]

What network are you on dys? If you are o2 i'll let you know the deal the disconnections team offered me....

 

[dysfunction]

Yes I'm on O2! What did they offer you?

 

[Ch3tan]

First offer -and I did not push this one, so you CAN get better if you sound unhapy enough. £45 contract (online 45 1200 xnet minutes 1000 texts + choice of unlimited bolt on), with £15 monthly discount. So £30 a month. Phone was £48 as they cannot (apparently) offer it for free yet. Thats on a 18 month contract.

 

[Bodhi]

It was awful, friends with n95's got better results. The flash tended to be unable to cope with dark and light skin in the same shot, auto focus was slow and at some times never focused. For a camera as the main selling point I expected more than my previous phones. In truth my 6680 and sony s700 performed better at capturing shots. It was only ever fine in bright daylight at close range. The c905 is not much better, and is a brick to boot. Sony need to sort this now. If they are going to classify phones as "music" and "camera" phones, they need to excel at these things, not be worse than the competition.

Sounds like either a defective unit or user error. I have lots of pics on my Facebook taken with either a K800 or a K850 and they all look superb. Indoors, outdoors, using the flash everything. Certainly beat some of the unfocused shit that comes out of my N95.

Dys, bear in mind if you wait for the N97 you'll need to wait an additional 2-3 months for them to sort the software out. It is an N-series after all.

 

[dysfunction]

First offer -and I did not push this one, so you CAN get better if you sound unhapy enough. £45 contract (online 45 1200 xnet minutes 1000 texts + choice of unlimited bolt on), with £15 monthly discount. So £30 a month. Phone was £48 as they cannot (apparently) offer it for free yet. Thats on a 18 month contract.

hmm...I'm not keen on 18 month contracts as there are always new phones coming out that I want to upgrade to.(I'm greedy in that way!).

...but you do get more stuff for your monthly payments...I'll have to work out which ones costs more over the period.

Do you have to redeam that £15 discount each month or did they just lock you into the £30?

Yes I cant really wait for the N97...and I really like the look of this X1

 

[Zenith.UK]

dysfunction, Ch3tan, I did the same sort of thing with O2 retentions.
I got the 18 month £35/month contract (600min, 500txt, unlimited web) with the phone for £96. With 30% discount on the tariff, that comes out at £24.50/month.
The lady told me that they can either discount the handset price on a "big" contract or discount the tariff and pay "normal" price for the handset. They couldn't do both.

To get to retentions, it is 202 from your O2 mobile, option 2, option 2.

[edit] I just read your post dys, and the discount is applied at billing. You don't have to do anything about it, and certainly not claim it like a cashback. The £35 tariff is the first one that allows you to get a free bolt-on. With a phone like this, it's worth getting the unlimited web.

 

[DaGaffer]

I'm a bit underwhelmed by all the current smartphones tbh. I like the look of the X1, but underneath its still WinMo, and that's never good. The N97 will disappoint just like every N-series (too heavy, poor battery and the UI is creaking). All the Samsungs and LGs are just poor-man's iPhones and I can't have an iPhone itself because its locked to O2.

I'm beginning to think it might be worth waiting it out until the summer and the launch of the Palm Pre. It maybe hype but the general view is that its a real contender. Of course you can end up waiting forever.

 

[Ch3tan]

Well I have the Lg and have been playing with it all day. Love it tbh, the camera is great, it has enough features to keep me going without being a smartphone with lots of things I will never use. Touch screen is very good, and build quality is nice, it feels solid.

 

[old.user4556]

Re the N95 / k800 camera debate, I will post two pictures later (I have both phones) and we can do a blind test .

 

[Ch3tan]

th k800 was fine, it was the best of its generation, the k810 was just a smaller version fo the same thing. The upgraded version the k850i was what I was talking about. horrible failure

 

[old.user4556]

Yeah I really liked the K800i, the only reason I got an N95 was because the K850i was indeed an epic fail.

 

[dysfunction]

This looks pretty cool too though:

HTC - Products - HTC Touch Pro2 - Overview

 

[Trem]

I have had a k850i for over a year

Let me know if you sell it, still want one.