[Eug Wanker]

Keypad. It's too bloody small and close to the bottom of the phone.

Is it the size, or the fact that there isn't good spacing between the keys? The two things that worry me about the K790/K800 are the joystick and the keypad.

My T610 has a small keypad too, but the keys are smaller so they're widely spaced, and therefore I rarely press the wrong key.

[slugslugslug]

Eug, have you tried any phones with scrunched-together keys? I think some are just better than others. I have pretty big hands, but I've gotten used to the keys on my K750i pretty well. It suits me far better than my girlfriend's Samsung D500, for example. And I totally couldn't stand the tiny keys on a few Nokia N Series phones I picked up the other day (but those were non-functioning display models, so I suppose there's a chance the real ones are slightly less craptastic).

What I'm trying to get at is that if they haven't changed too drastically from the K750i keypad, it's probably not as bad as you're worried about.

[hickey]

Slug is right, my w810i has small keys that are srunched together, but it works well. I rarely find myself mashing the buttons or hitting the worng ones.

[paul w]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

A couple of the prototypes were sold thru phone forums, but a very high price I'm sure. Plus they of course had early firmwares which weren't always completely stable.

I still hold out hope for a K790i quad. I suspect the K790a will be restricted to carriers, at least initially.


I wouldn't replace a dedicated digicam with a K790. While the K790 is good for a phone, it definitely isn't great by digicam standards. Also, while the K790 should work with iTunes AAC files, it won't work with DRM'd ones, if that matters to you.

I know it's not in the same league as the nano and the canon, but it'd be nice to consolidate my gadgets. I mean for photography I mostly use my dslr and I've got my 60gb Ipod video.

Anyway I was all set to buy the w810i, and maybe I just will, as it's a good deal cheaper.

[hickey]

get the W810i, Im so glad I got it. Best phone Ive had so far. It does everything i need and more, and it does it all with great ease.

[all2ofme]

It's a bit of both, but for me it's mainly that they're so small. My Nokia 6170 had keys that sat next to each other but it was a dream to use.

On a poor note - I've just found out that the SMSs that I thought I was sending over Bluetooth from Address Book never went anywhere. Grrr. Will try and get to the bottom of why. Apart from that, all is as before

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Is it the size, or the fact that there isn't good spacing between the keys? The two things that worry me about the K790/K800 are the joystick and the keypad.

[analogika]

colleague just received his K610i this morning.

Damn. Absolutely GORGEOUS phone. Metallic red.



The keyboard feels really nice, and the joystick is excellently solved - it's actually a paddle, with the central "stick" being the "enter" button.

AND it does UMTS.

[Eug Wanker]

The K790i is OUT!!!11one

However, it's tri-band.

[Eug Wanker]

Now I'm considering the Nokia N73:



Pictures taken with the N73

[analogika]

Now THAT's ugly!

[Landos Mustache]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Now I'm considering the Nokia N73:

Looks pretty nice but is the battery life typically short like with 90% of Nokias?

[Landos Mustache]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

The K790i is OUT!!!11one

However, it's tri-band.

Are you serious? Is that 100% confirmed?

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

Looks pretty nice but is the battery life typically short like with 90% of Nokias?

Probably. I'm still leaning towards the K790a though, since it seems the camera may be a bit better.

The N73 might be better for PDA functionality though, since its a Symbian S60 smartphone.

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

Are you serious? Is that 100% confirmed?

Well, it's now online for sale, tri-band 900/1800/1900, despite the fact that the prototypes are quad.

The Sony Ericsson Canada website just removed the "Coming soon" from the K790a, and it's still tri-band too. 850/1800/1900. Oh well, good enough, if the price is right. Some guy online says SE Canada told him that Rogers is getting it too. Dunno when though. My guess is Rogers won't get it until the end of the year or later, so I'm hoping that SE will release it in North America somewhere before that, not locked to a carrier.

[f1000]

Care to change your mind yet again, Eug?

[Eug]

Heh.

I don't have much interest in the Motorola Razr series though. I'm still gravitating toward the K790a too, despite my new interest in the N73. That Razr Maxx does seem interesting, but 3G isn't that important to me actually either at this time.

It's up to Sony Ericsson now to actually release the damn thing. I'm not prepared to wait another half year for the thing. I can wait a month or two though.

[hickey]

Ive never liked the razr, and the new razr maxx doesnt impress me much. But shouldn't it be the razr minni or something since it smaller, not bigger?

and arent motos the phones that leak the most radiation?

[f1000]

Originally Posted by hickey

But shouldn't it be the razr minni or something since it smaller, not bigger?

The KRAZR (canary) is supposed to be a mini RAZR

[hickey]

ah, I got my four letter phones confused for a sec.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by f1000

The KRAZR (canary) is supposed to be a mini RAZR

That one isn't bad but I still don't like flip phones or Motorola's OS.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by f1000

Care to change your mind yet again, Eug?

Yarg. That just made me appreciate Sony's even more.

[hickey]

you hit the nail on the head with that one Dark Helmet

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by hickey

and arent motos the phones that leak the most radiation?

Where'd you get that item? Motorola INVENTED the portable cell phone, and they have been dealing with RF since, oh.... the 1930s at least. There's no evidence that any particular cell phone "leaks radiation" either; some have more efficient antennas, that's all.

Let's not even bring up that bunk about cell phones causing brain cancer, either-because it IS BUNK.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Where'd you get that item? Motorola INVENTED the portable cell phone, and they have been dealing with RF since, oh.... the 1930s at least. There's no evidence that any particular cell phone "leaks radiation" either; some have more efficient antennas, that's all.

Ten highest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Manufacturer and model SAR level
(digital)
1a. Motorola V195 1.6
1b. Motorola Slvr L6 1.58
2a. Motorola V120c 1.55
2b. Motorola V265 1.55
4a. Motorola Slvr L2 1.54
4b. Motorola V70 1.54
6a. Motorola P8767 1.53
6b. Motorola ST7868 1.53
6c. Motorola ST7868W 1.53
9b. Palm Treo 650 GSM 1.51


Ten lowest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Manufacturer and model SAR level
(digital)
1. Audiovox PPC66001 0.12
2. Motorola MPx200 0.2
3. Motorola Timeport L7089 0.22
4. Qualcomm pdQ-1900 0.2634
5. T-Mobile Sidekick 0.276
6a. Samsung SGH-S100 0.296
6b. Samsung SGH-S105 0.296
8. Sony Ericsson Z600 0.31
9. Mitsubishi G360 0.32
10. Siemens S40 0.33

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is a reliable measure of its ability to cause cell damage and is a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body.

The LOWER the SAR level, the better for you.

The US FCC mandates a Maximum SAR level of 1.6 W/kg for a phone

Let's not even bring up that bunk about cell phones causing brain cancer, either-because it IS BUNK.

Nobody brought it up, until you mentioned it.

[Landos Mustache]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Where'd you get that item? Motorola INVENTED the portable cell phone, and they have been dealing with RF since, oh.... the 1930s at least. There's no evidence that any particular cell phone "leaks radiation" either; some have more efficient antennas, that's all.

Let's not even bring up that bunk about cell phones causing brain cancer, either-because it IS BUNK.

Motorola's do have the highest radiation. I have seen a couple charts on it.

The thing I also like about my Sony is when opened the antenna is down at the bottom further away from my brian.

Proof of not it can't be good for you.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

Proof of not it can't be good for you.

Perhaps, but the evidence available is that it's not really bad for you either. Anyways, there are much bigger things to worry about. I know people who obsess about cell phone radiation, but have no problem eating a bacon double cheeseburger with large fries and a coke, even though they're already overweight.

I think the real health worry for cell phones is getting into an accident when not paying attention to the road, both for pedestrians and drivers. Hell I even see cyclists on downtown city streets talking on the phone during rush hour, while cycling.



(Google images has everything. )

[Eug Wanker]

So I called Sony Ericsson, and they said the K790a should be out very soon.

In the meantime: c|net K790a full review (July 25, 2006)

$499 US MSRP. I expect to see it soon for under $450 US.


EDIT:

The Nokia N73 is now available. Only US$809!!!11

[macboy]

Placed my order for the K790i for myself and the N73 for my girlfriend who wouldnt use anything but Nokia.. Getting her a phone thats not officially going to be out for a couple months here.. hoping I can get away with a few things... ahhh women!

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

Yarg. That just made me appreciate Sony's even more.

Yeah, but the MotoRAZR Maxx will do 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. That's almost as fast as some peoples' cable modems. It will also do video-telephony.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by f1000

Yeah, but the MotoRAZR Maxx will do 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. That's almost as fast as some peoples' cable modems. It will also do video-telephony.

Unfortunately, not useful in North America. In the few places that support 3G, they don't with this phone cuz it on a different band. WCDMA 2100 is not supported in Canada and the US.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Unfortunately, not useful in North America. In the few places that support 3G, they don't with this phone cuz it on a different band. WCDMA 2100 is not supported in Canada and the US.

Moto is supposed to be introducing a U.S. specific quad-band Maxx that will take advantage of 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. I guess that means the U.S. version of the Maxx won't be a true HSDPA world phone, but so what? Better hotels have high speed Internet anyway.

I ordered an LG CU500 a few days ago, so I'll soon see how fast 3G is in my area. One person has already claimed 1,500+ kbps download speeds using Bluetooth and an Intel Mac.

[Eug]

K800i at night:






N73 at night:






So basically, the N73 sucks for night shots.

[andretan]

Hey Eug, you're in Singapore?

[Eug Wanker]

Not my pix.

P.S. Video from c|net posted a few days ago, (some time after the text review was posted): First look from the labs

Also, GSM Arena has a review comparing the N93 and the K800. 100% crop:

[Hornet]

Got my K800 last week. Frikkin awesome! Absolutely loving this phone. I'm with 3 in Australia; a 3g network, hence the k800 over the k790. The phone has been excellent - snappy UI, great camera shots, direct upload to blogger is great and works, even for account creation!

Phone feels a little large around the bulge, mainly cos I'm used to thinner/smaller phones I guess. Otherwise, size wise its fine.

re: video. Eug I've been able to hit it with higher bitrate clips than the ones you posted with no problem. I've hit it with 500kbps and it started stuttering (basically drops to 2fps during 'high data' periods and comes back to normal after that. 450 (inc sound) always seemed fine though.

The photos on this page all look stunning... probably cos sthey are downsized At full 3mp resolution they dont look so sexy, but when resized to 1024x768 or more screen friendly resolutions they look fantastic. The flash is awesome - it perfectly fully lights a pitch black room. My friends cant believe how clear and sharp the photos I MMS them are (640x480 over MMS, forced by network) cos of the decent lighting they were taken in - and downsized from a very high detail shot.

Plus broadband on my macbook with it is great... haven't let it rip on huge downloads yet (I'm being raped on usage costs on my current plan, switching soon), but I've seen >25k/sec and expect it'll happily march around 30-35k/sec (384kbps the network allows you go to up to)

Highly recommended

[Eug Wanker]

^^^ Nice. I'll have to try some higher bitrate videos, but I figured limiting it to around 400ish Kbps is probably the safe thing to do, esp. since they look pretty good at that bitrate. (300 doesn't look so good.) What software are you using to encode the video? And what settings?

P.S. Here is a hands-on K790a review. It's a prototype though... No retail units sighted yet in the wild.

[Hornet]

PM me details for a (source) clip you want to base some tests on I'll do some encodes at various bitrates and see how they run.

ffmpegx to encode. .mp4 option with default presets, but then tweaking the bitrate, res, aspect, and setting dual pass true. Apparently the phone supports H264 in a 3gp container but I haven't been able to get that to work. The phone brands video as either mp4, 3gp, mp3 etc... so it differentiates between mp4 and 3gp. To my mind 3gp was just a different container for mobiles but still had MPEG4 video, ala .mp4 and ala quicktime too?

Hawt phone!

[Eug Wanker]

I posted one H.264 file that somebody put in a 3gp container, but it wouldn't work.

260 Kbps 3gp H.264 file

P.S. I'm still waiting for the K790a release.

P.P.S. I'm encoding my clips direct from DVD.

[Landos Mustache]

Originally Posted by f1000

Yeah, but the MotoRAZR Maxx will do 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. That's almost as fast as some peoples' cable modems. It will also do video-telephony.

Good, all you need is a network to support that.

Some Sony ericssons also do HSDPA.

[Eug]

Thank you for contacting Sony Ericsson Online Support.

With regards to your E-Mail about the K790a, this phone has been released in limited areas. To find one locally, you would need to contact a local cell phone dealer or vendor or online store to purchase the phone. We do not have a list of specific vendors that sell this phone.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Landos Mustache

Good, all you need is a network to support that.

Some Sony ericssons also do HSDPA.

I've heard that Cingular's network already supports 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, but that it's a moot point since no 3.6 Mbps HSDPA phones are available yet. The buzz is that the Moto Maxx will be introduced in early 2007.

As for S-E, they're AWOL in the U.S. with respect to UMTS/HSDPA. They seem to be more interested in pushing camera phones and iPod killers.

[Eug]

How much do you guys pay for 3G data? Here, almost any sort of data support is ridiculously expensive.

For the time being I've thus given up on data almost completely, aside from picture messaging. That's why HSDPA support doesn't concern me at the moment. Even EDGE is more useful to me, since picture messaging supports EDGE.

Sad but true.

[Landos Mustache]

Even picture messaging is retarded expensive at $1 per pic.

[Eug Wanker]

Actually, Rogers chargers 50 cents per picture message. On Fido it's:



or else 35 cents per 300 KB picture message out side of a package.

[Dark Helmet]

50 cents is 49 cents too expensive.

Anywho, all this stuff in here can bite it if apple ever comes out with an iPhone that is Quad band.

[Eug Wanker]

475 Kbps Armageddon clip

Video of the above clip being demo'd on a K790i.

[Hornet]

Here in .au, my rates are:
30c/30sec calls
50c/MMS ('picture message' in low tech speak)
0.4c/KB, which is a whopping $4/MB

Incidently my plan is a $49 cap to $230, so.. use $230 credit, costs you 49

However I've recently added a broadband bundle onto my phone bringing my data rate down to $1/MB and capping it at $29 for 100mb, which in effect when using a full 100mb... is 29c per megabyte.

Wil try that clip eug posted soon, for teh hotness

[tae667]

I just got this phone and so far I'm loving it! Only negative thing so far is that lens cover feels like it could break easily.

Originally Posted by Eug

How much do you guys pay for 3G data? Here, almost any sort of data support is ridiculously expensive.

10 €uros / month with unlimited transfers at 128 kbit/s.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Eug

How much do you guys pay for 3G data? Here, almost any sort of data support is ridiculously expensive.

Cingular charges $19.99(US)/month for its unlimited 3.5G HSDPA service. I'm having a blast watching TV on my phone. I'm also able to tether at over 500 kbps using Bluetooth 1.2 and only 1-2 bars of signal. I'm hoping to further tweak my BT connection so that my download rates hit the theoretical max. I just wish the audio jack was a standard 3.5 mm, but I do have adapters.

[Eug]

Dammit. We are getting totally ripped off here in Canada in terms of data service. It was bad enough at CAD$50 on Fido for el crappo GPRS, but when Rogers bought Fido, they killed even that.

Now it's $100 for 100 MB on both Rogers and Fido, on EDGE. WTF?!?!??? That's highway robbery.

In fact for some voice/data stuff, it's actually cheaper to use a T-Mobile sim and roam in Canada. Anyways, that's why at this point 3G doesn't concern me. It's no wonder that few people are interested in real data use in Canada. Some Canadian carriers have said in the past that the Canadian consumers aren't as heavy data users as elsewhere. Well, huge friggin' surprise there. Nobody is going to be interested if it's gonna cost them their firstborn.

EDIT:

P.S. FCC K790a submission

[Eug]

The K790a has now shown up at Amazon.com for pre-order. However, I got sick of waiting and bought the K790i.

Click to enlarge: