|
The Sony EricssonK530 is a middle of the road, mid-range phone. It is obviously built for the conservative user who is not after flashy gadgetry or state of the art features. |
Things I like:
- 3G
- 2 Megapixel Camera
- A nice keyboard
- Clean, conservative looks
- Bluetooth with A2DP
- Memory Stick Micro card slot
- NetFront Browser
- Weather Forecast Java application
Disappointments
- No real innovation over the Sony Ericsson K610
- Poor screen resolution
- 16 MB of internal memory
- The phone must have the SIM installed to be turned on
- No EDGE
- Very basic camera
- SIM card holder uncomfortable
- No indication of missed calls
Looks are important
Do not let the smaller number fool you; this is the successor to the Sony Ericsson K610. The one thing to be thankful for with the K530 is that Sony Ericsson finally shed the cheap, shoddy look of this phone’s processor.
Coming in at just 92 g and measuring 102 x 46 x 14 mm, the overall design is nearly a perfect oblong with rounded edges. While the body is all plastic, it is quite sturdy, with no obvious give or creaking; the overall feel is one of strength and permanence. The K530 is offered in two color schemes: Thunder black and Warm Silver, my personal favorite.
On the left side of the phone is the Memory Stick Micro slot, under its protective rubber cap, with the right side hosting the volume rocker and the camera shutter key. Viewed from the side, you notice the design is such that the front panel recedes from the display screen, giving the profile unique, oddly asymmetrical look. On the top of the phone you will find the very small off/on power button and the wrist strap eyelet and fast-port connector are on the bottom.
On the back panel we have the battery cover bearing the Sony Ericsson logo, the loudspeaker grill and the camera lens for the 2 Megapixel camera, oddly unprotected and sadly, without even the basic LED flash.
The battery cover is simple to remove, exposing the 950 MAH Li-Po battery. The manufacturer’s times promise 540 minutes of talk time or 395 hours of stand-by time. One major disappointment was the SIM card holder, which proved difficult to remove.
Unique keyboard
You do have to hand it to them, the keyboard is quite nice. The middle row of keys feature notched out sides, giving the keyboard a unique feel, something amplified by the slight tilt of each key, giving the keypad a terraced appearance. One possible complaint is the small dimensions could make it easy to mis-key or “fat finger”.
The D-pad is well designed, with sufficient elevation to prevent mis-keys. Just below it are the soft keys, along with the expected Back and Clear keys and the Menu and Internet keys. The entire keypad is strongly backlit in white.
Missing missed calls, again
One major disappointment for me in the Sony Ericsson K530 is the display. Sony Ericsson went cheap, with a very low resolution screen of 176 x 220 pixels, which, when coupled with the 31 x 39 surface, really managed to just give grainy course images. I think everyone would have been much happier with QVGA resolution. Just above the display is the minute secondary camera for video calls.
Several puzzling omissions include why the clock disappears in power saving mode, which requires you to press the volume rocker to power back up to check the time, and why there is no notification of missed calls. One would think most users would have wanted such features.
User interface: same old, same old
The user interface in the K530 is standard Sony Ericsson all the way, varying only in the various size options for the digital clock. Some users will no doubt like the animated wallpapers.
The main menu consists of 12 color icons, filled with animations which, unfortunately, you cannot turn off. Deeper in the menu, the levels are displayed by text, with a small icon at the beginning of each row. One nice surprise was that the time was always displayed throughout the menu, on every level.
You get to the menu by the right soft key or the center of the navigation key. The left selector key opens the recent calls.
If you frequently use a function, you can assign them a place under the My Shortcuts tab of the Activity Menu. Also on the Activity Menu are New Events, Running Apps and the Internet.
Camera a disappointment
The camera on the Sony Ericsson K530 was a major disappointment. It is a garden variety 2 Megapixel camera, having neither auto focus nor lens cover. They did not even bother to give it an LED flash.
To take a picture with the K530, you hold the phone vertically like any digicam. The shutter key is on the right. When it comes to picture quality, the little phone let me down again. The damage from high compression was easily visible, with a loss of detail and obvious pixelation. These problems are no doubt inevitable due to the lack of auto focus and no dedicated macro switch.
The settings for the camera are on the toolbar at the bottom of the viewfinder, with each feature’s options available as a popup list. The camera menu will let you select picture size, white balance, exposure compensation, picture quality, self-release timer, night mode, shutter sound, color effects, picture frames, and burst mode. The panorama feature will allow you to merge three pictures into one wide picture.
The only way the 2.2x digital zoom works is if the picture size is set to VGA. The pictures can be white balance corrected and can contain the time and date the picture was taken. They can be saved to the phone memory or to a memory stick, which is recommended due to the phone memory being only 16MB. Sadly, however, no memory card comes with the Sony EricssonK530; you will have to buy one separately.
To view your shots, you must go to the Picture Gallery, located in the File Manager. You set the preference of 4 or 9 thumbnails or a text list of photos with the time taken. The timeline feature allows you to browse your shots in chronological order. You can view in either full screen or in a slideshow.
Telephony: no surprises
By now, you would suspect that there are no innovations when it comes to the telephony, and you would be right. The phonebook holds the standard 1000 contacts and 2500 numbers. You can assign the contacts 5 phone numbers, three emails, a web URL, snail mail address, a note, a custom ringtone and more, all very standard stuff.
The contacts can be listed by either first or last name. The choice of storing in phone memory or the SIM is up to the user, but it is impossible to display data from both places simultaneously. The Sony EricssonK530 is a tri-band phone and also supports UMTS (2100 MHz) and video calling.
You can set ringing profiles to control the volume and to filter incoming calls. You have your choice of 40 pre-installed polyphonic ringtones, but any MP3, WMA, AAC or AMR file can be used. Ringing profiles are easy to access and are switched using the Off/On button.
Messaging
The text editor and reader only allow 8 lines of text; unfortunately, the font size is NOT adjustable. Of course, there is the standard T9 dictionary. The character counter only shows up when you are within 10 characters of the limit. There is no per message limit on memory; the only limit is the available memory left on the phone. Just under the compose window is a taskbar used for inserting images, videos, photos or sounds and for launching the camera or voice recorder.
The email client gives you the option of setting up several accounts, but only allows you to read one at a time. You can set the email alert, auto mail check and have the option to only download headers if you wish.
Something old, something new
Two rather neat preinstalled applications caught my eye. The Accuweather application provides weather updates and 3 day forecasts for your area. The service is free, but your carrier may charge for the data transfer. The other neat preinstalled application is the Audible application, which allows downloads of audio books from their website. The service requires a paid membership.
The calendar has the standard daily, weekly or monthly view, with only appointments being allowed as an entry. An appointment can be given a start time, a subject, an end time, location and description, as well as a repeat function and an alert feature, which sadly does not allow you to use a custom alert tone. You are stuck with the rather dull and short preinstalled tone.
The organizer also features a tasks and notes function. Reminders can be assigned to Tasks, but no priority can be given to individual tasks. Both notes and tasks can be sent via SMS. The alarm clock features 5 alarm slots with independent alerts and repeat patterns. You will also find the organizer contains the standard calculator, stopwatch and countdown timer and the entertainment section contains the voice recorder.
Connectivity
As is typical of SE, they have forgone EDGE support in favor of UMTS, so you must make do with the ageing GPRS class 10. Close range transfers can be handled by the Fastport connector or Bluetooth. After being connected to a PC, you then choose between Phone Mode, File Transfer or Print mode for printing you pictures via the PictBridge application. Do note that the phone cannot receive calls while in file transfer mode.
Access to the internet is provided via the NetFront browser and WAP. The browser allows viewing in both portrait and landscape mode and is actually quite nice. One disappointment was the inability to minimize it.
Not trying very hard
That is the impression this phone leaves with me about SE. They just are not trying very hard. It has been a while since there were any innovations in anything other than the high end handsets. I see little difference between the Sony EricssonK610 and the K530 baring the better exterior, and virtually nothing to warrant the higher price tag.
  
|
