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• Walkman – like music player
• 3 megapixel autofocus camera
• led flash
• Hot swap-able memory card support
• Very stylish
• FM Radio
• Track ID support
• Bluetooth
• Multitasking support

Things that disappointed me

• Just 16 MB of internal memory
• No Xenon Flash
• No BestPic mode
• No EDGE
• Records video in QCIF resolution only

What a pretty girl

SE will offer the K770 in three color options – Truffle Brown, Ultra Violet and Sandy Beige. The SE K770 handset weighs 95 g and measures 05 x 47 x 14.5 mm and just fits perfectly in the hand. It is nearly the same dimensions as the 12.5 mm T650, except for the protruding camera lens.

The Tft display screen comes in at 1.9 inches, as compared to 2 inches for the K810 and the 2.2 inch big screen found on the K850. The speaker is centered above the display screen, with the ambient light sensor on the left and the camera for video calls on the right. Veteran users will be glad to see that SE has done away with the joystick and has moved to a D-pad for navigation. The keypad is quite stylish with large comfortable keys.

Looking at the left side of the SE K770, you see the Fast Port used for the charger and other peripherals. I have noticed an increased use in the Fastport by SE; it probably is related to the increased use of headphones as phones go more multimedia.

On the bottom, all there is is the microphone and the ubiquitous wrist strap eyelet. The top of the K770 sports the off/on key and the slide lock key for removing the rear cover, similar to the one on the T650. I did think the off/on key to be really small, but I noticed no problems with usability.

Looking at the left hand side of the K770, you see the dual volume key and the camera shutter key, which blend in nicely with the design and provide a great feel in your hand, making the phone much more user friendly.

On the rear of the phone is the camera face, which has the loudspeaker and Sony logo at the bottom and the Led flash and camera lens at the top. Similar to the K850, the lens and LED flash are below the surface of the back panel, making for elegant styling indeed. It is much nicer looking than the back panel on the K810.The camera is quoted at 3.2 megapixels, but SE must have rounded up, because actual pixel count is 3.15 megapixels.

After you remove the back cover, you will notice the M2 memory card slot located to the left, so you can hot swap it without removing the battery first. As nice as that is, it still feels dated compared to the quick release battery cover found on the K850 that shelters the battery, the SIM card and the memory slot. They have improved the release key from the T650, so now it can be removed with one hand. The SIM card slot is next to the memory card slot.

Power for the SE K770 is provided by a SE BST-38 LI-PO battery with a capacity of 930 mAH. SE has not published battery times, but in testing I averaged about 3 days on a charge with fairly normal use, so that should not be a problem.

Phonebook: nothing to see here

The Phonebook provides no surprises, with the ability to set the default to store data to either the phone or the SIM card. While both lists cannot be shown at the same time, you can duplicate a contact from the phone's memory to the SIM card. The maximum number of contacts is 1000, but you can store up to 2500 numbers; all somewhat standard and what you would expect. Contacts can be ordered by either first or last name, and search is done by the gradual typing of the desired contact's name.

When you add a new contact, there are 5 fields or slots available for phone numbers: Mobile, office, home, work and other. This is the first tab, followed up by fields for email and web urls. On the third tab, you can assign a picture, a voice command and a custom ringtone. The last tab is for additional information and to add the birth date. If you add a birth date, you will be prompted to add it to the calendar and set a reminder.

Like most other SE handsets, the SE K770 has Voice Dialing. It is activated by a long press on the volume key. One thing I found out was that to use the voice command feature, you have to prerecord the commands in a quiet environment.

Messaging

Regardless of the type of incoming message, all of them go to a common inbox. Only email has a separate inbox. Using the NetFront web browser you also have the ability to read RSS feeds. The character counter does its job, counting characters as you enter them and alerting you when you approach the 160 symbol limit. Of course there is a T( dictionary, but I was disappointed to see the Manage Message and Manage Email applications that shined so in the K850 are not present in the K770.

Music and Video: Seen it all

The music player on the SE K770 supports MP3, AAC, and AAC+, E-AAC +, WAV, WMA, M4A and MIDI file formats. It is the same Walkman player that we have seen before in the SE K800 and the K810 and, in fact, is used on all SE W series handsets, with only rare exceptions. Lacking in the K770 is the MegaBass equalizer preset. The SE K770 supports multitasking, so you can run the player in the background. The sound is quite acceptable when listened too on a quality headset.


3 megapixels



The SE K770 has a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, complete with an LED flash. SE veterans will recognize the camera interface, as it is he same one used by the SE K550, the W880, the K810 and the T650. As I already mentioned, despite the quoted 3.2 megapixels, effective megapixel count is only 3.15 megapixels.

The Camera offers several modes, including night, self timer, panorama, and frames and burst shooting. Lacking in this model was the BestPic mode, but its loss was almost made up by the Burst shot mode. On the alphanumeric keypad, the left and rightmost columns of keys serve dual purposes. When you are in camera mode, they are used for changing mode, focus, zoom in and self timer. Blue backlit icons explain each key's function.

One disappointment I had was that the shutter sound could not be turned off by the interface; the only way to do it was to put the phone into silent mode.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the camera's performance and it produced excellent macro results. I did think it fell short of the performance I have seen from other 3 megapixel Cyber-shots. In comparison with the T650, the K770 almost equaled its performance in quality, the detail and general performance, which leads me to suspect that the camera module in the SE K770 is the same as the one in the T650.

The video camera offers the same options as the still camera, with only a few minor differences. I was surprised (in a negative way) to se that the K770 uses the quite ancient QCIF resolution to capture video; this is not a step up from the K810. Other than the superstar in the Cyber-shot line, the K850, which uses QVGA, all the others still use QCIF.

There are no surprises when it comes to the operation of the secondary VGA camera. The caller's video is in a large frame in the center of the screen while your image is in a small frame in the lower left. Also available is the mirror option, which allows you to view your own feed in a revered, mirror like view. There are three different exposure modes, Smooth, sharp and normal. Smooth gives better picture flow while sharp is better for detail.

Surfing

The headset offers the standard connectivity options such as USB and Bluetooth as well as 3G and GPRS for fast data transfers. Sadly, there is no Infrared port. The NetFront browser offers a passable performance with many options, such as full screen viewing without menu or landscape mode. It supports content in HTML 4.01, xHTML 1.0, CSS and Java script, WAP 2.0. The supported security protocols are SSL/TLS.
For the most part, the smart-fit function does a good job fitting the web pages on the screen; scrolling is easily done once the page has fully loaded.
The SE K770 supports Bluetooth 2.0 with the HID (Human Interface Device) profile, which lets you use the phone as a remote control for Bluetooth enabled devices, such as PCs. In addition, you can use the phone as a Bluetooth modem for connecting to the internet on a laptop computer. The Bluetooth support also allows you to listen to music on the stereo Bluetooth headset, thanks to the A2DP profile.
The K770 supports both local and remote synchronization of your calendar events and contacts. The USB connectivity has two modes; one for file transfers and one for the Internet.

Task Management

The Sony Ericsson K770 has many features for Time Management. On the main menu is the Organizer Icon. Under it fall several applications such as File Manager, Video Call, Applications, Calendar, Tasks Timer, Stopwatch and more. The calendar offers standard daily, monthly and weekly views. Should you ad a birth date in the phonebook, the phone prompts you to add it to the calendar.

There are two sorts of tasks: ordinary tasks and phone calls. You can write notes similar to how messages are written, including the using the T9 dictionary. You can use the LED video light as a flashlight with the Light application.

The Alarm clock is part of the main menu, with 5 slots available. Each slot has options, including what to do if on silent mode, which days of the week to go off and more. You can assign text and a picture to an alarm slot as well.

The phone’s voice recorder is limited only by the free memory available, and the calculator is the standard Sony Ericsson version. Nothing fancy here. Also included are the expected stopwatch and countdown timer.

The Sony Ericsson K770 comes with HP Print preinstalled.

Applications

The SE K770 is packed with time management features. The Organizer icon in the main menu contains several applications, such as Calendar, Notes, Tasks, Calculator, Timer and stopwatch. The calendar offers standard daily, monthly and weekly views; as I mentioned before, the phone prompts you to add a birth date to the calendar when you add it to the phonebook. Tasks are broken up into two categories, Phone calls and simple tasks. Notes are written like text messages; you can even use the T9 dictionary. The light application turns your LED flash into a flashlight.

The Alarms feature is no part of the main menu, with five alarm slots available. Each slot has options; hear the alarm every day or only on chosen days, add a picture or text to the alarm and what to do if the alarm goes off while the phone is in silent mode.

The capacity of the voice recorder is limited only by the available free memory. The Calculator holds no surprises; it is the standard SE calculator. Also present are the to be expected countdown timer and stopwatch.

Also included are the Video DJ and the Music DJ applications; simple programs that can be entertaining and diversionary.

Also included in the SE K770 are the FaceWarp and Photomate applications. Photomate is a simple editor for your camera while Facewarp is a lot of fun, letting you manipulate portrait shots.


Not much for Gamers

The SE K770has two games preinstalled; FotoQuest Fishing and Solitaire 4 pack. Fotoquest fishing takes you under the sea where your job is to capture marine life on film; unfortunately, the game is rather simple and easy to complete. Fans of Solitaire will find no surprises with Solitaire 4 Pack.

In closing

The buzz is on about the Cyber-shot line. The 5 megapixel K850 came on the successes of the K810. After recently reviewing the K850, I was eager to get my hands on the more compact 3 megapixel K770. I liked it for its design and handling; however, I was somewhat disappointed in the stale user interface, the low resolution video capture and the poor photo quality, especially after seeing what was possible with the SE K850. Also noticeable was the lack of a xenon flash and best pic mode, leading me to feel the “new” SE K770 is just a rebranded T650. That being said, there is nothing wrong with building on success, so with little effort SE has added a clean, stylish and functional phone to their Cyber-shot lineup.