Sony Ericsson K790a Phone (Unlocked)

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.8 x 0.7 inches ; 4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000HCQKTG
• Item model number: K790A
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,022 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The groundbreaking K790a from Sony Ericsson combines a Cyber-shot digital camera and a small and sophisticated mobile phone that supports EDGE high speed data networks. But the real story here is the K790i's amazing a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, a built-in xenon flash and image and video stabilizer functions that keep you ready for any moment, anytime. Other features include Bluetooth, a gorgeous color screen, an FM radio, an advanced mobile Web browser, and PictBridge-compliant printing.

Send your photos to your own personal photo blog -- free from Sony Ericsson.

Is it a powerful camera, or a high-end phone? You decide.

Capture images quickly and use the BestPic feature to quickly choose your best shots.

The included NetFront browser offers a robust mobile Web experience.

Design
The K790a follows a long tradition of beautifully designed and crafted phones from Sony Ericsson. The same candy-bar style that graces other high-end Sony Ericsson phones is here, as is the horizontally-oriented camera unit on the back of the phone, allowing you to hold the phone just as you would a camera when you're taking pictures. The K790a's two-inch screen sports a whopping 240x320 pixel resolution with support for 262,000 colors. Quick access buttons below the screen make it easy to control the phone's most important features, while a five-way center button controls most of the phone's menus and features. There's also a port for the phone's included stereo headset, and USB and infrared data ports are provided, as well. The phone supports USB mass storage so you can simply plug the phone into your computer and drag and drop music files into the phone's memory using the included Disc2Phone PC application. Moving your photos is easy, too, thanks to high-speed USB. The K790a contains 64 MB of embedded memory and a Memory Stick Micro slot is provided, giving you the big storage capacity you need for photos, music, and more.

Calling Features
The K790a's phone book can hold all your important contacts with multiple entries per contact. A call list remembers your most recent missed, received and dialed calls, and the phone's voice activated dialing makes calling your contacts as easy as saying their names. Meanwhile, a built-in speakerphone makes it easy to talk without having the phone to your ear. Polyphonic ringtones are included and you can also use MP3 and AAC music files as ringtones. A cool application called Music DJ even lets you mix your own ringtones. Picture caller ID lets you assign a photo to specific callers. Similarly, a ringer ID lets you assign ringtones to callers. For those times you want to keep things discreet, there's a vibrate ringer mode. And because the K790a is Bluetooth-enabled, you can use a variety of headsets and handsfree kits for total wireless freedom when you're on the go. The phone even supports stereo Bluetooth headsets.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
If you're looking for a mobile productivity partner, the K790a has you covered. Support is built in for sending and receiving pictures, text, graphics, and sound via MMS messages. When used in combination with the phone's built-in still and video camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging possibilities. You can even edit up your video clips with the included VideoDJ application. The phone also ships with a built-in email client with support for POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols, while the included Access NetFront Web Browser allows you to surf full HTML web sites. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

Getting on the Internet is easy with the K790a, as it supports the GPRS protocol, as well as the high speed EDGE data protocol. When used with your carrier data plan and the phone's Bluetooth or USB data capability, the phone can be used as a wireless modem for laptops and PDAs.

A number of handy software tools are bundled with the K790a, including a voice memo recorder, a to-do list, a calculator, a calendar and an alarm clock. The phone also supports the SyncML PC synchronization standard, which lets you synchronize your PC-based calendar, contacts, notes and tasks with your K790a.

Imaging and Entertainment
The big story about this phone is, of course, the camera. At 3.2 megapixels, it can produce incredible images, but the real advantage comes from the camera's autofocus, which allows you to take crisp pictures at varying distances from your subjects. The camera also features an image and video stabilizer compensates for any small movement of your hand when you're taking a picture and shooting video. Meanwhile, a built-in Xenon flash helps you get great results in all kinds of lighting situations.

There's also a unique feature called BestPic that lets you capture several images in quick succession with one press of the camera key. BestPic lets you pick the best and delete the rest. Dedicated controls on the side of the device will make you forget you're holding a phone in your hand, and when you're ready to share your gorgeous images, you can print them wirelessly via Bluetooth, or via USB, on a PictBridge-capable printer. Sony Ericsson also provides a free picture blogging feature, which allows you to upload pictures from your phone to a place where all your friends and family can view them online.

The K790a is also a great music phone. Load up your favorite songs in MP3 or AAC format on a memory card and listen to your heart's content. The user-friendly music player application makes it easy to organize and enjoy your tunes. There's even an FM radio for catching the big game or your favorite stations.

And what about gaming? This phone is definitely geared for the mobile fun fanatic, as it supports widescreen and 3D games. The K790a comes preloaded with several games and more are downloadable from Sony Ericsson.

Vital Statistics
The Sony Ericsson K790a weighs 4.1 ounces and measures 4.1 x 1.8 x .9 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 7 hours of digital talk time, and up to 350 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1800/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

Product Description

It’s here. A Cyber-shot™ digital camera and a small and sophisticated feature-packed EDGE phone all in one. Bring the K790a with you and you have a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, image and video stabilizer and built-in Xenon flash ready for any moment, anytime. BestPic™ technology lets you capture several images in quick succession with one press of the camera key. Pick the best. Delete the rest. A camera stabilizer function compensates any small movement of your hand when you’re taking a picture and shooting video. When you’ve taken a photo, you can share it straight away using Bluetooth™, multimedia messaging or blog it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the phone, September 18, 2006

By 

SL (RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Ericsson K790a Phone (Unlocked) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I used to own the W800i (Walkman) phone. I loved everything about it, but the K790 / K800i phone is EVEN better:

1. bigger and brighter screen size and higher resolution. As a result, the phone is slightly larger than the w800i but the benefits outweighs the size increase. The icons are bigger and clearer. Font size is increased so it's much easier to read text messages. You can now surf the web (not just mobile web pages.) Being able to display the photos on a larger screen is great.

2. I LOVE the RSS reader. With a click of a button, the phone updates the latest news from BBC and Google news and SONY news and updates. I just skim through the head lines which are linked to fuller articles on the websites. This is great for me who commutes on the train every morning. Great time killer standing up or sitting on the train.

3. Walkman is still great. It's not as buggy as W800i. But there is no more MegaBass. It still sounds great. Unfortunately, the phone does not come with memory card. I had to buy one M2 (Memory Stick MICRO) which I had to wait about a month to get since it's really new and not many stores have them in stock. So if you want to fill up the phone with songs, built-in 64MB will not be enough.

4. The camera quality is excellent (for phone camera, that is). I am very particular about digital cameras and picture quality. I find that this camera is overall not as good as a basic, stand-alone, cheap 3 Mpix cameras that are cheaper. HOWEVER, it good lighting condition, it takes great picutres. There is definitely more noticible purple fringe and digital noise than a dedicated digital camera. In low-light condition, even with the super bright flash light, the picture quality is sub-par. There is too much noise. The metering on the camera is so-so. If there is a strong lighting constrast between your subject and the background (such as bright windows), I find the camera has a hard time balancing the light--making the subject too dark. The ability to have a portable camera with me at all time, out weighs all the imperfections I get from it. As a graphic designer, it's important to have access to a camera at all time to grab images for design inspirations.

5. I am curious to start the photo Blog--a built-in feature in the phone.

6. Games look great on this camera. 3D games like MiniGolf and Tennis which came with the phone are amazing.

7. Built-in ring tones and background screen/wall paper sound and look SO much better.

8. Email function works great. I have a dot.mac account and can view and send emails without problems. Right now, the phone does not support flash player so I can't view any .fla files. I don't really care but sometimes websites do require that flash player is installed.

This phone has amazed me and impressed me beyond my expectations. I hope more of my friends have it so that I can try to video phone function!

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detail Pros and Cons for K790A, December 7, 2006

By 

C. Law - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Ericsson K790a Phone (Unlocked) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

---------------Pros---------------

- Decent processor to process 3.2 Mpix images and smooth menu browsing.

- Very nice 320x240 hi-resolution, crystal clear LCD works very well even under direct sunlight especially the standby digital clock, hardly able to see pixels compare to w800i, and w810i.

- Very light weight just 115g (4.05 Oz). Slightly heavier than w800i and Motorola V3.

- Auto Focus.

- Using Digital Image Processing to reduce photo noise does improve the picture quality compare to w800i and w810i.

- 3.2 Mpix with various shooting effects and white balancing presets. I tried Twilight Portrait under low light condition for short range photos, I can say the quality can be compared to a real CyberShot Digi Cam.

- Two shortcut bottons on the top of the phone near the speaker for browsing photos.

- Xenon Flash can be Pros and Cons. Effective range is 1 to 2 Meters.

- Animated menu and customizable themes makes the phone more interesting

- MP3 Ringtones

- Multiple Recurrance Alarm schedule

- FM radio can be set as Alarm.

- Bluetooth 2.0 support A2DP (Advance Audio Distribution Profile) for Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

- Able to backup phonebook into memory stick M2 and perfectly synchronizes calendar and contacts with OUTLOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

- High Frame rate for 3D GAMES!!! Although this phone does not have a 3D hardware accelerator, it does run 3D games such as Need for Speed Carbon, Virtual Tennis or other 3D games with high frame rates! It is a lot faster than W800i and W810i!!!!

- One button press for Speaker Phone

- Able to turn ON/OFF Bluetooth and paring Bluetooth Devices such as adding Headsets during a call.

- Multi-Tasking, supports up to 5 JAVA Applications, Music Player, Internet Browser, and other application simultaneously. (Once it reaches the 5 Java Applications, it does not allow user to open any more java programs and there might be stability issue)

- Shortcut key to startup a "Task Manager" like menu for you to resume or end running applications.

- File Manager works very well for copying, moving, and organizing data inside the phone.

- If you have cell phone internet, make sure you go to Sony Ericsson Funs and Downloads to get all the useful applications, themes, ringtones and games.

- NICE AC charger! It comes with a Dual Connector which cascades the AC adaptor with the USB cable or headphone connector to charge your phone while you are using listening to music or connecting to PC.

---------- CONS ---------------

- Camera cover uses glossy material is easy to get finger prints and scratches. Also DO NOT PRESS ON THE COVER SO HARD when sliding! It scratches the CAMERA LENS!!!!!!!! BE CAREFUL!!!

- Extremely low video recording resolution at 176x144!!! Even a real cyber shot can do 640x480! Nokia N73, N93, can do 640x480, samsung D900 and SHARP 902SH at 320x240. Probably their microprocessor is not fast enough to handle hi-res video!

- NO LED LIGHTS!!! COME ON! LED is useful when I need to use it as a normal flash light or tourch in the dark!

- Does not support stronger Xenon Flash accessories MXE-60 by Sony Ericsson. I guarantee the MXE-60 is brighter than the K790A built in xenon flash! The effective range is up to 4 Meters! Twice that of k790a!

- Joystick seems to only support 4 directions (Up,down,left,right), the corners do not work, bad for games!

- Xenon flash may be too strong to saturate the picture in white during close range. It is also very weak for outdoor at night, since there is not enough light reflect back, the effective range is only 1 to 2 Meters (3-6 Feet).

- You CANNOT manually turn ON the Flash, which is very useful when taking photo of a person with camera facing toward a bright background such as a sun or a bright sky.

- Orange or infared LED for auto focusing does not work that well under extremely dark condition with ridge surface.

- Primitive voice recognition system. You must need to record the names and what kind of phone you are calling separately. Back in 2004, the samsung and motorola mpx220 also supports USER INDEPENDENT voice recognition system. That means anyone can make a call regardless male or female, without training nor recording!

- NetBrowser doesn't support xhtml web sites. Cannot check Windows Live Mail. Recommend using OPERA MINI. A lot faster and convenient!

- No 900MHz

- Crowded keypad, hard to press the number pad when they are at the very bottom of your hand and you are worrying about dropping the phone on the floor due to the center of mass leaning toward the camera cover. (Recommand using the given Sony Ericsson Handstrap)

- Provided 64MB Memory Stick Micro is USELESS!

- Impulsive noise between music tracks. Can be solved by using Bluetooth Headphone.

- STEREO BLUETOOTH HEADPHONE does not support EQUALIZER SETTINGS

- No Mega Bass, since Mega Bass is only in walkman branded phones, and usually muffles the music. Customize the EQ for the best result.

- Occasional crash when accessing the memory stick (May be mine is defected?)

- Slow USB transfer speed. Not even USB 2.0 as SE claimed

---------- Suggestions & Recommendations ------------

- get GOOGLE MAP, GMAIL and OPERA MINI.

- Update the firmware via SONY ERICSSION UPDATE SERVICE.

- Get a 1GB Memory Stick Micro, the given 64MB M2 is a piece of crap.

- Delete some bundled applications or files can free up the phone memory from 64MB to 73MB.

- Get a 99% transparent screen protector from EBAY or Online store. Not the soft ones, they easily get scratched.

- Get a silicone case or clear casing for maximum protection.

- Use glossy transparent tape to protect the "CYBERSHOT" lense cover from further scratches while maintaining it's original design.

- Clean the dust clogged in the joystick, as the dust will eventually enter to the LCD screen in couple months even it is "sealed".

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit large and bulky, but good quality, August 26, 2006

By 

SuperSchtroumpf (Lyon, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Ericsson K790a Phone (Unlocked) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

A whole new series of 3 megapixel phones are coming out now, so I can't say how this one compares to the others. There is a new Samsung out that is about a half the size, but I don't know about the photoquality. There are many factors that go into the quality of a photo, not just the megapixel count. Other than the size and a few other things, I'm very satisfied with this phone/camera. My overall goal was to be able to go out and about with only one electronics thing. I dont want to carry my ipod, pda, camera, and phone everywhere. This phone suffiently fulfills temporary and short-term outings.

Here are the pros and cons.

PROS:

-Great screen, in terms of size and color

-The phone/address book is very expandable, and can include unlimited phone numbers, addresses, and notes for each contact. You can enter their address, birthday, whatever you want. It syncs with Outlook, but I find that I only call regularly from my mobile phone a small portion of the people from my outlook contacts.

-Photos are very nice. They are a bit smaller in file size than my old Sony 3.2 MP cybershot camera, but on the whole there is not much noticeable difference. The daylight photos are great. Low-light photos are very good for scenary, such as inside European churches, city streets, etc. There is a very good image stabilizer, so the low-light photos are very good considering that my hands shake a lot. Indoor people photos, however, are so-so. This is true with any digital camera as a general rule. But I've had problems with focusing (common) and sometimes i want to use the flash in the daytime (bright background, but person in shadow) and it doesnt always let me. Still, it's convenient.

-Great speaker sound, for music or speaker phone

-Radio. Nice add-on you don't get on a lot of the other 3.2 mp phones.

-Good music playing. Though you can't use your own headphones, you have to use the Sony ones that double as the hands-free microphone/headphones, the sound is very good.

-You can copy and paste onto the memory card or phone any image photos and put them on your phone to show to people or for your own enjoyment.

-Good battery life, if you don't have the screen lit up all the time.

-I haven't used the 3G aspect of it, as this is expensive. But the capability is nice. Haven't tried out the internet either.

-Despite the large size, it feels very comfortable to use. It holds well in the hand, and the number pad keys are soft, though a bit close together.

-Dedicated music play/pause button.

-Good flash, with multiple flashes for red-eye reduction.

-Nice leather hand strap.

CONS:

-Sending SMS to more than one person is a pain. You have to go through several menus to select each person, one at a time.

-Sony memory stick micro. Yet another expensive sony memory card format. MicroSD is the same size, and much cheaper.

-Camera lens cover always sliding down. The new Samsung and Nokia is much better in this respect.