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By Damian Koh
Apr 03, 2007

Slightly more than a year ago, Sony Ericsson announced its first Cyber-shot handset in a bid to win the hearts of camera-phone users. Moving on, the K550im is the company's first i-mode-enabled Cyber-shot that comes with a 2-megapixel autofocus camera. Twin to the K550i, the main difference between the two lies in the i-mode feature which allows users to surf mobile Internet sites on a simpler and easy-to-use platform.

Design
At 14mm and weighing 85g, the Sony Ericsson K550im could be in the running for the slimmest and lightest Cyber-shot phone--at least that's what we felt when we first held the candy bar. In a nod to style, the face of the K550im, where the 176 x 220-pixel, 2-inch LCD resides, is painted a shade of glossy black. The rear is a more subdued matte surface.

There are no Call/End buttons on this Sony Ericsson. Instead we had to use the left and right softkeys to pick up or end calls. This being an i-mode phone, it isn't surprising to find a button dedicated to this feature. Messaging junkies might find it a dilemma, though. Pressing the Envelope icon brings us into the Messaging menu, but the anorexic numeric keypad kills all the comfort of typing.

Like the W880i, the "buttons are not only hard to press, the sharp edges of the keys can be painful when texting for prolonged periods". In addition to that, the side volume bar is just as hard to reach since the control lies recessed from the surface.

The battery cover on the K550im is also a love-hate affair. Instead of the usual sliding action which keeps the cover firmly in place, clipping the lid into position on this Sony Ericsson requires a slightly different approach. We had to align one end of the cover before pinning it down with two miniature locking sliders on the opposite side. While this guarantees our battery cover stays firmly in place, we couldn't imagine the hassle and frustration should one of the sliding locks break or if we wanted to swop memory cards.

There is only one connector port on the K550im on the bottom left spine which charges the phone, synchronizes with your computer and lets you plug in the bundled stereo headset, but doesn't do all three concurrently although the sync cable trickle charges the mobile, too.

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