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.

Features
In a nutshell, i-mode is a data service offered by selected mobile carriers (in Singapore, we tested the service with a StarHub i-mode SIM card) which allows the user to surf mobile Internet sites and provides secured access to online shopping and transactions. Navigation on these sites was intuitive as most of the time we only had to press the corresponding number for a particular selection to enter the menu. Not all sites offered free services, though. Some required us to pay a subscription fee.

Being a Cyber-shot phone, a camera on the K550im is a given. Sliding down the lens cover on the back reveals a 2-megapixel autofocus shooter. Several settings are available for customization such as the shooting mode, scenes, resolution, focusing, timer, color effects, white balance, metering, picture quality, shutter sound, time/date selection and the option to select whether you want to save your snaps to the onboard memory (64MB) or Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. What we find really useful is the flash light which we could manually switch on as a torch or to light up our subjects in dim environments.

The K550im doesn't let down in terms of entertainment features as well. Fruit Fall is one of those games that can keep you entertained for hours; at least it did for us. The game requires the player to rotate a structure such that the fruits end up together to score. Worms Golf, on the other hand, is a simplified version and a variant of the Worms played on the Sony PlayStation Portable. Besides chalking up high scores, there's also FM radio but you have to use the bundled headset which plugs into the port on the left spine of the phone and doubles as the antenna.

Rather regrettable is the music player on the K550im running on the older navigation system. The Walkman player 2.0 user interface sported on the newer and higher-end models such as the W880i and the W950i allows the user to add fancy features such as thumbnails and album art. One thing we couldn't quite understand is why the W880i, with such a slim form factor, could have the memory card slot on the outside for easy access, but not the K550im.

That said, VideoDJ and MusicDJ allow us to create and compose videos and melodies, respectively, while PhotoDJ provides editing tools to rescue poorly taken snaps. There're also PIM functions so we can synchronize Outlook Calender, Contacts, Notes and Task with the K550im. Push email is available for those who want to receive emails while not deskbound.

Performance
We tested the quadband (GSM 800/900/1,800/1,900) K550im and found overall performance above average. Connectivity was straightforward for a basic phone like this. There's GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth (with support for A2DP) and infrared although 3G is missing from the set.

During tests, we were able to get at least three days of moderate use before we had to reach for the charger. Call quality was rather humdrum though we noticed the onboard speakers were relatively weak, especially when playing music outdoors. We had no problems pairing the K550im with the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for music streaming via A2DP.

Image quality at its best was good enough for 4R prints only, although the K550im is still one of the better camera-phones around. Clipped highlights and blooming were common, but, again, not surprising when taking pictures in the sunny outdoors, especially at edges of sharp contrast.

Overall, the K550im doesn't seem like an exciting upgrade over its predecessor. Rather we find it a cross between the W810i and the K610im, bringing both the i-mode feature and Cyber-shot brand onto one single device. Snapshooters will enjoy the autofocus capability of the 2-megapixel camera but those who want speedier connectivity may shun the K550im without 3G.