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Any object or thing whether it is animated or not come to this world having a definite aim. Some objects’ aim get its shape gradually, some has it right from the beginning. Mobile phones did not become an exception as for this. Every separate device is a screw in a marketing machine of a definite company. Well, you know it quite well, so the idea of this review will be different at all. There are phones with definite status, at that as a rule this status does not have connection with interior ranking of the company or market realities. No matter if this is the most contemporary offer or a budget decision - each phone has its own destiny. For example, let us consider a piping hot Sony Ericsson K660i. A competent person can instantly define the main qualities of this devices judging by its name. A more detailed investigation of the model features and nuances will let us make a conclusion about its attractiveness in comparison with other obtainable offers and about the novelty aim according to the producer-company idea.

Who is Mr. K660i?
Sony Ericsson phones of 600 series having a K letter in its name are in some suspended position now. It seems like their producer cannot really decide which features and technical characteristics should exactly be typical for this model line. For example everything is quite clear with “Walkman” and “Cyber-Shot” and as for K series – there are new questions appearing all the time. How these models should be classified, how they should be marked out in comparison with other decisions?
For example Sony Ericsson K630i is a little “music phone” and Sony Ericsson K610i is simply a medium level device. Lately the situation is aggravated by model duplicating (the said K610i and its music alter-ego W610i).
Unfortunately, the fate of uncertainty continues influencing the new К660i. Coming back to the above mentioned mini-theory about aims and hopes of each device we cannot talk about any optimistic perspectives as for our today’s model. The matter is that this phone does not have any energy at all; it does not have any individual features that could make it remarkable in comparison with other new phones. All the novelty details are of high quality, but without soul. This means that no matter what a pity it is, but К660i is a pass-through model. We came across with all its functions (partially or on the whole) in previous models of the company and it means that these functions passed the hardest test – the test of time. The phone took all the best decisions of the company sifting out all unnecessary and staying at the contemporary level at that. What do we have in the end? A common phone without gloss on the screen? Yes. A model actualizing functions and abilities of the company phones? Undoubtedly.

Appearance
If we are talking design – then Sony Ericsson K660i appearance cannot be called the one that will stick someone’s memory. Pleasant shapes of the phone body are associated with all models of the company at the same time.

The storm which took place in the minds of the company managers brought К660i to the coasts of youth orientated design.



It is hard to imagine a businessman with a phone of “Lime on white” or “Wine on black” colors.



There are also other colors like “Blue on black” and “Silver on black”. The last variant really takes К660i away from youth style, but it is impossible to argue with producers. And so К660i started conquering the shelves of the shops with idea of “interactive operation in any place of the world”. In such a way Sony Ericsson defined this model as a product for quick and convenient web access. Well, we will discuss that later and now let us go back to the appearance of the model.

As a classical form factor phone Sony Ericsson K660i is almost ideal as for its ergonomics and tactile feelings. Its design is very accurate and completed.





As we have said before this novelty does not have any fire and energy in its design but it does not derogate its designers’ advantages. The phone is tidy and neat; all elements take its place. Talking about usual dimensions which are 104x47x15 mm and 95 g of weight we can see that the novelty is in good shape too. It is pleasant to hold it in your hand and it is always convenient to work with it.



The only minus we found is in the process of working with a keyboard, but we will talk about this in the next part of review and here we will only mention a stylistically pleasant realization of such a complicated element of appearance (according to the work of designer) like a keyboard of the phone.

Keyboard
It is almost impossible to take К660i into your hands and not to press the flashing icons placed in the right part of the main block of digital keyboard, it is almost unreal. Taking one step forward we should disappoint readers – these are not touch keys as it may seem at first; these are just indications of the right (or upper if in album orientation) keyboard row for the work with web-browserб but it looks striking, no claims.





Traditionally talking about practicalness of navigation block we can disappointedly note that K660i is doing not very well here. You have to get accustomed to such a type of keys combination, but even after certain practice you can come across with false response of this or that key. The main reason for that is location of “phones” in both sides of this block. By the way, these “phones” keys became surprising at all.



For many years already Sony Ericsson did not use this control element in their models which is classical for other companies. Nowadays, 600th model is not the only model of this company referring to classics, but nevertheless this is still surprising. At that these two keys do not organically suite K600i.
Digital keyboard looks traditionally innovative, which does not prevent it from being really convenient in use.



Round keys are not big in diameter but they are located rather far from each other, that is why it is really convenient in use.
Milky-white backlights supplements pleasant appearance of digital keyboard and instantly makes this phone to be more life-asserting.
The range of additional keys is traditionally wide and K660 also has a volume control wheel on the right end of the phone body.



Lower we can see camera activation key, at the same time it is a pull trigger while your mobile photo hunting. Over them we can see a lonely power supply key (at long pressing) and a profile change key (at short pressing). The left end is occupied for the memory cards slot, and on the lower end we can a standard multifunctional port plus a thong binding.



As for navigation key in spite of its tiny size there are no claims about it. It is a standard 4 position key with confirmation key in the center.



Display
With your permission we will pay unusually less attention to K660i display. It is not to say that its display is not worthy loud and verbose tirades, it is just that plenty of words had been told about the same kind of display for many times. Strict facts prove this idea – TFT display reproducing 262 000 colors with resolution of 240x320 pixels.


And it feels like saying – a standard variant. In fact these characteristics are really medium (in a good meaning) for nowadays and the fact that it could be better does not make it worse. It is a great display for functional abilities of К660. Of course it is a drawback for a device with inbuilt GPS, but it is a permissible liberty for the web-orientated device.

Functions
The main difference of Sony Ericsson phones from rival products which is able to change radically the choice of consumers is its unusually wide functional realization of standard abilities. These device possess simple but nevertheless available multitasking, developed and improved standard abilities (for example, laterally navigation of call menu) and many other functions. K660i is a little higher on evolution line than common phones and without any jokes it is in half away from smartphones.
Let us consider what consumer can get from К660. We should rather begin with multimedia functions. The menu presents three sections: “Photo”, “Video” and “Music”.






The first case means a well organized view of images stored in phone. You may sort them by albums, create collection and PhotoDj application will allow editing photo materials you have got.










By the way, you may view images as a slideshow choosing one music theme for accompaniment, as we saw that in K850i.






Second multimedia function means viewing stored video as well as streaming files. You can additionally subscribe to podcasts and automatically receive video files on themes you like. And you also should not forget about VideoDj; this is a program which allows edition of stored and recorded video materials.
The third ability is pleasant for ears – music. Talking about the level of this novelty musicality we come across with ghost of W660i here and there; the music abilities of that model are much wider. Nevertheless, inbuilt player of К660i allows sorting music by artists, albums and tracks.










Additionally there are sections for audio books and podcasts. The player itself has a series of settings and allows choosing the mode of playing, equalizer adjustment and a function of extended “stereo”.






Of course the player supports MP3 tags and if these tags are available the player shows this additional information and album cover. As for the sound of this device – of course this is not a «Walkman», but the phone is quite able to provide a contemporary level of sound. Radio interface is also not excess, its settings are simple and the abilities range of the phone is rather wide.
One more interesting menu section is entertainment. There are really good applications there; java games and TrackID, location identification (Google Maps), and remote control functions of Media Player or your PC in the whole via Bluetooth and dictaphone. Above that there are mentioned PhotoDj, VideoDj and MusicDj. As for me the last one was the most interesting for me.






Among other interesting functions we should like to mention a little renewed menu appearance. It mostly concerns multimedia section. Organization and philosophy of menu realization is obviously taken from play stations of Sony (PS3, PSP) which is not surprising if we remember the name of the company whose model is our today’s review hero.
It is very comfortable to use it and that is why we would like to support such an undertaking. One more feature of К660i as a web-device is an album orientation of web-browser. I should notice that as for me this function seemed senseless to me, book page orientation is much more convenient.




Well, as for album orientation it was very convenient to use lightened keys there. Plus to that NetFront browser left only pleasant impressions. Its abilities sometime seem surplus for a phone.




The rest functions of this phone are standard and we reviewed them for many times in reviews of other models by SonyEricsson, but we should just remember that realization of any of abilities available in this model is accomplished with extremely high quality. For example, alarms function: five independent paths from the Kingdome of Morpheus have settings according to the days of week – not every smartphone can boast that function.

Camera
Dishonest sellers may call K660i a Cyber-Shot model, but you should not trust them. The phone is equipped with medium 2 megapixel camera and it does not even have an inbuilt flash.
 


Following another good traditions the picture taking process is held in laterally position. As for this the work with camera is carried out just perfectly. The settings are available in scale and moving along pictogram line opens additional menu.










There are plenty of adjustments in fact, but as a rule there is not much sense in it. Among necessary settings we should note balance of white, frames and effects, photographing modes – panoramic, auto timer and series. In addition you can control modes of photographing via digital keyboard which simplifies the process even more. Maximum resolution is 1600х1200 pixels; minimum is 640х480 (for MMS or contact photos).
And the speed of photographing itself and the work of the phone with pictures – all this really made us glad. You can store the masterpieces of your photography in 32 Mb of embedded memory or to use memory card with maximum volume of 4 Gb.
When the weather is fine (and there is enough of lights) the pictures quality is quite decent (we mean that you can see something there at all). When it is dark or it is a twilight time – nothing helps here.
The record of video in 3GP format is able in two resolutions (320х240, 176х144 pixels). Video file for 10 seconds will be enough for MMS.
 You can see the text photos below and an archive can be downloaded here.








Resume
Now it is time to draw the line and to decide what is the function of К660i in the market of mobile devices? I think you will agree that in spite of some of the model characteristics which are quite repeated by other models; still the model is very distinctive.
This positive mood in the whole is spoilt by a battery and the time of autonomous work. It seems like a Li-Ion battery with 950 mAh capacity should provide all phones’ needs for at least three days. In practice fully charged device worked not more than two days (30 minutes of conversations and 30 minutes of using other functions during the day).
As for the rest we can say that this is a stocky device for those who does not like experiments but who is searching for well-tuned devices.