SonyEricsson K850i update

After a few months of using the K850i I've come to a conclusion on the phone, and that is a great phone with a bad user interface - by user interface, I mean the keys and touch screen.

It's become clear that the reason for dropping the usual joystick on the K range is solely to accommodate the touch screen facility. There have been countless times where I've touched the screen when trying to use the "call" and "end call" buttons and activated a menu, leading me into an irritating sequence of cancel and back requests.

The navigation solution used in lieu of a joystick is a clumsy one - a square which wraps around the 2 and 5 buttons. It's not very comfortable or intuitive to use, and it's layout displaces the natural position of the 2 and 5, although only slightly, does look very odd.

This would be a truly great phone, had SonyEricsson not used the touch screen just for the sake of using the technology. It does nothing new except irritate the user by sending txt messages while you're on a call and triggering the wrong menus.

A phone should be completely touch screen, as the iPhone etc are, or should use the keyboard and a decent navigation option, such as a joystick. I know some people were not a fan of the joystick, but I think dropping this is a big step backwards.

On the positive side, the big screen is great for web browsing (I've had to upgrade my account to unlimited!) and viewing pictures taken on the great camera. I hadn't really noticed how big the screen was until I started using my wife's W850 phone and thought my eyesight had gone!

So, SonyEricsson, keep the big screen, camera and all the usual SonyEricsson goodies, and drop the touch screen.

Updated Rating 6/10