Sony Ericsson K750
Encyclopedia
The Sony Ericsson
K750, introduced in June 2005, was a high-end mobile phone
, the successor to the now discontinued K700, and which was succeeded by the K800i in Q2 2006.
Before official release, K750 was known by its codename Clara.
There also was a T-Mobile
exclusive version called D750i. It was similar hardware wise to the K750i but the D750i had T-Mobile branding but had a light blue/white body and looked very similar to the Sony Ericsson W800
s (3.5 ounce
s), with its buttons that can be used with any finger. It has the 'dual-front' design common to most Sony Ericsson mobile phones since the T610
, with the back of the mobile phone designed like a digital camera and intended to be held sideways to take photographs. The K750i is available in four colours, Blue, Oxidized Black, metallic red and Blasted Silver (the latter of which is exclusive to Vodafone
in the United Kingdom
) with a red version later released. The central joystick button is used for selecting options and navigating menus, with the "C" button as an 'undo' or 'delete' button, and the arrow-labelled button as a 'return' or 'back' button. (The joystick has long been a contentious issue with some reviewers finding it hard to use and highly susceptible to damage over time, in as much as it will cease to function.) The two buttons labelled by white horizontal lines, known as 'hotkeys' or 'soft keys' perform the function of making binary decisions, labelled on the phone's display. The button in between of these 'soft keys' acts as a shortcut key, which brings up a user-customisable shortcut menu when pressed. The on/off button is located on the top of the phone next to the IrDA
port.
There is one side key on the left of the phone; when pressed in standby mode, it opens either the RDS
FM
radio or the Media Player as selected by the user, allowing playback of WAV
/MP3
/AAC
audio files, and 3GP
/MPEG-4
video files. The RDS FM radio has 20 user-configurable presets. The phone also features Sony's Mega Bass technology. A press of this button in media player mode plays or pauses the selected media. The left-hand side of the phone also houses the Memory Stick
PRO Duo slot for external solid state memory, which is protected by a flexible rubber cover.
On the right-hand side of the phone there are three keys - two for controlling volume, skipping through tracks in the Media Player and zooming in and out when in camera mode. If the button is pressed when the headset isn't attached the phone displays a phone status screen showing profile, memory usage, battery level, and, on some mobile networks, phone number. The included handsfree headset is also required to listen to the radio since it functions as the antenna
.
Memory
Networks
Available colors
Sizes
Weight
Camera
file format, however support for WAV
encoded files is as extensive
AAC
support is good, and the phone can only properly handle LC AAC. HE-AAC
(aka AAC+, aka eAAC) will play since HE-AAC is designed to be backwards compatible, however the SBR component will be ignored. The same is true with HE-AAC v2 (aka eAAC+), only the normal LC component of the file will be played. The SBR and parametric stereo (introduced with HE-AAC v2) is ignored. Since HE-AAC v2 encodes the sound as a mono-aural track and the stereo separation is recreated through the PS data, HE-AAC v2 files played on a K750 actually play back in mono.
The phone can also be used as a modem
via Bluetooth
, Infrared
or USB. According to the Sony Ericsson website, the K750 has a talk time battery life of 9 hour
s and a standby time battery life of 600 hours.
Such phone can also use the flight mode
option which allows the phone to work only as a media player while other functions, like cellphone radio system, are turned off. This option is essentially usable when in places where mobile phone transmitters must be turned off. The Activity Menu will not be present which appears when the button between the left and right softkey is pressed. Instead the Walkman player appears when it is pressed. This modification will revoke any remaining warranty for the phone.
Modding also called as flashing is done by software such as XS++ or Far Manager
.
Additionally the K750 shares its hardware with the lesser known D750, which has the interface of the K750, yet has a chassis similar to that of the W800.
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
K750, introduced in June 2005, was a high-end mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
, the successor to the now discontinued K700, and which was succeeded by the K800i in Q2 2006.
Before official release, K750 was known by its codename Clara.
There also was a T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
exclusive version called D750i. It was similar hardware wise to the K750i but the D750i had T-Mobile branding but had a light blue/white body and looked very similar to the Sony Ericsson W800
Sony Ericsson W800
The W800 Walkman, released in 2005 , was the first Sony Ericsson phone to use the Walkman brand. The phone features Bluetooth v1.2 , Infrared and USB connectivity....
Design
The K750i is a candybar style phone that weighs 99 gramGram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
s (3.5 ounce
Ounce
The ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
s), with its buttons that can be used with any finger. It has the 'dual-front' design common to most Sony Ericsson mobile phones since the T610
Sony Ericsson T610
The Sony Ericsson T610, released in 2003, is a mobile phone manufactured by Sony Ericsson. It was one of the first widely available mobile phones to include a built-in digital camera, Bluetooth, color screen, joystick navigation, and was a very high selling model.The T610 is available in three...
, with the back of the mobile phone designed like a digital camera and intended to be held sideways to take photographs. The K750i is available in four colours, Blue, Oxidized Black, metallic red and Blasted Silver (the latter of which is exclusive to Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) with a red version later released. The central joystick button is used for selecting options and navigating menus, with the "C" button as an 'undo' or 'delete' button, and the arrow-labelled button as a 'return' or 'back' button. (The joystick has long been a contentious issue with some reviewers finding it hard to use and highly susceptible to damage over time, in as much as it will cease to function.) The two buttons labelled by white horizontal lines, known as 'hotkeys' or 'soft keys' perform the function of making binary decisions, labelled on the phone's display. The button in between of these 'soft keys' acts as a shortcut key, which brings up a user-customisable shortcut menu when pressed. The on/off button is located on the top of the phone next to the IrDA
Infrared Data Association
The Infrared Data Association defines physical specifications communications protocol standards for the short-range exchange of data over infrared light, for uses such as personal area networks ....
port.
There is one side key on the left of the phone; when pressed in standby mode, it opens either the RDS
Radio Data System
Radio Data System, or RDS, is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardises several types of information transmitted, including time, station identification and programme information.Radio Broadcast Data...
FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
radio or the Media Player as selected by the user, allowing playback of WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
/MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
/AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
audio files, and 3GP
3GP
3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones....
/MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
video files. The RDS FM radio has 20 user-configurable presets. The phone also features Sony's Mega Bass technology. A press of this button in media player mode plays or pauses the selected media. The left-hand side of the phone also houses the Memory Stick
Memory Stick
Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks...
PRO Duo slot for external solid state memory, which is protected by a flexible rubber cover.
On the right-hand side of the phone there are three keys - two for controlling volume, skipping through tracks in the Media Player and zooming in and out when in camera mode. If the button is pressed when the headset isn't attached the phone displays a phone status screen showing profile, memory usage, battery level, and, on some mobile networks, phone number. The included handsfree headset is also required to listen to the radio since it functions as the antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
.
Specification
Screen- 176x220 pixelPixelIn digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s - 262,144 colour TFT-LCD
Memory
- 64 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Memory Stick PRO Duo included - Phone memory 38 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
(Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration) - Memory Stick PRO Duo support (up to 2 GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
)
Networks
- GSM 900
- GSM 1800
- GSM 1900
Available colors
- Black
- Silver
Sizes
- 100 x 46 x 20.5mm
- 3.9 x 1.8 x 0.8 inches
Weight
- 99 gGramThe gram is a metric system unit of mass....
- 3.5 ozOunceThe ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
Camera
- 2 Megapixels
- AFAutofocusAn autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...
4.8 mm 1:2.8
MP3 & connectivity
The phone has good all-round support for many versions of the MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
file format, however support for WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
encoded files is as extensive
AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
support is good, and the phone can only properly handle LC AAC. HE-AAC
HE-AAC
High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding is a lossy data compression scheme for digital audio defined as a MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio...
(aka AAC+, aka eAAC) will play since HE-AAC is designed to be backwards compatible, however the SBR component will be ignored. The same is true with HE-AAC v2 (aka eAAC+), only the normal LC component of the file will be played. The SBR and parametric stereo (introduced with HE-AAC v2) is ignored. Since HE-AAC v2 encodes the sound as a mono-aural track and the stereo separation is recreated through the PS data, HE-AAC v2 files played on a K750 actually play back in mono.
The phone can also be used as a modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
via Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
, Infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
or USB. According to the Sony Ericsson website, the K750 has a talk time battery life of 9 hour
Hour
The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds...
s and a standby time battery life of 600 hours.
Modding
Since K750i and W800i are essentially two phones with exactly same hardware specifications, soft modifications are available to convert a K750i to a W800i by using flashing software and the firmware files of the W800i model. Such modified phone will be able to use the Walkman feature which is available to W series phones only.Such phone can also use the flight mode
Flight mode
Flight mode is a setting available on most cell phones, smartphones and other electronic devices that, when engaged, suspends many of the device's signal transmitting functions – thereby disabling the device's capacity to place or receive calls or text messages – while still permitting use of other...
option which allows the phone to work only as a media player while other functions, like cellphone radio system, are turned off. This option is essentially usable when in places where mobile phone transmitters must be turned off. The Activity Menu will not be present which appears when the button between the left and right softkey is pressed. Instead the Walkman player appears when it is pressed. This modification will revoke any remaining warranty for the phone.
Modding also called as flashing is done by software such as XS++ or Far Manager
FAR Manager
FAR Manager is an orthodox file manager for Microsoft Windows and a clone of Norton Commander...
.
List of firmware release (earliest to latest)
- R1A044
- R1C004 (VodafoneVodafoneVodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
specific) - R1J002
- R1L002
- R1N035
- R1AA008
- R1BA013
- R1BC002
- R1CA021
- R1DB001
Additionally the K750 shares its hardware with the lesser known D750, which has the interface of the K750, yet has a chassis similar to that of the W800.