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First Look

6 February 2007 - Sony Ericsson has broadened its Cyber-shot range with the launch to two new camera phones - the K550 and the K810. Pocket-lint managed to get its hands on the new K550 handset at the launch event in London.

The Sony Ericsson K550 is the so called entry-level handset of the two, retro in styling it offers a 2.0MP camera, autofocus, LED light, lens cover, Bluetooth and picture blogging as found in the K800.

Rather than the bulky styling of pervious handsets Sony Ericsson is following the thin brigade. The K550 is 14mm thick making it considerably thinner than the company's popular W810 Walkman handset.

Noticeable differences to previous Sony Ericsson handsets include a more refined keypad. The result however can only be described as prickly. The keys are even thinner in size than the K800 or the W810 and in practice in our brief play seemed not as comfortable to use.

What we do like however is the styling. A bold two colour scheme and strong focus on the camera element make this one of the the most "camera" looking phones available on the market.

In use and the camera interface is the same as in previous models, however Sony Ericsson has rolled out its blogging software application as seen on the K800 last year. The feature will be a welcome one to bloggers using Google's software and if you haven't got an account it will even go as far as creating one for you so you never have to see a PC.

In fact at a previous press conference we met a blogger who ran his site from his phone so we know the software works.

First Impressions

Sony Ericsson's greatest strength is offering a wide range of devices suited for all entries into the market and the K550 is Sony Ericsson doing just that.

Not as fully fledged as the K810 also announced today, but enough to offer anyone who wants a strong focus on the camera element, the K550 looks to be one to watch for those who want a camera, but don't want to go the whole hog.

Additionally i-Mode fans will be keen to see that Sony Ericsson has announced an i-Mode variant of the phone - the K550im.

We will have a full review of the K550 as soon as review stock is made available from Sony Ericsson.

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