Swivel Clickin' the Sony 505i 1.3 Mega Phone

[GuyJean]

Howdy,

I just threw together a 35 second video of the 505i 1.3 MegaPixel Digi Cell. It's the Digi Cam Keitai that swivels, rather than flips.



It's bulkier and heavier than previous cell phone cameras (no stalking ass shots ), but the photos are impressive. If, in fact, the sample photos on the display were taken with the 505i camera.

I believe they're selling for 32,000 yen.. Any thoughts GG? Did you have a chance to test this one? They didn't have a working display at the shop.

GJ

[Caustic Saint]

OMG, that is beyond sweet.

(crap, I'm living in the wrong country - still)

[GuyJean]

au also has a new swivel phone by Kyocera, but the camera is only a 330,000 pixels.

The AU phone is MUCH lighter and more compact, but I found the feeling, when placed to my ear, a little strange. It's more convexly (word?) shaped, and feels like it curves the wrong way. The 505i is concave and holds the face like a ripe, soft banana. ( )

Actually, I really like the weight of the 505 too. It's bigger, and more pleasing for gaijin fingers.. YEAH, baby!

(BTW, Ultra: "navigability" IS a word! - http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=navigability)

GJ

[GuyJean]

[American Oyaji]

Nice video.

I liked that camera in the first post.

VERY sweet looking.

[GomiGirl]

It's bulkier and heavier than previous cell phone cameras (no stalking ass shots ), but the photos are impressive. If, in fact, the sample photos on the display were taken with the 505i camera.

I believe they're selling for 32,000 yen.. Any thoughts GG? Did you have a chance to test this one? They didn't have a working display at the shop.

Have seen the swivel camera on a few different phones and they make a heap of sense. It is similar to the swivel camera on the Sharp PDA about 10 years ago..

Haven't seen this particular model (damn it looks great!!) but was testing the Fujitsu FOMA recently as it runs Symbian OS. This camera was at the top of the screen and you could turn it ourwards or inwards on a roller type of thingamyjiggy.

This looks great from your video.. a few things that may be an issue is the protection of the screen and how good is the "swivel" part of it. They are bulkier than say the Panasonic but the photos look great.

I like the idea of covering up the camera.. the Nokia 6650 does that and the camera is activated as soon as you slide back the cover. Most phones take an age to activate as you need to do it through the menu. (missing those opportunistist up-skirt shots)

I think I will be running off to a store this afternoon to check it out and put an order for testing this week.. If they didn't have a working model it means that the phone is not ready for release yet - probably buggy. But with all of the new 505's hitting the streets, companies don't want to be forgotton so they put out the dummies. (phones not the models)

[GomiGirl]

Is there any chance that this phone would work in North America? Specifically, in Toronto, Canada? I'm heading to Japan in October, and was thinking of getting a cameraphone there, but I'm not sure if there are any phones that I can get there that will work back home...

Short answer is no.

But even if you were going to get a dual mode phone or even a 3G (wCDMA) you are better off buying one with the carrier you intend to use as the roaming fees would be cost prohibative.

Phones are not like electronics as there are on-going relationship with the teleco.

but in the next 6-12 months we are going to see a HUGE change in the way we view phones and roaming. *watch this space for more details when I am able to let people know.*

[Steve Bildermann]

What I wish was I could take a pic with my Canon IXY 400 and then email it out from the *camera*

You would think *that* would be a neato feature for the camera companies to get into. Maybe bluetooth would be able to handle that.

[GomiGirl]

Any thoughts GG? Did you have a chance to test this one? They didn't have a working display at the shop.

Have been testing this baby all week. Very very thick and chunky!! Thumbing emails when the phone is "open" is different as the scroll wheel is on the top part of the phone rather than with the number keys. That takes a bit of getting used to and my thumb is not quite long enough to reach the scroll wheel and slows down typing. Most of my phone use is emailing and entering things into web-sites and so thumb navigation is really important to me. For this reason alone I wouldn't have one..

but.. I do like just viewing i-mode sites when the phone is in closed mode as you only need to use the directional keys which are under the screen. It is like using a mini-pda!! Very high coolness factor!!

High definition screen is very nice but content sites need to get their act together and make sure their content is changed to accomodate the new display specs. There are a few phones coming out with these new screens. It reminds me of when Sony brought out the first high definition screen on the Clie and a heap of applications just couldn't cope.

Camera - this is not really my area as I am really a snapshot sort of girl but I like that you use it like a regular camera. But it is hard to take photos of yourself.. photos do look great even to my photographically challenged eyes.

i-applis included are pretty boring. But then the idea is that you download i-appli's for a fee.

Am testing a few more 505's this week so will update if you are interested.