I’ve been waiting desperately for Sony Ericsson’s K850i cell phone ever since it was announced couple months ago. Watching its live pics only got me drolled more and more. But the wait is over. Two weeks ago, this gorgeous Cyber-Shot handset has finally arrived in my country, and without further thinking, I purchased one. And now I’m one of many happy owners of K850i.

While I didn’t own SE K810i phone (the button is ugly, and the specs aren’t different than K800i), I do have K800i. Compare to its predecessor, K850i is slightly fatter. That’s probably because the company now placed the camera cover under the case, unlike K800/K810. This cover will automatically open when the camera is active, and vice versa. This is really a good improvement, ’cause when I put my K800i on my pocket, the cam cover often accidentally opened. Hate that.

Joystick controller is always on love/hate situation. Some people love it, some don’t. This time, Sony Ericsson did vote for the opposite group and replace the joystick with standard four-direction buttons. The cool thing is, the OK and Cancel buttons are also gone. Seems like the company wants to give a little PDA experience to K850i and that’s why you get a small area of touchscreen at the bottom of the screen. The left side is the OK button, while the right side is the Cancel button. I admit that this feature requires some practises to master though.

Other missing button is the gallery shortcut. Not quite missing though, but I do love the old one from K800i. It’s much easier and more convenient that the new shortcut mechanism introduced in K850i.

Another adorable improvement is the SIM card house. On K800i, you have to take off the battery to replace the SIM card which isn’t easy either. You even have to use your nail or paper or card to help you pull that damn card. Thankfully, K850i gives us more humanly experience. SIM card, battery, and memory card housing are now reside on the bottom of the phone, and you simply have to push ‘em down their house. If you need to take them off, push them gently and pull. Can’t be that easier.

On a side note, be careful when pushing the SIM card. I once did it carelessly, and the card ended up stuck between its house and the phone case. It took almost an hour to pull it off.

Regarding specs, K850i cell phone boasts 5 megapixel camera and HSDPA connectivity instead of the old 3.2MP and 3G. Other specs, including the menu, aren’t much different than K800i/K810i. Except the new media center interface, horizontal-vertical orientation detector (you can play MarbleMadness by moving the phone around, just like when you play it on Wii), improved web browser, improved contact info, easier calling system (upon typing phone number, you’ll get a list of people on your contact which have phone number started with the number you currently typed), and FM radio. Note that current GMail Mobile won’t work with K850i’s new touchscreen UI (the app does run and you can view your inbox, but there’s no way to press Select to view the email), so you have to access it directly from web browser.

I’m really satisfied with K850i. But if only it came with WiFI connectivity, this phone would be perfect.