I'm not sure how well it works with a PC, but if it performs half-as-well as with a Mac, PC users should be happy.

Hopefully you’ve already read my main review of the Sony Ericsson K800i / K790i—it’s the one that has most of the details of the phone itself. This part of the review just details how well the mobile works with the Mac—and work well it does.

Setup

Setting up the K790i is fairly smooth, so long as you have the right software. The current version of iSync (version 2.3) doesn’t support the K800i / K790i, so you’ll need a plugin. You can either attempt to hack one together, or if you’ve got a spare two dollars, it’s probably more worth your time to download a Sony Ericsson plugin from Mobile.Feisar.com.

I simply clicked the button under the little pic of the K790i, which took me to the PayPal checkout. A few bucks later, I received an email with the zipped plugin attached, dropped it into my ~/Library/PhonePlugins folder, and I was ready to go.

I also knew for wireless modem usage, I’d have to go fetch some additional modem scripts (once again thanks to Ross Barkman!) to use the K790i as an EDGE bluetooth modem. I downloaded and unzipped the Sony Ericsson 3G Scripts, dropped them in my /Library/Modem Scripts folder, and was fully ready for the setup.

I started up the Bluetooth Setup Assistant from the bluetooth menu bar menu (menu menu menu), set the K790i in discovery mode, and my Mac walked me right through the setup. If you want to know more about the settings, I’ve covered this process before, so click here to learn more about how to setup your mobile phone via bluetooth.

The last screen was the most interesting of the bunch, this time, because not only did the setup assistant recognize the K790i for iSync, Address Book and modem use, but it also provided me the option to use the phone as a bluetooth remote control, much like the Salling Clicker. This was the case with the Sony Ericsson K750i that I tested previously, but it doesn’t happen with many phones, so I was a bit excited to see that functionality.

After that I was ready to roll. iSync started right up and asked me for my preferences for synchronizing the K790i with my Mac. I’ve created a group list in my Address Book for contacts that I know I’ll want to have on my phone. I selected that list in iSync, asked it to transfer both contacts and calendars to the phone, and then clicked the sync button. After a minute or so, it was ready to go.

Using the K790i with the Mac

PIM Functions

Contacts: Right after transferring my contacts, I checked the phone to see how the Contacts app worked. Much like the SE W660i, Contacts will hold a bunch of information pulled from your Mac’s Address Book—multiple phone numbers, multiple email addresses, home and work snail-mail addresses, notes, and birthdays. It keeps them easily delineated with icons that help explain which bit of info you’re looking at. It unfortunately doesn’t synchronize Address Book images from the Mac.

Calendar works as expected. It allows for all day events too, although they’ll be read only on the phone.

Utilities and Multimedia

The built-in remote control application was found on the K790i’s entertainment menu icon, and allowed me to control my Mac via bluetooth in three different capacities: Presenter (say, for Keynote); MediaPlayer (say for a DVD player); and Desktop (to use the phone as a mouse on the screen). Presenter worked quite well, and made me aware of some options I didn’t know about in Keynote, such as simply making the screen black-out. MediaPlayer didn’t work quite the way I thought it would, say for iTunes, however, I think it would for DVD player or maybe even FrontRow (sorry, I had neither of which at my disposal for testing purposes). The Desktop option always seems to amaze me at how well it works.

Connecting the phone via USB was quite easy on the Mac. When plugging in the USB, the phone asks you whether you want to use it as a modem or as an external drive. I select drive, and after a few seconds of re-self-configuring, two external drives appear on my desktop—one for the phone’s internal memory, and another for the Memory Stick Micro. This was nice to have the two differentiated, so I knew where I was putting files, and pulling them from. This differentiation continues even when you browse the device over bluetooth.

Another nice part of connecting the K800i / K790i to the Mac is, after the external drives pop up, iPhoto immediately detects one as being a digital camera storage device, and asks you if you’d like to start downloading your photos into your iPhoto library. Pretty slick! I’ll show you more of this in my upcoming video podcast.) This worked just as well as plugging in my traditional digital camera. And the photos from this mobile come out clearly for a change because the camera is, again, a crisp 3.2MP. Take a look at this close up of my Canon digital camera, taken with the K790i—you’re not going to get that kind of quality image with any ole’ camera phone.

The Verdict (again!)

If you’re in the market for a new mobile and digital camera, you really should consider this phone. Most of us have no need for over 3.2 megapixels. It’s plenty for printing photos that you can blow up to 8x10” and still look good. For sharing among friends via email or on a blog, 3.2MP is probably too good-a-quality (did I tell you that the K790i automatically resizes the photos it takes before sending it to your Blogger blog?!).

Sony Ericsson did a great job with this phone / camera. The interface makes sense and looks stunning thru this high-contrast display. The controls fall into hand.

The K800i / K790i works hand-in-hand with a Mac. Communicate seamlessly over USB or wirelessly over bluetooth. Synchronize contacts and calendars without worrying if that random bit of info in your Address Book will make it to your phone. Download and share photos from your mobile, just as you would with your tradition digital camera, via iPhoto or the built-in Blogging software. Use the phone as a remote via bluetooth. Just like a Mac, it all just works.

Lastly, besides a full keyboard, it packs most of the multimedia features you’d want, without feeling like a jack-of-all-trades, instead it’s a master of all. Run out and buy this phone!

MacnCell.com Note

Please stay tuned for the upcoming video podcast for the K800i / K790i. I do my best to show off the intuitive interface as well as show off the crisp display.

Additionally, if you’re interested in the K790i, starting with this phone, I’m personally selling the model that I demo. With the phone, you’ll receive everything that normally comes with the phone, as well as an iSync plugin (provided by Mobile.Feisar.Com) so you you can hit the ground running. The asking price is $470 plus shipping and handling. If you are interested, please let me know via email, I’ll be accepting payment via PayPal.

Comments from the old website

iTunes importing
Posted by Anonymous User at 2007-02-12 21:21
hi, thank you for posting this info about the k800. how do i drag and drop mp3 files so they automatically show up in the music player on the phone? on the w800i, i could open itunes, and drag the song right from itunes into the MP3 folder. when i disconnected my phone, and opened the music player, the file would already be in the song list (along with the songs that came with the phone.) i tried this on k800, and no luck. thougths on how to accomplish this? thank you, jason, nyc

more details
Posted by admin at 2007-02-13 11:02
jason,

thanks for your post, hopefully we can figure out what’s going wrong here. when you say it’s not working, do you mean that itunes isn’t allowing you drag and drop files to the external drives on the phone, or that the phone won’t find or play back the files you’ve added?

i’m fairly sure that mp3s can be added to both the memory stick and the phone’s own memory, whether connected via usb or bluetooth. you might double check to make sure you’re moving mp3s and not protected aac files from the itunes store. i don’t remember one, but you might check to see if the phone’s media application has a “search for new media” function—simply cycling the phone off and on might accomplish this as well.

i also assume that when transferring the files, you’re putting them in a pre-labeled audio or mp3 folder on the phone or memory card.

K800i smooth sync with Mac
Posted by Anonymous User at 2007-04-13 01:19
I own a Powerbook G4 and with OS X version 10.4.9 and isync 2.4, I have had NO problem linking all my calendar events and contacts (as long as you allow the ericsson phone to be configured for all options -incl. modem-).