Sony Ericsson K800i review

The Sony Ericsson K800i was the first of a new breed of camera phone designed to make taking pictures or videos, and uploading them to your blog as easy as possible.

In the same way Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series of phones tried to bridge the gap between mobile and music playback by combining both into one easy to carry device, the K800i looks to do the same for cameras thanks to powerful handset features and a Cyber-shot 3.2-megapixel camera.

When it comes to aesthetics, the K800i has the classic, traditional candybar design with a amply-sized high-resolution colour screen. It can be turned sideways for landscape viewing, and beneath the display is a set of physical keys. You would be forgiven for thinking it’s slightly bulky, but the strength of the built-in camera more than makes up for any style shortcomings.

The beauty of the K800i lies in how easy it is to take pictures – simply slide the cover down and press the camera button on the top. Cyber-Shot technology means you can take a picture and upload it to your blog in three clicks so it’s perfect for capturing spontaneous shots during day-to-day life or on nights on the town (thanks to the built-in Xenon flash).

If you want to take printable-quality pictures, there are a wealth of options to help you take the best possible picture, and pictures can be up to 3MB in size – ideal for printing out and hanging on your wall.

But there’s more to the K800i than its excellent camera. Built into it is a music player application (which works the same as the Walkman phone software), a video player, games, and MusicDJ and VideoDJ applications which let you compose music tracks and edit videos respectively on the handset.

Another key selling point is that the K800i is 3G. This gives you high-speed access to full Internet browsing just like on your PC and it means you can make video calls using the small video camera above the screen. Alternatively, if your operator allows it you can stream music tracks and videos to your phone without having to download them.

Overall, it’s hard to find fault with the K800i. Its superb camera is still market-leading, it’s ideal for bloggers, it plays music, is 3G-compatible and best of all, it’s cheap. All this adds up to one of the best – and best value – cameraphones on the market.