Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

Features
If there's one feature that stands out more than the sleek design of the K800i, it must be the built-in 3.2-megapixel camera. Slide down the lens cover and you can start taking pictures immediately, almost. There is also a 2-inch 262K-color QVGA display and is probably one of the sharpest screens we've seen so far--which is important since it doubles as a viewer when the camera is activated. Clarity, obviously, isn't an issue.

What's really cool about this shooter is the bevy of features hidden within the menus, which should be familiar to camera users. For example, you can select from a number of predefined scenes, picture size and quality, macro/infinite focusing modes, red-eye reduction flash, timer function, color effects, white balance settings and spot metering. It's a pity there is no option to adjust light sensitivity (ISO) settings.

A user-friendly interface naturally becomes important, especially when the camera is loaded with so many functions. To that, Sony Ericsson has made the whole process simple with numerous shortcut keys. Two tiny rectangular buttons above the screen (when the phone is in upright orientation) allow you to access the scene and shooting modes.

Hitting "0" on the keypad will bring up an overview of other available shortcuts. You can turn the image stabilizer function on with "7", flash with "*" and choose your picture resolution with "1".

Another issue which we feel can be improved is the selection of camera settings. When you enter a particular option, it brings you out of the menu and that makes it a chore--to go in and out of the menu--if you intend to change several options at one go.

Other neat camera features include BestPic, Picture Blogging and a built-in Xenon flash which replaces the traditional LED on camera-phones. Think of BestPic as burst mode with "memory". When activated, it captures nine pictures within a second of pressing the shutter button; four before and four after the actual photo you've snapped: This allows you to then select and save the ones you like best.

Now think of Picture Blogging as--blogging a picture. Pun is unintentional since this feature does exactly as mentioned. After taking a picture, you can select "Blog this" on the menu and your photo will be automatically resized for the Web: Type in your desired title and text for the new entry and, voila, your image appears on your blog in a matter of seconds (network operator dependant). The downside: You cannot post multiple pictures within the same entry, so if you have five pictures you want to upload, you'll have to go through the whole process five times.

If it's your first time blogging on the mobile, you'll receive a message to claim your mobile blog address which is where your subsequent pictures will be uploaded to. Alternatively, if you already have a current account with Blogspot, you can send your photos to that address instead. Currently, the Picture Blogging function is compatible with only Google's Blogger service.

The K800i has around 64MB of internal memory which works out to about 106 3-megapixel pictures (3-megapixel images at normal quality) or 16 4MB music tracks. You can choose to save your pictures, music or files on the phone's memory or Sony's new miniscule Memory Stick Micro (M2). Unfortunately, the Sony Ericsson K800i doesn't come bundled with the pricier M2 media, which is a bummer.

Did we mention that you can also do basic editing of pictures with the onboard PhotoDJ? If you can't bear to hear the shutter sound when taking a photo, you can switch the phone to silent mode and all that's left is a kitty click.

Beyond the digital imaging goodies, the K800i is clearly a high-end phone with all the bells and whistles you can expect, from FM radio (the external earpiece acts as the antenna) to MP3 player (MP3/AAC), to 3D games, etc., to keep those who demand more out of their handsets happy campers.

There's also a proprietary Web browser, RSS feed reader, email client that supports Push email, 3G connectivity, video calls capability (with the second camera just above the 2-inch screen), PIM synchronization and Flight mode status for the corporate users. When making video calls, you can also instantly share your photos with the other party as the selected image will take the place of your face, which multitaskers will like.

Other connectivity options include GPRS, Bluetooth, infrared (beside the shutter button) and printing from any PictBridge-compliant printer. No Wi-Fi on this unit, though.