SiliconRepublic.com Ireland's Technology News Service

The K800i is the first phone in Sony Ericsson’s stable to boast Sony’s renowned Cyber-shot technology and the images speak for themselves. With its 3.2-megapixel camera, pictures are everything they should be with a normal digital camera — clean, crisp and vivid.

As well as the high resolution, the camera phone comes with all the features you would expect on a digital camera. It boasts a Xenon flash, auto focus and imaging software. The K800 comes with Sony Ericsson’s BestPic technology that facilitates nine high-resolution photos in a second as well as image stabilising and red-eye reduction technology.

The inherent intelligence of the device is made clear through its various settings such as one for twilight, as well as beach and snow settings. You can also adjust the white balance on the camera to cater for tricky light settings.

What Sony Ericsson actually has done right with this device is make the settings easy to negotiate — something that fully fledged digital camera makers have failed to achieve. For example, in two clicks you can decide to reduce the size of photos you wish to take from three megapixels to one megapixel.

I took the K800i on the ultimate field test — a stag night in Carlingford — and the vivid action shots of drunken midnight football are immortalised forever in cyberspace. One feature I noticed but haven’t tried out is a Blog It feature for people to upload photos directly from the phone to their online blogs. Sweet!

Did I mention that the device is also a phone? Sony Ericsson’s journey of discovery that began four years ago has yielded all kinds of creations but the K800i is perhaps the fruition of both companies’ endeavours. Although built on a standard Sony Ericsson, at first it doesn’t look like much, but when you delve into its features everything you need is accessible.

For example, the phone, which is available in Ireland from 3, allows you one-touch access to 3’s exclusive music player through a dedicated hard key. It also offers Bluetooth stereo streaming. As the first true camera phone, the K800i succeeds where many others have failed.

The K800 is available from 3 Ireland at prices starting at €149 on bill rising to €349 on 3 Pay.

By John Kennedy