The picture is abundantly clear
Jim Jamieson
Province
What it is: Sony-Ericsson K850 Cyber-shot mobile phone
Price: Starts at $199 on a three-year contract.
Why you need it: You love the idea of being able to combine your mobile phone and digital camera in one device.
Why you don’t: Your camera needs dictate that you have a dedicated device for picture-taking.
Our rating: 4
I t has been a few years since we saw the first grainy pictures produced from a camera phone.
In the interim, the mobile phone’s ability to take credible pictures has grown immensely. No longer just a toy add-on, the picture-taking capabilities of some camera phones are now on par with quality point-and-shoot digital cameras.
That’s the case in Sony Ericsson’s latest offering. The two technology companies joined forces to produce multi-media phones and the recently-introduced K850 fits that profile.
Exclusive to Rogers Wireless, the K850 a candy bar style phone that features a five-megapixel camera with xenon flash and front facing-camera for video calls.
The device has access to Rogers‘ high-speed wireless network, which will facilitate video calling, fast music downloading and picture and video blogging.
As for photo dedicated features, the K850 has auto focus, an automatic lens cap, a 2.2-inch screen and something called BestPic, which is for shooting sports.
The camera takes nine pictures with one click of the shoot button, letting a user pick the best and delete the remainder.
It also features advanced digital camera features, such as Photo fix — to automatically improve light balance — and PictBridge to improve ease of printing.
Rogers offers a free eight-GB memory card (it must be redeemed online) with the phone.
A word of caution: this phone is aimed at consumers who are more interested in snapping photos than talking or texting, so consider that when checking it out.
© The Vancouver Province 2008