Sony Ericsson unveils Cyber-shot camera phone

Sony Ericsson today unveiled a long-awaited camera phone that leverages another key Sony brand: Cyber-shot. The mobile phone maker also launched an attempt to push that other borrowing from its parent company - the Walkman brand - further down-market with the first ever clamshell version.

The K800 and K790 - respectively 3G and tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE version of the same Cyber-shot phone - both sport a 3.2 megapixel camera behind a drop-down cover. Both have auto-focus with illumination, on-board red-eye reduction, integrated xenon flash and image stabilisation feature.

Sony Ericsson touted the cameras' BestPic feature, which captures nine shots in sequence starting as soon as you press the shutter button to trigger the auto-focus. The camera then shoots continuously, retaining the four shots taken before your press the shutter button and then taking a further four afterward. You're then given the chance to keep the pic you took, or select any or all of the others, all of which are taken at the full 3.2 megapixels - so BestPic isn't just another name for 'burst mode', Sony Ericsson insisted.

The 115g camera phone ships with 64MB of on-board memory, and takes MemoryStick Micro add-in cards. Images are displayed on the cameras' 2in, 320 x 240, 262,144-colour LCD. There's built-in support for Google's Blogger service, allowing pics to be uploaded and posted on the web in a trice. Well, as fast as the host network connection will allow - there's no Wi-Fi on these handsets.

There is Bluetooth 2.0 and, for straight-to-printer connections, PictBridge. Sony Ericsson claimed the phones offer seven hours' talk time on GSM networks, dropping to 2.5 hours on 3G connections. The stand-by time is 350 hours, the company claimed.

The K800 and K790 will go on sale next quarter with variants for North and South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and China. Sony Ericsson did not provide pricing guidance, which is too dependent on operator subsidies and tariffs.

The Walkman W310 is a low-end clamshell music phone aimed at the 'yoof' market. It's got Bluetooth 2.0, an FM radio, a 262,144-colour main display and a quad-band radio with EDGE support. Sony Ericsson said it will bundle a 256MB MemoryStick Micro card with the product to complement the 20MB of on-board memory.

The integrated camera is a disappointing sub-megapixel job with 4x digital zoom. However, Sony Ericsson claimed the phone offers a whopping 9.5 hours' talk time - on stand-by the battery lasts for 400 hours.

The W310 also ships around the world in Q2. ®