I’ve recently bought a Sony Ericsson K800i, it’s a nice little thing. I say thing because it’s one of those multitudinous devices which contains a camera, a mp3 player, expandability via memory cards, a radio, a basic web browser, video calling and all the rest. What’s more it can be used to call people when you’re out and about!

In short I wanted a phone which I can use (unlocked) in the States without breaking a warranty. To use my MDA Vario II I’d have to break a warranty which I intend to use within the next few months, my Vario being slightly broken. Before some clever person points out that I can use my Vario in the states without unlocking it, I want to use a pay as go SIM from the states to lower charges and I can’t do that without unlocking.

So, I went to CarPhone Warehouse and purchased one. It’s the cheapest 3G phone I could get with T9. T9 is what I’m used to from my old old phone, a nice little Sharp. So, I have a phone which suites my requirements; it provides 2G/3G for the best coverage and T9 for my comfort.

It also has a ~3mpx camera, not too bad one either. I’ve taken a few photo’s with it and give it a test in most conditions, one thing I noted was that it actually handed both the dark and near dark with relative ease. I was very surprised that it even handled flash compensation reasonably well. The camera is covered by a shutter and when you remove the cover it automatically starts the camera application, when you close the shutter it closes the application. I thought this was quite useful.

It has a music player and radio, these leave a little to be desired. The radio is analogue, but other than that quite a reasonable little device, it requires the headphones to be plugged in as it uses them as an aerial, but it doesn’t restrict your listening to them. The music player is integrated enough to prevent the two running together and it has a passable interface for using to play a track at a time.  It didn’t like my music, in fact, it seemed to hate it. It (apparently by random) truncated it’s readings of my ID3 tags, it also doesn’t allow playing by album, this is not good if you’re in the habit of using compilations.

The web browser seems OK, as does the RSS reader, I haven’t tested this to the full because I have limited credit on the SIM which came with the phone.  I’m always hesidant about web browsers on phones, the screens are small and the typing facilities are minimal. However, if such things please you I think they should be adequate for most average needs.

I’ve not tested video calling, I see it as pretty pointless but the camera on the front seems to be OK.

So there you go, that’s me unboxing it. I’ve liked what I’ve seen and found it pretty usable, the leather strap for carrying makes it feel rather like a camera and adds a bit of character, the screen is clear and the camera is of good quality. Most importantly it makes calls, if it made coffee I’d be far happier than all the gimmicks.

Here’s me, signing off, Robert.