It is the summer of 2006, and Sony Ericsson has just dropped the hammer on the mobile world. The K800i isn’t just a phone; it is the first to carry the ‘Cyber-shot’ branding, and in the UK, it has instantly become the ‘coolest’ bit of kit you can own. It’s a chunky, masculine, dual-front candybar finished in a ‘Velvet Black’ that feels incredibly premium. Flip it over, and you’re greeted by a massive, horizontal sliding lens cover that protects a 3.2-megapixel sensor. When you slide that cover down, the phone transforms into a dedicated digital camera with an interface that is virtually indistinguishable from Sony’s standalone T-series cameras. It is a technical masterpiece of convergence that finally proves you can have a world-class camera and a world-class phone in the same 115g package.nnThe technical specifications are breathtaking for 2006. The K800i features a Xenon flash—not the weak LEDs we’ve been tolerating for years, but a real, gas-discharge flash that can freeze motion and illuminate a dark room without the grainy ‘digital noise’ that plagues every other mobile snap. It also introduces ‘BestPic,’ a technical wizardry that captures nine full-resolution images in a second (four before you press the shutter, one during, and four after), allowing you to pick the perfect shot of your mate falling off a barstool. The screen is a 2.0-inch QVGA (240 x 320) TFT with 262k colours, and it is arguably the sharpest display in the business. Everything from the icons to the photos looks vibrant and pin-sharp.nnUnder the hood, this is a 3G-enabled beast (UMTS 2100) with a secondary front-facing camera for video calls. While video calling in the UK is still mostly a novelty used in ‘3’ network adverts, the 3G speeds make downloading over-the-air content and using the ‘Access NetFront’ browser a genuine pleasure. It features 64MB of internal memory, but more importantly, it has a Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot, supporting up to 2GB. This transforms the K800i into a high-end MP3 player and an FM radio with RDS. Connectivity is comprehensive with Bluetooth 2.0, Infrared, and a fast USB 2.0 interface. The battery life is respectable, providing around 350 hours of standby, though that Xenon flash is a hungry beast. The K800i is the definitive ‘pro’ camera-phone; it’s a rugged, sophisticated, and technically flawless tool that set the bar so high, the competition is still blinking in the light of its Xenon flash.