The Sony Ericsson K850i is the company's first phone to feature a 5-megapixel camera. The Cyber-Shot camera also has a powerful Xenon flash and an effective autofocus. However there is no optical zoom yet - although to be fair when you can take picture with a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels the built-in digital zoom isn't just a marketing gimmick.

In practise we found the K850i's camera a little erratic and not yet a substitute for a dedicated compact digital camera. Occasionally the autofocus wouldn't get a fix (see the somewhat blurred kitchen interior here) while more often than we would like the flash would mistime with the shutter and result in severly underexposed interior shots.

That said, when the camera worked as advertised it takes some of the best shots we've ever seen from a phone. Our advice would be to try the K850i before you buy - we may have got an iffy sample after all. And keep posted for any updates as we try to get our paws on another K850i in the next few weeks to see if any software or hardware adjustments can fix the frustrating lack of consistency.