Flashback: the Sony Ericsson K800 was once as versatile as James Bond and the first Cyber-shot phone

 

The Sony Ericsson K800 was once a smartphone with many faces. From one perspective it seemed like a Cyber-shot digital camera, from every other like a phone, seem at the left aspect and you’ll see a button for the track player, interior used to be a succesful pictures chip for 3D gaming.

It was once launched in mid-2006 and grew to become the first Sony Ericsson telephone to formally recreation the Cyber-shot logo. It deserved it too, as the 3.2 MP digicam on its lower back used to be amongst the excellent cell shooters of the time. It was once protected up with a sliding lens cowl that routinely launched the digital camera when opened.


The smartphone sincerely did seem to be and sense like a Sony digital camera. It had a two-stage shutter key, the quantity rocker managed zoom. The handset was once pretty chunky, however that additionally intended that there used to be ample room for a xenon flash.

The BestPic characteristic was once mind-blowing for the time. It took 9 full decision snap shots that blanketed photographs from earlier than you pressed the shutter and pictures after that. You ought to store one or numerous of these photos.



Two stage shutter key and volume/zoom rocker on the right

What to do with your nice photos? Well, you ought to replica them to your pc the use of a USB cable, over Bluetooth or infrared. You should ship them in an MMS too, of course, however that way they should solely attain your friends.

If you hit the Blog This alternative in the menus, the picture would be uploaded to Blogger.com the place they would be reachable for all the world to see. Facebook used to be nonetheless new and exceptional to university students, Instagram wasn’t a factor – how else would you share pictures of your meals or your cat? Joking aside, this was once a characteristic beforehand of its time.

The Sony Ericsson K800 used to be pretty capable, as soon as you’ve examine thru the consumer manual. For example, there are two buttons above the display screen that complement the gentle keys beneath it. In the camera, they may want to swap between capturing modes (e.g. BestPic, Panorama) or Scenes. These buttons additionally helped you navigate the picture gallery.

On the left of the telephone was once a Play/Pause button and long-pressing the extent rocker on the proper may want to pass songs. This wasn’t a Walkman phone, however it was once a wholly succesful tune player. The proprietary port that it used to connect headphones wasn’t notable though.

But you comprehend what was? The A2DP support, which enabled taking part in tune over Bluetooth in stereo. Of course, Bluetooth headphones weren’t as frequent in 2006 as they are today, however it’s nonetheless impressive.

The K800 got here with solely 64MB of inside memory. You should possibly in shape a hundred pics in there however no greater than a handful of songs. This is the place the Memory Stick Micro got here in, you should insert playing cards up to sixteen GB (the slot wasn’t well matched with microSD cards, however).



The play/pause button for the song participant and the M2 slot had been on the left
On the front, simply underneath the left smooth key, used to be the Internet key. The K800 was once one of Sony Ericsson’s earliest 3G telephones and it had a net browser (Access NetFront) as nicely as a built-in RSS reader, in addition to an e mail client.

There was once additionally the K790 variant, which supported solely 2G connectivity (up to EDGE), however you’d lose the MMS functionality and the front-facing video camera. That couldn’t be used for taking selfies, though, 2006 definitely used to be a less difficult time.

Anyway, contrary that used to be the Activity menu key. This menu used to be a combine between an app switcher and a notification area. You should swap between walking apps from here, take a look at for overlooked calls and new messages, however additionally get right of entry to shortcuts to apps and internet bookmarks.

Yes, the K800 used to be a function phone, however it ought to multitask. And it should run cell incarnations of some basic PC video games – Age of Empires and Counter-Strike, for example.

Sony Ericsson K800
The cellphone additionally regarded in the first of the Daniel Craig James Bond films, Casino Royale (which additionally starred the M600). Sony Ericssons (and later Sonys) had been a staple of Sony Pictures Entertainment generation of Bond, although to a lesser extent than Aston Martin. Of course, each now and then you’d get a BMW Z3 or a Nokia 8.3 instead.

The Sony Ericsson K800 should do the whole lot that cellular telephones from 2006 may want to do. And greater importantly, it may want to do some of these matters higher than most. This was once when the corporation used to be at its height earlier than the market started out transferring in the direction of clever phones, a transition that proved difficult for the Japanese-Swedish company.

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