Sony Ericsson S700i: half camera, half biscuit

We were surprised when Sony Ericsson's S700i camera phone arrived in a large silver biscuit tin. Packaging is usually something we rip off and stuff into a recycling bin, but the S700i's box went straight to the kitchen, where it's keeping our Hob Nobs from turning into soggy blobs.

Tea in mug and biscuits in tin, we opened the manual and turned straight to Phone Reviewer's Pet Peeve #237. Why do the instructions always start with, "Slide the SIM card into the holder…"? What happened to the bit where they show you how to take off the back, thereby revealing said holder? We hunted for the hidden catch and poked the phone with a Leatherman before resorting to the tried and trusted standard: brute force.

The S700i's selling point is that it's half phone, half camera -- rather than 90 per cent phone with a lens stuck on the back because the marketing department says people are only buying camera phones these days. Turned on its side, it does look and feel like a camera. The lens is surrounded by a circular frame and protected by a sliding cover, there's a dedicated shutter button on the top, and the screen acts as a viewfinder. The default shutter sound is an odd whoosh-crash affair that sounds like a cymbal accelerating into a wall, but you can change it to something more camera-like.

With a 1.3 megapixel sensor, a photo light, adjustable white balance and spot metering, the S700i should also produce some camera-like images. We'll let you know when we've walked it around the neighbourhood and pointed it at a few landmarks. -ML