If you’re thinking on getting a mobile upgrade around Christmas look no further than the K800i (if it is a camera-based phone you’re after). To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of them – five or so mobiles I’ve used in the past few years (from the Motorola v300/600, Sony Ericsson P900, HP iPAQ 6515w etc) and I’ve never bothered with them to take pictures.

Until now.

While the phone worked a charm in all other aspects (picking up RSS updates while strolling around down town Toronto – I’ve been away there since November 24th, just back today – , no problems with the roaming for calls and texts), it was the camera that impressed most. Not just the fact that you’re getting fine quality images at 3.2mp but the absolute ease of use – slide down the lens cover and the phone jumps to camera mode, snap, close it over and you’re back to your main phone display.

I had even brought along a pocket camera (5mp Konika Minolta dImage X60) but where I took 3-4 shots on the Minolta, I wound up with around 100 on the K800i, just strolling, randomly snapping away. I can’t, honestly can’t, compliment it enough. Now, to try get them on flickr… 🙂