Sony Ericsson 750i review: the perfect travel phone?

Filed under: Thailand, Travel Photos Written by:Chris Mitchell.

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No need to lug a heavy camera around when you're travelling: the new generation of mobile phones have tiny, lightweight cameras that are perfect for capturing on-the-go moments on your travels

I've long been thinking of getting a new mobile phone with a built in camera so I can take quicker and easier snapshots of life around me here in Bangkok as I go about my day. A few weeks ago I finally splashed out on an Sony Ericsson 750i, It's a mobile phone which has been universally praised by telecoms journalists and product reviewers - CNet Asia has nearly 200 reader reviews which give it a 8+ out of 10. The Sony Ericsson 750i comes with a 2 megapixel camera as well as an mp3 player and a whole lot of other functionality. [Buy the Sony Ericsson 750i online from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk].

The main reason I wanted the Sony was for the camera. While wandering around Bangkok, even down to the local coffee shop and back, I see a lot of interesting stuff almost every day - things I'd like to capture on camera. I don't want to have to carry my Canon IXUS camera around to do that - so the 750i seemed like a good solution. All I needed was something that could take good resolution shots suitable for displaying on the Web.

[Incidentally, if you need to know about installing a Thai SIM card in your mobile phone when you're travelling in Thailand, or how to read the email in your Gmail account on your mobile phone, follow the links].

I pondered buying a super small, lightweight camera to carry as well as my phone, but realised that would mean a) I would have to carry two objects on me all the time and b) the small cameras like the Olympus Mju Mini are actually more expensive than buying a camera phone itself. So the 750i won out and I'm extremely impressed with it so far.

The camera is a real pleasure to use - you slide back the lens cover and the screen becomes your viewfinder - every one of my friends who've played with it have all said, independent of one another, "it's very James Bond". The pictures are crisp and clean and the memory stick holds at least 100 images (that's the most I've saved on it before transferring them to my PC). The phone comes with a flash attachment which I haven't tried out and in truth, am unlikely to, because I don't want extra clutter to carry about.

More importantly, though, having the camera with me all the time has done exactly what I hoped - because it's easy to use and it's always on me, I'm taking a lot more photos of stuff that's around me. A lot of them are bad photos or not so interesting after the fact, but that doesn't matter. Having a smaller, lighter camera like this actually changes the way you take photos - it means you just take stuff instantly, real snapshots.

It's a step on from the traditional camera because there's even less effort involved. With a normal camera you have to get it out of your backpack, take it out of its case, switch it on and use it. There's a whole process of preparation, even if that process is just a few seconds long. Plus it's also a quite formal process - "I am now going to take a photo of something". So that thing has to be suitably worthy of the effort you're going to invest in taking the photo. Whereas with a cameraphone, you take it out your pocket, aim and fire. That's it. I know it sound ridiculous, but those few seconds of hassle getting out a camera is what has stopped me taking a lot of photos in the past - and the cameraphone cuts through that and lets me just take the photos I want without any hassle.

This, then, makes it a great choice for travellers. If you're backpacking you'll see lots of stuff along the way where you won't necessarily have your proper camera to hand or you won't deem what you see to be necessarily worthy of taking a photo - but it's worth a quickie snapshot along the way. And indeed, if you're really not that bothered about photos in general, something like the Sony Ericsson 750i may well do as the only camera you need for your holiday. One less thing to carry or worry about, the photos look good on your computer screen and are high enough resolution to print as well. Given that virtually every backpacker takes a phone with them when they're travelling to stay in touch with people back home - which is a very wise move - it makes sense to simply combine the two items.

It'll be interesting to see how cameraphones develop in the next few years - if they can figure out how to build a flash into a phone the size of the Sony without upping the price too much, they'll have nailed what most people want from a camera and people using their phone as their camera while travelling will become more and more common.

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Posted on August 29th, 2006.