It’s about damn time.

Last week, Sony Ericsson finally announced their 5 megapixel Cybershot camera phone, the K850i (or Sofia, as it had been called prior to getting a model number). You’ll either love or hate the design… I have yet to decide for myself.

Ok, twist my arm. I’ll take the blue one.

Defining stats:
- 5 Megapixel Cybershot camera with auto-focus and Xenon Flash (a real flash)
- BestPic™ (9-shot burst mode) & Photo fix (think tiny mobile iPhoto)
- QVGA (320×240px) video recording @ 30 fps (.3gp format)
- Dual memory card support: Memory Stick Micro(M2), SanDisk microSD/Transflash
- 3 touch-sensitive softkeys and an insane d-pad concept
- Accelerometer to auto-rotate screen orientation in gallery view
- 3G, MP3 player, Stereo Bluetooth, and 320×240px screen

This little gem is slated to be out later this year… unfortunately for SE, they have to follow in the wake of Nokia’s 5MP N95, and the soon-to-be-announced Nokia N82… a 5mp camera phone, and Nokia’s first model with a Xenon flash (check a few posts back).

Nokia’s N Series 5MP models will have additional big features like GPS and WiFi… while Sony Ericsson delivers consistantly top-notch cam quality and surprisingly… really useful camera features. I hightlighted BestPic and Photofix above for a reason… they’re great additions and quite easy to use.

Cam quality usually wins me over, but I’m a sucker for good hardware, too. The K850i has some questionable design choices… the first being the crazy directional pad. The K850i’s dpad is a ring around the 2 and 5 button, with raised edges (apparent on the close-ups if you scroll through the photos). I see this as a potential nightmare (especially after being trained to hit the center button of a dpad/joystick for “accept”). But Rafe says it’s quite nice to use, and he speaks my gospel, so I’m not gonna get discouraged just yet.

Additionally, instead of 2 softkeys, this model has 3 touch-sensitive softkeys below the screen. Done wrong, it could be a nightmare; done right, it could be quite cool.

Note the the bottom of the phone has a hinged, sliding door to access the SIM card and battery. This is a great option that I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of yet. It stands to reduce the likelihood that the handset developing creaking noises from a removable back side. This could make the phone feel extra solid, and makes the slick back look really sharp.

Anyhow, I’m just glad the race is on again. And it looks like the Sony Ericsson K850i is gonna be neck-and-neck with the Nokia N82. And as time has told, you know I’ll wrangle me one or the other, the very second they’re wrangle-able. And maybe just a tiny bit before that.