Sony Ericsson K750i - O2 Pay As You Go Mobile Phone - Black 

When it came to upgrade time, I thought to myself, what would I want from my mobile? Perhaps MP3 playing capability? How about a decent camera? These are things that have been hinted at to date but now finally realised with Sony's new wonderphone.

The camera on this beast is really solid, flick open the protective cover and unleash the 2 megapixel glory. In daylight it performs just as good as any dedicated digital camera. 4x zoom and autofocus mean you can set up and capture some quality shots. At night, arguably the time when phone cameras show their limitation, and it performs almost as well. I say almost because without night-mode, the light on and a steady hand ... you'll still be subject to slighty grainy/blurred pictures. But hey! Its the BEST I've seen a phone do in no light quality. You can get your pictures playing as a slideshow, add a soundtrack, you can switch to movie mode and record MP4 film. Various qualities of film/pictures are available depending on your purposes. Low qualities for using in messaging, high quality for those who may want to Bluetooth their results to a PC.

Now we come to MP3 playing, well for one you will need Sony mobile handsfree kits to get things playing in your ears. The standard headphones are decent but VERY uncomfortable. Better quality than the Nokia ones though. Where the good news lies is with the Fontopia design handsfree kit being an accessory to be released in the near future. The standard Fontopia headphones are frankly ACE and to have these for your mobile would give you a really strong MP3 playing device. Couple this with the phone being able to take up to 4GB Memory Stick Duo cards and you've got some real scope here. The Media Player section allows you to structure playlists to your desire.

The rest of the phone matches up the likes of the Nokia 6230, you can sync your phone on the PC with the PC Suite software. The USB cable is ace, transferring data AND recharging your phone, its just a shame that the software currently does not sync to Lotus Notes. You can pick up your emails if you tap in your ISP settings and the phone generally goes out of its way to offer just as much functionality to each phone function as possible. You can navigate through the menus via the jogstick/keypad, and additional options appear in the form of dropdowns. Its certainly a busier approach to the simplistic and easy to use Nokia phones, but this does not interfere with the actual usage of the phone and is certainly intuitive. Besides, it will take a LOT to contest Nokia's for ease of use.

You can get plenty of downloads for the phone, new themes, wallpapers, ringtones. It takes Java applications and my one came with a pretty swish fully 3D driving game!

Also on the market is the D750i, Tmobiles currently exclusive version of this phone. It is styled differently, in a very nice lilac, and has a different lens protector. Other than that it is the same phone. Soon to come is the W800i, again the same phone, but bundled with a bigger memory stick than the 64meg you get with this phone. Between that and the 32meg onboard memory, however, you'll be fine for now! The only thing I wish this phone had was replacable facias. One it helps for resale value and two you'll need to keep that screen in good nick, you're only going to get one!

I'm well chuffed, I really haven't come across anything this fantastic since I stumbled across the Nokia 6230. With this and the new 6230i out, there are clearly only two decent contenders in the mobile market right now ... all you have to do is make your choice. This one was the winner for me.

Your list of contacts is one downward movement of the joystick away from the home screen - similar to Nokia phones. The contacts database allows you to store more than one number for each contact - similar to Motorolla and a big bonus when you have a lot of contacts because you don't end up with a list that's longer than it needs to be. You can also store e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, birthdays and even assign a ringtone to special contacts so you know who's calling without even looking at the phone!

The camera on this phone is terrific. You have white balance (for when you're taking photos indoors with the lights on and you want to avoid that orange look, or for taking shots on cloudy days etc.) You have night mode, macro (for extreme close-ups), a light (handy for those macro shots) and using the 'shoot mode' you can take assisted panoramas and fast frame shots too. This great little phone even lets you record video!

Your K750i is also an MP3 player and radio. I personally don't tend to be too fussy about sound quality when I'm listening to music on my phone, just the fact that I can is a bonus I'm happy with but I do think this phone offers pretty good quality sound.

Memory on the K750i is expandable with a Sony Memory Stick Duo, which is a little card that 'plugs in' to a slot in the side of the phone's body. In addition to the on-board memory, the 64Mb card that come with the phone provides ample space for saving photos, themes, MP3s and files you transfer from your PC. Packaged with the phone is an adapter that you can slide the Memory Stick Duo into, and plug it straight into your photo printer or PC card adaptor for easy access to your photos and files.

Transferring files using the provided software and data cable is easy in theory, once you've understood the way the folders on the phone and memory stick are organised. When the phone is connected to a PC, Windows® recognises the memory stick as a removable disk, locatable through Windows Explorer and separate from the phone itself. I have found maintaining a connection between the phone and my PC to be a little temperamental occasionally, but certainly not to the point of wanting to give up.

Other great things about this phone: Task manager, ability to send a photo directly to a Bluetooth enabled printer, timer, stopwatch, ability to use an MP3 as a ringtone!

Tip: Set your camera's 'Picture Size' to 'normal' if you send a lot of pictures via Picture Messaging. The photos won't look great when you print them but you'll run into less problems with people not receiving the pictures because their phone isn't as good as yours!