It seems Samsung are really stepping on it in the 5 megapixel cameraphone race. In a stark display of audacity, the G800 is pitched as a digicam that can make calls. We usually deal with gadgets that are the other way around but we've been eager to test the Samsung G800 ever since its official launch back in late October. As you may recall, we were lucky to be there, but rubbing shoulders is nothing like getting our hands on the handset sporting the first 5 megapixel camera with optical zoom. So sit back and get ready for Samsung G800, one of the most hyped handsets lately.

5 megapixel auto focus camera with 3x optical zoom and xenon flash

Large 2.4" QVGA 256K color display

EDGE and 3G (with HSDPA)

Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support

Comfortable keypad

Stereo FM radio with RDS

Stylish design

Bad display processing

Weak sunlight legibility

Very slow memory card reading

No standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Volume/Zoom key is very hard to press

Quite chubby

Optical zoom is not new to cameraphones - the 902 and 903 models by Sharp, as well as Nokia N93 and N93i, were equipped with cameras with optical zoom a good while ago. But in Samsung G800 it goes with a five megapixel sensor and a xenon flash, which makes this handset's camera unmatched, at least in the number of features it offers. We are yet to see if quantity means quality but our first impressions back in October were surely positive. Finally, we have to say that the G800's greatest market share rival will be Sony Ericsson's top shelf cameraphone K850. It has the virtually the same specs save for the optical zoom and, in our point of view, the price will play a major role in this duel. We will refrain from including Nokia N95 here because the smartphone functionality puts it in a slightly different niche than the twosome in question.

Now, there is only one last thing that we need to mention before we cut to the chase. The unit we had for testing purposes was a final beta release candidate, so you might expect some minor changes and improvements in both software and hardware before the handset officially hits the shelves - however we don't expect them to be many. We didn't have any problems with it plus it came in the retail packaging that will see the handset selling.

Oversized phone or compact digicam?

Samsung G800 surely catches the eye but don't expect an awe-inspiring impression when you take it out of your pocket. If it fits there in the first place, as it really is on the large side. The officially announced dimensions of 101 x 51.1 x 18.8 mm don't sound disheartening but in reality the phone seems quite a handful. The metal-like finish makes it really sleek and stylish.

At the top of the front panel is the earpiece, positioned right in the center and slightly below the top edge. On the right of the speaker grill is the secondary video-call camera, which can also be used for taking pictures in VGA resolution. Under it is the 2.4" 256K color display with QVGA resolution.

Next on our journey of the phone's front is the D-pad, with a soft key on each of the oblong navigation button's sides. The last three soft keys on the navigation pad are located right above the lower rim of the slider - the Call key, the Clear key and the End key. All of these keys are large enough and comfortable to use. Luckily, the confirming center of the navigation key no longer launches the web browser, when the phone is in standby mode.

We do hope that Samsung has given up this layout for good, as it often resulted in unwanted web browser activation and even generated (more or less) costly traffic.

Sliding the phone open reveals the keypad. The keys are completely flat but, thanks to the thin metal grid separating adjacent rows and columns, touch orientation is very good. Besides, the keys are very large and that surely results in very fast typing without looking at the keypad. Well, if you are used to that style of typing anyway. All in all, our point is that Samsung G800's keypad will be largely appreciated by texters of all ages.

Under the keypad is the microphone pinhole, placed almost on the very edge.

Moving to the top of the G800 we see nothing but the couple of loudspeaker grills.

The left side of the handset hosts the USB port and the microSD card slot. Each has a protective cap, so the phone's side looks unspoiled. At the bottom is the neck/wrist strap eyelet, slightly projecting from the otherwise almost completely even surface.

On the right are the keys that are meant to be used mostly with the camera - the dedicated camera key and the zoom rocker. The zoom rocker also acts as a volume controller, as usual.

What's unusual is the shape of the dedicated camera key. Well, unusual for the camera phones, as round buttons are quite frequently seen in digicams. Maybe that's another way to make the phone stand out from its rival devices.

The bottom side holds no functional elements at all, so we are switching to the phone's back. Sliding the stylish cover open we see the 5.0 megapixel camera lens and the Xenon flash.

Opening up the battery cover reveals the Li-ion battery. Unfortunately we are unable to provide any details on it at this stage, as there is no clear official information on the matter. In our case, under moderate usage (about an hour and a half of using the different phone features a day and a few calls now and then) the phone was able to last for about two days. Not a Guinness world record but with all the features offered this is no surprise.

Finally, removing the battery you can see the SIM card slot. There are no lock mechanisms for it here but it doesn't need any as it fits perfectly in its place.

The phone feels great in hand and is very convenient for both single and double-handed operation. The build quality is also adequate, the slider mechanism as stable as a rock.

The backlighting of Samsung G800 is not the most even we've seen but brings absolutely no obstacles to usability. It is strong enough so even in the darkest environment you won't have problems working with the handset. Furthermore, there is enough light on each key to make distinguishing them an easy task.

Samsung G800 is equipped with a large 2.4" TFT display of QVGA resolution. It is capable of showing up to 256K colors, which is just what you would expect from most Samsung mobiles these days.

We were let down by the display quality. Whenever there was a gradient graphics shown on the display (especially on photos), the image suffered severe banding effect. It may be an issue of the software not being final.

The performance in extremely sunlit conditions was also dissatisfying, to say the least. The glossy front panel really reduces legibility and makes it very hard to navigate through the menus unless you know them by heart. Finding a proper angle for looking at the phone, when you are outside on a sunny day, is a truly difficult job in most cases.

Telephony was almost out of favor, as a secondary function in Samsung G800 but don't let this mislead you. No compromise was made with any aspect of this feature. The sound during calls is crystal clear and yet loud enough so that you won't have troubles communicating with whoever you are calling.

Dialing a number has always been fun with Samsung, as you always have some sort of dialing animation, or a choice of several ones. Samsung G800 has as many as five different dialing styles: Quill pen, Sticky note, Living world and two "Normal" fonts.

In addition, you can alter the font size from small to large and the font color. The final configurable element is the background color, so practically you can customize almost any element of the dialing screen according to your liking.

The phone automatically searches and suggests contacts, whose numbers contain the digits you have typed. You can further on choose to search with a spelling option, to look up names containing the letters corresponding to the digits you type.

The Samsung G800 user interface is not nearly as revolutionary as its camera claims to be. In fact, the way you control it is the same as with previous models of this manufacturer. The funny thing is that its little brother - Samsung G600 has a more advanced version of the user interface.

The main menu is accessible from the stand-by display through a press on the left soft key or the confirming center of the navigation key. The right soft key is reserved for the phonebook. At the same time, each direction of the navigation key can be assigned a shortcut of your choice from a list of 27 items.

Pressing the camera key activates another shortcut menu with some of the most commonly used features of the phone - telephony, messaging, internet browser and music player. This shortcut menu also contains an "end all" option for terminating any currently running applications. This can come in handy if you have started an internet browser, music player and message editor at the same time and you don't want to spend too much time closing them one by one.

The stand-by display looks are also quite typical of Samsung feature phones. The top bar shows signal strength, battery status, network connectivity (GPRS, EDGE or 3G) and the currently selected ringing mode. The ringing profile is marked by an icon in the top right corner.

The bottom bar features the description of the functions assigned to the soft keys. The animated traveler background (uGo) with analogue clock and date showing is gradually becoming a synonym of Samsung mobile. As you already know, it sets the background image according to the country where the phone is currently being used. Furthermore the background wallpaper is animated: birds are flying in the sky, clouds are moving etc. From 7 pm till 6 am night mode takes over: the sunny sky gets dark, while houses get lit up.

A feature that we appreciated back in Samsung D900 lacks in G800 - the option to have the calendar display on the home screen in standby mode.

The main menu can display as either a 4 x 3 grid of icons or as a standard list. The menu, at least in our unit, had no color versions. The white theme has been ditched leaving the stylish black one as the only option. Sub-menus can be set to get visualized as pop-up windows accessible through the horizontal ways of the navigation key. Should you find that uncomfortable, you can switch this option off and rely on direct access only. Unfortunately, the handy three font sizes for the user interface are not present here, so there's no way to change font size if it doesn't seem right to you. A lot of people did like that function when it appeared in Samsung U600 and will probably feel a bit disappointed to find out that it has been dropped in G800. Samsung continue shipping their phones with different versions of the UI.

Samsung G800 automatically prompts locking the keypad once you close the slider. You can then unlock it by either pressing the left and right selection keys successively or sliding the phone open.

You can additionally choose whether closing the slider should stop the running application or not and set sliding up to answer an incoming call.

The phonebook of the Samsung G800 can store up to 1000 contacts with multiple fields. It can be set to display the names on the phone memory or on the SIM card, or both lists simultaneously.

Searching employs gradual typing of the contact's name. Unfortunately, Samsung G800, like the Samsung Ultra II lineup member U600, does not search in both the contact's first and last name. That is a decision by Samsung that we can hardly understand, especially considering the fact that this option was available back in Samsung D900. Maybe Samsung are trying to encourage the "search as spelling" option in such cases.

A large variety of fields is available for each contact. Furthermore, you can add each field more than once, which allows you to add up to 5 numbers per contact.

It goes without saying that different ringtones and pictures can be assigned to each contact. Videos can also be assigned for this purpose should the user find that necessary.

Finally, we ought to mention that contacts can be organized in groups or sent via Bluetooth. The groups can also have their own ringtone or picture but unluckily there is no option for call filtering based on existing groups.

The call log can be launched by either pressing the Call key in standby or from the main menu. There are three tabs - one for each type of calls (dialed, received, missed) as well as a data counter of your incoming and outgoing traffic.

Samsung G800 handles all four popular types of messages: SMS, EMS, MMS, and email. A single editor is used for creating the first three, while emails have their own. Messages are converted from SMS to EMS or MMS by simply applying font colors or formatting or by inserting an image.

As you might have guessed, a rich T9 dictionary is also present here for text input assistance.

Sent messages can be saved if you choose to do so. There is room for 500 SMS, 30 push messages, 200 broadcast messages and 30 configuration messages on Samsung G800. MMS and emails are not limited in number but only by the available memory on the phone.

The email client is relatively good. It can manage up to five accounts - POP or IMAP; download is user-defined, opting between headers only and entire messages. Not only any files from the phone memory, but also business cards, calendar events, tasks or notes can be emailed as attachments.

The SOS message feature is also present in Samsung G800. It allows quick sending of emergency messages to pre-defined numbers. Recipient numbers should be preset, as well as the text of your SOS message. To send a SOS message later you should just press the volume rocker 4 times with the keypad locked.

Another security enhancing feature in Samsung G800 is Mobile Tracker (previously known as uTrack). Its purpose is to send tracking messages to pre-defined numbers in case your phone gets stolen and a SIM card other than yours is inserted. The effectiveness of this particular feature is the subject of a longer discussion, which we would rather not go into at this stage. Suffice to say, having it won't hurt at least.

The file browser in Samsung G800 is pretty much the same as in most other Samsung feature phones. There are different tabs for the phone memory and the memory card but they have similar folder structures.

There are folders for most different file types - images, video, music, sounds, which allow the handset to sort the memory contents. Functionality of the file browser is one of the best among non-smartphones.

You can copy or move files - both one by one and a multiple selection, and you can create and delete new folders (except for the root ones, which cannot be removed).

Furthermore, you can sort files in a given folder by name, date, type or size to easily locate a specific file.

Bluetooth file transfer can also be done one by one or in bulk. Throughout the whole file manager, you can pick files you would like to lock to prevent accidental deletion.

A flaw we have found in many Samsung handsets is unluckily also present in G800 - the unusually slow card reading. So, if you are up to purchasing this handset prepare to be patient when the memory card is accessed.

We were surprised to find the great picture editor we got to know in most recent Samsung handsets, Scalado, missing in the G800. The replacement is a bit simplified but still provides more than enough options when it comes to mobile image editing.

The image stamp application used for watermarking your pictures is also missing here but, as we see it, this isn't that much of a loss.

Armed with 160MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot, the Samsung G800 will probably seem tempting to many as a portable music player. Therefore it is essential that the music player application is really easy to use and well-supplied featurewise.

Luckily, this is just the case with the Samsung G800 player doing great in almost any aspect. It allows filtering tracks by author, album, genre or you can choose to play either the tracks you've recently listened to, or the ones that you've played the most. If that doesn't seem enough, you can create your own custom playlists.

A nice innovation here is that when minimized to play in the background, the music player displays the current track in the standby menu. It can than be controlled with the D-pad straight from the standby menu itself.

The player in G800 looks exactly like the one in Samsung U600 and has just the same functionality. In our unit there was no option for either activating an equalizer or turning on the typical Samsung 3D sound effects. This will probably change in the retail version but we are yet to see. At least, track ratings and marking tracks as favorites are available.

It's time to do some testing on the audio reproduction quality of Samsung G800. The audio quality of all Samsung handsets we have tested before was really amazing so we expected the same thing from the company's flagship cameraphone. However it turned out that the case is slightly different.

In fact, our tests revealed that Samsung G800 performs slightly worse than Samsung U600, when it comes to audio quality, mostly in terms of frequency response, total harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion. Not that it is something that bad - it is still better than most other handsets on the market, we are just surprised that Samsung has lowered the level with such a supposedly high-end phone as G800.

If you get bored with the Music player and the tracks you have pre-recorded on your Samsung G800 you can turn the FM radio on. The phone comes complete with a stereo FM radio with RDS that provides very clear reception and nice sound quality. It also has the self-tune option, which finds all the stations with sufficient signal at the moment and adds them to your list of pre-recorded ones. You can then easily access them at the expense of a few keypresses.

The video player on Samsung G800 is quite nice. It doesn't have many features but all the essentials are covered - it can play video files in fullscreen landscape mode and you can fast-forward and rewind videos.

You can also jump to a specific scene of the video clip. Unluckily you should forget about playing videos with a resolution of VGA or higher because the phone doesn't support them.

However, in terms of video formats you can breathe easier with G800 as it has support for MPEG-4. That's the format the camera records videos in. It means that you can easily convert all your favorite video clips and watch them on the go with Samsung G800.

The picture quality is also nice but the glossy surface once again proves a problem. In a brighter environment you are going to see your own reflection better than the video itself.

As we already said the Samsung G800 and Sony Ericsson K850 may be the primary rivals in the 5-megapixel cameraphone battle among feature phones. The Samsung G800 is indeed more of a digicam that can make calls instead of a regular phone. The K850 offers a more balanced multimedia orientation and is the descendant of a series of highly popular cameraphones that have earned the public trust and appreciation. The Samsung G800 has yet to live up to the challenge.

And since we had the K850 handy we deiced to make a closed 5-megapixel shootout between the two of them. The G800 is not a final retail product, but is really close to that.

Although the contenders are similar in many aspects, there are some important differences we should note right at the beginning. The most prominent difference is of course the optical zoom. Zoom systems are usually a lot more complicated and may prove inferior compared to a fixed optical system when used at the same focal length. The Sony Ericsson K850 lens is wider than the widest position of the G800 zoom, so you will see that in all shots the subjects on the G800 photos look a bit bigger.

Another great difference is the lack of EXIF information in the G800 JPG photos. It was quite an unpleasant surprise, because the EXIF is of great value when trying to figure out what went wrong in a certain test. Again, this is a beta issue and we are quite sure it will be resolved in the market version.

And finally another concern - when set at the highest quality, the Samsung G800 produces files about twice the size of K850. It's not a bad thing to capture as much detail as possible, but a 2.5 MB file from a 5MP cameraphone is just too much.

Having the right user interface is essential for an ambitious cameraphone - and for any point-and-shoot digital camera for that matter. Both the Sony Ericsson K850 and the Samsung G800 offer all the basic settings, plus a few advanced options. Both handsets feature image stabilization, Macro mode and an option to turn auto focus off. White balance settings, the usual color effects, exposure compensation and ISO setup are available in both devices. The Samsung G800 offers sensor sensitivity values as low as ISO 50, while the Sony Ericsson K850 lowest setting is ISO 100. However, we didn't like the fact that there is no shortcut for adjusting the exposure compensation on the G800. The exposure compensation is an important setting and should be readily available if you want to make the best of it.

Both cameraphones are equipped with xenon flash and offer red-eye reduction, however only the Samsung G800 flash can be permanently set to (always on) fire with each shot. This nice option allows it to be used as a fill flash for backlit scenes. However as our tests proved, the G800 flash is nowhere near the performance of the K850 one.

The Samsung G800 camera viewfinder can show gridlines to help users apply the photography rule-of-thirds when framing. However, the G800 lacks other essential options such as a resetting the photo counter and disabling the image preview, which appears after each shot - two options that the Sony Ericsson K850 does have.

Both cameras use the toolbar layout to present the available camera options, which we find the most convenient. As settings are becoming more and more advanced, obviously there is also a need for a separate Camera Settings menu that stores the least used, but essential settings. Both contenders have those menus but it's what they have stashed there that matters. Unfortunately, we found the Samsung hiding its ISO setting there - a feature, which should have received a place on the settings toolbar. Another inconvenience of the Samsung Settings menus is that all the setups applied won't get saved unless you press the Save button. The Back key is treated as a Cancel button and disables all changes made. The G800 also compromises user-friendliness by the fact that every time you open the Settings Menu you are taken to the options related to the Still Camera though you may currently be using the Camcorder, for example. The K850 takes care of that and show you only the currently relevant settings.

Now, back to the main options toolbar, we found the Sony Ericsson interface to be more eye-pleasing. It's the last generation of camera interfaces by Sony Ericsson, and it offers some nice eye-candy. Both cameraphones offer tooltips to help users make their way around the settings. This holds especially true for the Samsung G800, which has no labels for the settings available on the toolbar. Hence, an inexperienced user would have to keep the help hints on all the time - at least in the beginning.

For some unknown reason, the first option on the G800 toolbar is toggling between the primary and secondary camera. This is a rarely used setting that is definitely not worth its location. The Mode setting would have made a better first place. At least, the G800 is capable of shooting with the video-call camera - something that the K850 is lacking. However, the K850 remembers the last setting changed and goes straight to it next time (the approach Samsung have with their general phone interface, which we really like), while the G800 presents you with the "Choose camera" menu every time you refer to the settings toolbar.

The Samsung G800 has several advantages over the K850 camera - it features face detection, which works pretty well by looking for eye-and-eyebrow patterns.

The G800 camera interface also allows setting contrast, saturation and sharpness. The wide dynamic range also puts the G800 ahead of K850, although at this point our test shows no visible difference with this option on.

Another advantage is that in Panorama mode the camera can shoot up to 6 images as opposed to Sony Ericsson K850, which makes panoramas out of three shots only. An interesting feature of the G800 panorama shooting is the automatic shooting - taking panoramas is easier than ever. The G800 takes all the shots by itself while directing your camera movement.

The Multi-shot mode of the G800 however fails to impress - it turns off the auto focus and it takes up to 9 images in no higher than VGA resolution. The Sony Ericsson K850 wins a point here with the BestPic mode, which takes up to 9 images again, however those are in full resolution and you can choose how fast they should be taken.

The Sony Ericsson K850 takes the lead again with its integrated orientation sensor, which allows auto-rotation of the photos taken. The K850 also has a tri-LED module that serves as a camera light while shooting video. In all other scenarios it's used as auto focus assist beam. The G800 has its own auto focus assist beam too, however it cannot be used as a video light and it can't be turned off either (unlike K850).

The Scenes mode is becoming increasingly popular among point-and-shoot digicam users, as they don't need to know what the right settings for a specific scene are. A simple flick of the dial to pick one of the ready presets is all that it takes. The Sony Ericsson K850 approach has been to keep those down to a minimum, as their options toolbar doesn't allow scrolling a long list. They offer Twilight landscape, Twilight portrait, Landscape, Portrait, Beach/Snow, Sports, and Document. The Samsung G800 has more of those but frankly, we doubt it the user will ever use all of the available scenes - Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Autumn color, Wave & Snow, Night shot, Against light, Firework, Text.

Camera interface: Samsung G800 5/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 9/10

Camera features: Samsung G800 8/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 7/10

Camera speed is really of the essence when you are taking opportunist shots. A bad photo is always better than no photo at all. To be able to evaluate the camera speed of the two contenders, we've measured three important times of the photo process.

The first one is Start-up time - the time the camera needs to get up and running and ready to shoot.

The second one is the Shoot-to-preview time - the time it takes the camera,to focus, shoot, save the image and show the preview image on the display.

And the last one is Preview-to-standby which is naturally the time the camera needs to go back to being ready for shooting again.

Start-up time: Samsung G800 - 2.3 sec; Sony Ericsson K850 from menu - 4.0 sec; Sony Ericsson from the dedicated button - 5.2 sec

Shoot-to-preview time: Samsung G800 - 4.5 sec; Sony Ericsson K850 - 4.5 sec. K850 focuses just slightly faster, but G800 saves faster

Preview-to-standby time: Samsung G800 - 1.7 sec; Sony Ericsson K850 - 1.5 sec

Samsung G800 8/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 7/10

Unless otherwise stated, all the photos for this article were made using the highest 5MP resolution, lowest compression (highest quality), automatic mode and all settings at their default values. Samsung G800 is used at its widest lens position in order to be comparable to K850.

Our first test is where the cameras usually are at their best - shooting outdoors with more than enough light. What we will be looking in these tests is: resolved detail, noise, dynamic range, color and exposure accuracy, lens issues (purple fringing, corner softness, barrel distortion).

Resolved detail. Samsung G800 shows a lot better results here. While the contrast objects look about the same with both mobiles, the shadow details, the edges and the fine textures make G800 the clear winner. We can also note that the sharpening halos we often see in the cameraphones are almost non-existent with Samsung G800 and there is no jaggedness on the diagonal lines. Both issues are quite explicit in Sony Ericsson K850. This means that the high level of detail in the G800 pictures is achieved without the need of heavy in-camera processing.

Samsung G800 9/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 5/10

Noise. If you look at the skies in the examples above you can see about the same amount of noise with both our contenders and you can be easily fooled that their performance is the same. It turns out that Sony Ericsson applies stronger and more aggressive noise suppression techniques. This can be proven when shooting textures with patterns similar to noise - we were surprised how much detail Sony Ericsson loses. The G800 mark is not very high here, because it produces noise too, but we welcome the Samsung "laid back" approach with the noise. 

Samsung G800 7/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 4/10

Dynamic range. Since the dynamic range was mentioned in the Samsung marketing materials we expected Samsung G800 to win in this test. We chose several high contrast scenes because, however neglected by the average user, the dynamic range is a lot more important than color accuracy and noise for the single reason that it can't be fixed in any way later on. It was a surprise to us to find that the dynamic range of G800 and K850 is the same. We also tried to spot a difference when shooting with the Samsung "wide dynamic range" on and off and there wasn't any. It look like this feature is not implemented properly in beta our unit?

Samsung G800 5/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 5/10

Color rendering. It's easy to see that Sony Ericsson K850 tends to add a reddish cast to all photos, while Samsung G800 sometimes adds some yellow or green-yellow cast. As you can see in the examples above, the Samsung colors are pleasant and more real in an overcast scene, but in direct sun the yellow cast can be a problem, especially if there are yellow or red objects in the scene.

Samsung G800 5/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 4/10

Exposure and focus accuracy. When used properly both mobiles have a very reliable auto-focus system. During the whole test we had only a couple of miss-focused samples. Samsung G800 had more troubles focusing in low light, or if a low contrast area falls in the focus zone. In such cases, a red frame would only appear in the viewfinder indicating that it cannot focus. Sony Ericsson K850 in most cases shows reliable exposure results. Samsung G800 is quite good in the overcast days, but often overexposes in sunlight, as shown in one of the above examples. The overexposure combined with the yellow cast leads to almost unusable results in such cases.

Samsung G800 5/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 9/10

Lens quality. The most obvious problem is the purple fringing. Sony Ericsson exhibits this problem, Samsung G800 does not. Excellent results for G800, we expected that the far more complicated zoom lens design will result in at least some purple fringing, but we didn't manage to find even a slightest sign of that in our test photos. The corner softness is insignificant with both tested mobiles. On the sun-lit photos we noticed some lens flare over the white objects and this is the only bad thing we can say about the lens.

Samsung G800 8/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 4/10

The G800 and K850 video specs are exactly the same - 320x240 pixels resolution at 30 fps and MPEG4 compression. As we expected, the results are nothing spectacular. The video clips taken with both mobiles look decent on the phone display, but are not suitable for anything else. It's interesting that the optical zoom can be used in camcorder mode too with G800. Most digicams disable the optical zoom when shooting video, because the lens mechanism produces audible noise that gets recorded.

Samsung G800 3/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 2/10

When it comes to previewing your pictures, the Sony Ericsson K850 is a sure winner. When viewing a photo on the Samsung G800, one can clearly see banding and dithering - two undesired effects that have nothing to do with camera quality. Instead, they are faults of the display and its color settings. The G800 also has a rather clumsy image gallery. You cannot zoom when previewing images in fullscreen landscape mode, while in portrait mode zooming is nowhere near a straightforward drill. Before you even think of zooming, you have to select the Zoom option from the image context menu. Then the actual zooming is performed in really small steps and is slow enough to make you forget about using that feature once and for all.

When it comes to using the display as a viewfinder, the Sony Ericsson K850 is a clear winner again. The K850 display is among the best performers under direct sunlight Sony Ericsson have offered lately, while the G800 is rather illegible in similar light conditions. The reflective coating almost turns it into a mirror when exposed to direct sunlight.

Samsung G800 3/10 • Sony Ericsson K850 8/10

Now we have tried to put the cameraphone contenders to test in situations that they are likely to encounter in real life. We've also tried to make the best shots they are capable of. We didn't end up with usable photos 100% of the time, but we've concentrated only on the ones that are worthy of entering in this shootout.

When it comes to hardware equipment, the Sony Ericsson K850 leads only with the powerful xenon flash and the orientation sensor. The Samsung G800 however offers 3x optical zoom and face recognition so the two cameraphones are almost even and none can tip the scales in its favor.

When it comes to camera interface and previewing the images taken, the Sony Ericsson K850 marks a good lead as its interface is better looking and more user-friendly - it has all the right settings right there on the settings toolbar and the BestPic mode is an impressive feature.

Finally, when it comes to photo quality, the Samsung G800 clearly has it all with better resolution, color accuracy, noise handling. It has its own quirks, but those can be fixed with some fine tuning of the camera processing algorithms. So essentially, we can safely conclude that we like the G800 camera better than the K850 one. However, the G800 should not rest on its laurels since the K850 is not among the leaders of the 5-megapixel brethren in terms of camera quality.

The battle of the 5 megapixel cameraphones will undoubtedly continue throughout the next year. The fact that the Samsung G800 has a better, more capable camera doesn't necessarily mean that the G800 will reap huge market success. After all there are a number of important factors that determine how well a mobile phone does on the market. Currently, there are some other highly competitive 5-megapixel offerings on the market, some of which easily surpass K850 in photo quality, too.

In terms of connectivity Samsung G800 offers nice functionality for this price range. The USB slot is slightly modified so using the TV out cable from older models is out of question.

A USB cable is provided in the package and the G800 supports two USB connection profiles: Media player and Samsung PC Studio - we saw no trace of a Data storage profile. It will be a real pity if this is not fixed in the retail version but our guess is that it will be taken care of.

Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP profile support allows listening to your favorite tracks on a stereo Bluetooth handsfree. Finally, quick network data transfers are assured by the EDGE and 3G with HSDPA support.

We have already mentioned that Samsung G800 is supposed to be an entertainment device. Therefore it is very important that its web browser performs well or otherwise it may leave quite a large crowd of people disappointed.

In fact the browser is quite good. It renders pages nicely but we cannot help ourselves but feel that the 2.4" screen could be put to a better use in the smart-fit view.

The case here is that large parts of it get wasted when displaying pages and they look somewhat unnatural. If you are used to mostly browsing on your desktop PC, that is. 

Activating the desktop browsing mode makes up for that to some extent but navigating around web pages is much more difficult that way.

Still, in both cases the web browser of Samsung G800 is able to do the job you would expect it to, although sometimes with a little extra effort. It highlights the active hyperlink or text entry field to ensure better browsing experience.

So overall our verdict on the browser is that it is good enough for the phone but still not among the best we've seen.

The Samsung G800 calendar offers three views - daily, weekly and monthly. The events available for setting up are five types: appointment, anniversary, holiday, important and private. The Calendar can store up to 100 appointments, 50 anniversaries and holidays and up to 20 important and private events. Much like U600, you can choose which calendar view should be default and you can pick the starting day of the week - the options being Monday or Sunday.

The number of alarm slots is also the same as in Samsung U600 - five, each with a variety of configurable options - snooze time, repetition, etc. You can of course choose a custom ringtone to wake you up at a preset volume level. You can also choose if your phone should automatically power up upon alarm activation. This feature can be quite handy if you have the habit of switching off your handset at night.

Among the other organizer offerings are the voice memo recorder, a world time application, a calculator, and a unit converter. You can also use the memo and task applications for making notes. A countdown timer and a stopwatch are also available.

Unfortunately, there were no games preinstalled on our Samsung G800 but we do believe this will change by the time the phone hits the shelves. After all this handset is a true entertainment powerhouse and leaving it without games will be a real pity.

Samsung G800 is without doubt a strong contender in the cutthroat market share race. If you are looking for a dedicated cameraphone with a great camera, then you might have just found your next handset. It may not be the best looking mobile around, however it has its own brushed-metal style that some of us liked.

The Samsung G800 has its flaws anyways. The slow memory card reading and the issues we had with the display have no place in a high-end cameraphone.

For us the Samsung G800 seems more of a proof of concept, rather than a really viable 5-megapixel solution. It won't win the masses and become as popular as G600 for example. But it leaves a mark that will hold at least until midrange handsets start to offer 5 megapixel cameras and optical zoom.