Sony Ericsson's K608i looks like a small GSM handset, but it isn't: it's a small 3G handset complete with front and back cameras, a very solid design and low-key good looks. It's got plenty of features too, but only 33MB of unexpandable memory really hamstrings the handset.

Design

Pretty but not ostentatious sums up the overall look of this handset. Its plastic shell gives one of the best impressions of aluminum we've seen.

Sony Ericsson has crammed a great deal into a small and light casing. At just 100g and a tiny 45 by 104.3 by 19.2mm, the K608i should fit into most pockets snugly.

The screen suffers a little in terms of size because of the overall small hardware, but this is compensated for by the 262K colors. The keypad, on the other hand, is remarkably expansive, with the number keys so widely spaced as to make hitting the wrong one accidentally almost impossible.

The keypad is small, precise and functional, with the keys very well-spaced

Button-lovers will be drawn to the K608i because almost everywhere you look there is something to prod, twist or slide. Even the battery cover, more usually removed by pushing at a single locking-notch, is here locked and unlocked by sliding a pair of catches that sit on the left side of the casing. Also on this edge, under a rubber cover, is the mini-USB port you'll use with the provided cable and software to share information with a PC.

Located towards the bottom of the screen on the left and right outer edges are two buttons, one for starting a video call, one for accessing 3G services. In our case the latter was marked with the 3 logos.

The right edge of the casing provides, towards the top end, a pair of small buttons that double as volume and camera zoom controls, and towards the bottom end, the shutter button for the camera. This might seem like an odd location for a shutter button, but in fact it's ergonomically perfect, because you hold this handset longways to take snapshots and video with the back camera, with the screen acting as a viewfinder in landscape orientation. When you're holding the K608i like this, the shutter falls under the right forefinger, with zoom buttons under the left, while the right thumb sits on a softkey providing quick access to settings.

Turn the K608i sideways and the back is just like a normal digital camera

You activate the camera by swivelling a round lens cover away from the lens. Swivelling it back over the lens turns the camera off. The lens cover doesn't protect the LED flash, which is constantly uncovered, and is the least ergonomic part of the whole handset: we found it difficult to swivel one-handed, and would have much preferred a sliding lens cover. There is also a second camera on the front of the casing for video calls.

Features
Video calling is one of the crucial elements of any 3G handset, and the front-mounted VGA camera comes into its own here. You can also switch over to the back camera, so you can show the person you're talking to what you're looking at. Video delivery itself was of good quality, and you can change some camera settings during calls, switching to use more of the screen for your own or your caller's video, altering brightness and zoom, and even using a night mode.

Stills shot with the back camera can be edited using the PhotoDJ software, which allows you to write and draw onto images, and apply effects and frames to smaller images. VideoDJ allows you to combine movies and images, while MusicDJ is a composer that makes use of a range of prerecorded sound clips.

There is a music player, but the K608i is definitely not one of the fast-growing breed of music-focused handsets. Sound quality through the provided stereo headset (with proprietary connector) is good enough, and at top volume piercingly loud, but the handset's memory is far too limited for serious music fans. 33MB is a reasonable amount of internal memory for a handset, but there is no opportunity to expand that using memory cards if you want to carry more than a few tracks.