The Forgotten Phone: Sony Ericsson Z800i

July 24, 2022 Luisa Rey

In 2005 Sony Ericsson released the Sony Ericsson Z800i; a phone with support for UMTS and an external display. In this edition of ‘The Forgotten Phone’ we go back in time 17 years ago and discuss the Z800i.

Sony Ericsson Z800i

Can you still get your hands on the Sony Ericsson Z800i, that may be quite a job. No problem, in this edition of our ‘The forgotten phone’ section we go back to the time when this device appeared. That was the year 2005. The Z800i was a clamshell phone, or a phone with a flip cover. The focus of the device was on video calling, something that was made possible via the UMTS (or GPRS) network. This phone from the Japanese manufacturer was mainly sold at Vodafone and the device was also known as Sony Ericsson V800.

There were two screens on the Sony Ericsson Z800i. First on the cover on the outside. This was a small screen, but a color screen with a resolution of 101 x 80 pixels. A preview of the camera could also be shown on this screen. The inside had a bigger screen; 2.2 inches with a resolution of 220 x 176 pixels. This too was of course a color screen. When opened, the silver device had black keys, only the navigation and control keys were gray in color. There were also hotkeys for the camera, the calendar and a hotkey to start a video call.

Sony Ericsson Z800i side

The camera immediately catches the eye with the Sony Ericsson; a large camera module that could rotate so that you could not only video call but also just take pictures of what you saw in front of you. That rotation was called ‘MotionEye’ by Sony Ericsson. The camera had 1.3 megapixels and also had an LED flash. In terms of connectivity, there was also a wide choice. You could also use infrared and Bluetooth. The internal memory of 64MB could be expanded with the Memory Stick memory card from Sony. We also saw a 900 mAh battery.

Sony Ericsson released the Z800i in the Netherlands in combination with a subscription (mainly with Vodafone). If you chose to buy the device separately, the price quickly came to 500 euros.