Konica Minolta DiMAGE X1 review

One of the newest ultra-compact cameras on the market, the X1 is not only immaculately styled, but also packs in some clever features beneath its multi-coloured skin options.

However, while it's one of the slimmest cameras in the group, it stands quite literally head and shoulders above the competition, with an extra 5mm in its overall height. That said, it's still very pocketable and slim.

The feature list of the X1 is to die for. Not only does it have the highest resolution sensor in the group, weighing in at 8.3Mp, but it also has all the multi-function autofocus, metering and flash modes you could hope for.

Going one better than most of the competition, the X1 also features an antishake system. Without viewfinders, you have to hold most of these cameras away from your face to frame a shot, which greatly increases the risk of camera shake in low lighting conditions, so you have to wonder why the X1 and the Lumix FX9 are the only cameras in the group to feature an imagestabilisation system.

Adding to the allround trickery of the X1, it comes complete with its own stylish docking station for recharging the batteries and copying photo files to your PC. After a complete charge, the Li-ion battery is good for an above-average 200 shots.

The camera doesn't feature any built-in memory but it does take SD/MMC format cards and a 32MB card is supplied with the camera.

The X1 is supremely easy to live with, taking top-quality shots in almost any conditions. The anti-shake system worked extremely well in our tests, producing sharp photos without flash where competing models were getting noticeably blurry.

Colour rendition proved extremely natural, enabling wonderfully life-like results. Like most digital cameras, the quality drops off at higher ISO settings but, overall, it's a cracker. The X1 might look like a fashion accessory but it's actually a very serious piece of photographic kit