Name: Xperia Go
Brand: Sony

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Camera

Lining up as a mid-range handset, the Sony Xperia Go's integrated camera is a very much middle of the road affair, with the 5 megapixel image resolution abilities partnering with clunky autofocus and an integrated LED flash.

Fully integrated as an integral, heavily pushed aspect of the handset, the Sony Xperia Go's camera is available from the off, with you able to unlock the device directly into the snapper's camera mode.

Sadly, what could be a useful, time saving and user-friendly feature is once again let down by an unnecessary niggling quirk.

Unlocking to camera, while giving you quick, instant access to the handset's photographic capabilities forces the Sony Xperia Go to automatically take a shot, with the seemingly foolish command coming far too quickly, catching both you and the handset unawares and resulting in snaps that are rushed, lacking focus and, as a result, quality.

A largely impressive integrated camera, strong overall results can be let down by slightly blocky colours that can at times appear over-exaggerated and an almost mocking representation of the realistic hues.

On top of this, given the handset's rugged, fast lifestyle persona, the Sony Xperia Go's camera is sluggishly slow to focus, meaning shots with any desired action aspect or moving focal point are often out of focus, disappointing and, thanks to the frankly farcical shutter speed, lacking the targeted content.

Unlike on a number of its Samsung-branded rivals that manage to perform the task well, the panorama shooting modes on the Sony Xperia Go are annoyingly flaky, not enabling you to select the length of the panorama shot and continuing to miss areas, branded 'grey areas' that subsequently spoil shots.

Annoyingly, despite being fully capable of capturing impressive 5 megapixel shots, the Sony Xperia Go's rear-mounted camera sets itself to shoot at just 3 megapixels when removed from the box.

Although this is something that is easily rectified through accessing the handset's simple, Android-based camera options menu, for first-time smartphone users this could be a performance-depleting niggle that reduces the image quality of snaps for a considerable period.

As with many of its rivals, the handset's lack of a dedicated camera button is disappointing.

With the Sony Xperia Go, however, this omission has a greater knock-on effect, making possible underwater snaps tricky, since the touchscreen-based capture button is far from responsive when submerged, leaving you having to dip your device in upside-down in order to make the most of the sub-surface imaging abilities.

Despite not featuring a dedicated Macro shooting mode, the inbuilt camera found on the Sony Xperia Go is capable of producing a number of pleasantly surprising results when faced with extremely close-up subject matters, with pin-sharp results featuring a strong depth of image and a well-rounded colour palette.

Far from the most customisable smartphone snapper on the market, the Sony Xperia Go offers users a limited array of changeable settings, with minimal alterations to the ISO and white balance settings the extent of the options.