In practical use, though, the combo of the internal memory and a Memory Stick wasn't as convenient as I'd hoped it would be. In effect, you can't use both at the same time. You can use the T700 while the Memory Stick is in place, of course, but you cannot view or access pictures stored in internal memory. But because I rarely take 4GB of shots in a day, operating on the internal memory alone--and simply moving the day's pictures to my PC later--was easy.

The lovely design of this camera presented a few minor problems in my tests. For example, the sheer size of the huge touch screen leaves little room for a grip, and someone with larger hands may find that a serious problem. The slick front of the camera doesn't give your fingers anything to grab onto, either. In addition, the position of the lens at the upper left of the camera meant that until I got used to the T700, my index finger was often part of the shot. However, the touch screen offered just the right amount of sensitivity, meaning I could use my fingertip or the stylus (which stows away inside the camera) equally well. Also, my grip on the camera never accidentally set off any features.

Another drawback: The big touch screen takes a toll on the T700's battery life. In the PC World Test Center's battery test, the camera lasted through just 201 shots on a single charge. That's enough for a Good battery rating, but it falls well short of the 250-to-300-shot battery life of many other .

Picture quality on the T700 was reasonably good; in the PC World Test Center's jury testing, the camera's images earned a score of Very Good, with its strengths being color accuracy and overall image quality. Its glaring weakness was sharpness, and in my hands-on tests I too found soft focus to be an ongoing problem at the 4X end of the optical zoom.

The T700 handled color, contrast, and saturation well in my test shots. This camera incorporates Sony's Bionz processor, which may alleviate some of the overprocessing that I've observed with previous, lower-end Sony models. The T700 responded quickly to focus, shoot, and write to the internal memory. My daylight snapshots looked good, reasonably sharp, and exposed properly. On the other hand, in low-light situations, especially at higher ISOs, this camera stumbled a bit, even after I set it to ISO 200.