Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T900 (T500 Meets T700?)

As the successor to Sony's first 720p capable point-and-shoot camera, the $380 Cyber-Shot DSC-T900 sports a slim profile that measures only 16.3 mm thin. It inherits T500's minimalist design and HD video recording capability, but lacks any meaningful on-board storage (T700 has 4GB); so the refreshed model seen as the follow-up to last year's DSC-500. Perhaps the most notable upgrade is the 3.5" Xtra fine widescreen packed with no less than 920k pixels; the T500's resolution is four times lower, comparatively. The touch interface and the battery on the T500 are somewhat disappointing, hopefully, things may have improved with the T900. The cradle - an essential tool for uploading photos with PC and for connecting to a HDTV - stays. You have to resort to a MS card reader without the accessory.

The DSC-T900 is spec'ed with 12MP, yet it regresses to a 4x optical zoom from 5x of its predecessor. You'll get the other now standard features such as intelligent scene recognition (needs only just 1/13s to make setting adjustment), face detection (registers up to eight faces), and optical image stabilization. If you don't feel like paying $80 more for the Xtra fine LCD, you can opt for the T90 which goes for $300. The T90 is also 1.3mm thinner, if that even matters.