Can a smartphone camera do it all?

If you're anything like me, your cellphone and its built-in camera is always on you, while your digital camera gathers dust at home.
This wasn't always the case. Just a few years ago, phone cameras with a lowly 1.3 megapixels were the norm, and photos came out pixelated and poorly lit. No way would you have thought of ditching your regular camera for one of those.
But as smartphone makers have increasingly realised the potential of the built-in camera, there's been a deluge of phones with cameras that can match and sometimes outperform low-end dedicated devices in a snap.
A new entrant to the market should inspire some more competition in the phone camera sphere: The myTouch 4G Slide smartphone, made by HTC.
It has an 8-megapixel camera and plenty of the settings you'd find on a normal digital camera. The device takes crisp, bright photos and is simple to use. With it in hand, you'll be missing some pocket camera features, but mostly you'll be apologising to your increasingly dusty digital friend.
The phone runs on Google's Android version 2.2 operating software rather than the latest version for smartphones.
The phone has a lens that gathers more light, which makes for better shots in dim lighting. Indeed, I generally found the phone's built-in flash too blinding and got better results by simply using the camera's night setting.
It's also very quick to take photos. On many cellphone cameras, there's a lot of shutter lag, which refers to the irritating gap between when you press the shutter button and when the camera actually takes a photo.
Indeed, it was better than nearly all cellphone cameras I've tried, and it's on par with Apple's iPhone and the Pre, developed by Palm and now sold by Palm owner Hewlett-Packard Co.
The myTouch's biggest issue, sadly, is the same one you encounter on virtually all cellphone cameras. There's no optical zoom, which is where the camera lens moves closer to subjects.
One cool feature is a mode for HDR, or high-dynamic range. The iPhone has one, too. It shoots several images with slightly different exposure settings and combines them into one image with richer colors.
And if you're into videos, it will record high-resolution clips, too.
Mostly, I found myself switching back and forth between the auto and manual modes. It was nice to let the camera decide which settings it thought were best.
I found the camera performed best in moderate and bright light a well-lit office or outside on a sunny day.
The phone includes an 8-gigabyte microSD memory card. There's also 4 GB of memory on the phone.
Of course, the myTouch is also a phone. In general, it performs its phone-related tasks well. With its fast dual-core processor, the device only hiccupped a couple times while I was using it. Its touch screen, which measures 3.8 inches diagonally, is plenty spacious as a camera viewfinder and a display for webpages, emails and games.
In a day full of talking, checking and sending messages and taking photos, the phone's battery held up nicely. It's rated for up to 10 hours of talk time.

The author is Ap's Technology writer.