Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700

Front (8.00)
The T700's front is a tribute to the minimalist aesthetic that dominates the design of the camera. Rather than having a traditional lens cover, the T700 has a large sliding plate that masks the flash, AF assist illuminator, microphone and lens. When the door is raised, and everything covered, the only visible marking on the camera's front is the silver Sony logo set against the horizontal striations of the metal. When the guard is lowered, and all the functional areas exposed, the camera automatically turns on. The lens is placed quite far to the right of the camera's front, surrounded by a metal ring. To its left is the auto focus assist LED, and then the flash with a microphone set below it. The upper left corner has the Cyber-shot logo engraved, and beneath that the lens details (Carl Zeiss, Vario-Tessar 3,5-4,6/6,18-24,7 optical 4x).

The T700's front plate slides down to expose the lens

Back (8.00)
The DSC-T700's rear is almost featureless, except for the 3.5', 921,000-pixel touch screen LCD that replaces traditional buttons and dials. Since the camera isn't much bigger than 3.5' diagonal anyway, the only other functional area of the back is the grip area on the far right, which has an extremely narrow set of raised vertical lines. The Sony logo is placed dead center of the camera, flush with the bottom. The entire rear of the T700 is beveled, and set back from the front of the body by approximately 1/4'. This is more obviously seen in the top and side sections below.

The rear is entirely screen

The camera's rear is beveled

Right Side (6.50)
The right side has slightly more to hold our attention. In terms of form, it's almost identical to the left, with the beveled black rear and hard front. Similarly again are the two screws holding it in place. What is different is that the right side has a wrist strap ring of chromed plastic half way up the body, and the speaker opening is at the very bottom of the beveled area. At the top of the right side's front you can just see the zoom control peeping over.

All of the camera's buttons are on the top

Bottom (7.50)
The bottom of the T700 has some of the more utilitarian features of the camera. The metal area has been extended back slightly further to give it a natural platform to sit on. The tripod mount is approximately 1/3 of the way in from the left side. It's an odd location, one probably necessitated by lack of internal space. It's not centered under the lens or the camera body. The location also blocks access to the memory card and battery while the camera is mounted on a tripod. On the plus side, the socket seems quite sturdy. The battery and memory card are both beneath the same latch that takes up most of the camera bottom. Strangely, the door to these features isn't sprung, so it only opens about 1mm on its own, after which you have to pry it. Finally, on the right is the proprietary USB/AV port  provided by Sony. Unfortunately, this port has no cover or protection, which is just asking for trouble. Sand, dust and other small annoying particles could potentially gum up the works.

The proprietary port is entirely uncovered