Just over a year ago, T-Mobile launched the very first photo messaging service in the UK.
I remember being distinctly underwhelmed, both by the quality of the images and by the way they were displayed on the phone's (a Sony Ericsson T68i) low-resolution screen.
Judging by the Sharp GX20, which launches next week, camera phones have come an awfully long way in 12 months.
For the cynics who moan that, when compared with their Japanese counterparts, British camera phone buyers are being shortchanged, Sharp and Vodafone have joined to fashion the perfect riposte.
Yes, there are more advanced models available in the far east. The best Japanese cameras take high resolution 1.2 mega pixel images (the best the UK can offer at the moment is 640 x 480 VGA ones) but, in almost every other area, this handset shows that the gap between European and Japanese camera phones is narrowing.
I'll bet that this model is already causing executives at Nokia and Sony Ericsson to have sleepless nights, and has the networks cursing the fact that it is exclusive to Vodafone.
Essentially, the Sharp GX20 is an update of the GX10 - or, as it has become known after advertisements starring David Beckham, the Becks phone.
In terms of design and styling, the phones are almost identical. The GX20 maintains its predecessor's tidy clamshell form factor, with its protruding aerial and large screen and buttons. It is slighter bigger and fatter, but the difference is negligible.
The most obvious change is that Sharp has upgraded the secondary screen at the front of the handset. On the GX10 this was mono, but now it is slightly larger and in colour. If you are vain enough to want to try, you can use the front screen as a viewfinder to take an image of yourself.
Flip open the handset, though, and you see the area in which the GX20 really scores - its screen. With 240 x 320 pixels and 65,536 colours, it is much higher quality than even recent rival phones such as Samsung's V200.
The images it delivers are superbly colourful and detailed: all those years pioneering LCDs have certainly paid off for Sharp.
To make the most of that screen, Sharp has increased the resolution of the handset's camera. The GX20 now takes 640 x 480 images, bringing it in line with high-end smartphones such as the Sony Ericsson P800 and Nokia's 7650.
The phone can capture around 20 seconds of reasonable quality video. Unfortunately, however, we couldn't actually send any moving images.
Vodafone has a limit on the size of data that can be sent as part of a MMS, which currently stands at 36kb. The company promises that it will increase the amount of data very soon, enabling GX20 users to send videos and 640 x 480 resolution images. One slight irritant is that the videos can only be sent to other GX20 owners.
Sending images is reasonably simple. It is not as easy as on recent Nokia handsets, or even 3's NEC phones, but far less complex than, for example, the Orange SPV.
Sharp has also added a few fun features, the best of which is the option of adding a coloured light to an image. It is no substitute for a flash, but it does improve the quality of images taken indoors, and there are eight colour options to toy with. There is even a flashing light that Vodafone has christened Disco.
The GX20 also has access to Vodafone Live!'s excellent range of facilities. News, sports, weather and so on are simple Wap pages, but are presented in an appealing, easy to use fashion.
Vodafone Live! also includes games, videos (currently only a few snippets from I'm a Celebrity...) and polyphonic ringtones, which can be downloaded via the handset's Java facilities.
Finally, unlike the dual-band GX10, the GX20 is a tri-band phone, equipped to roam in the USA as well as Europe.
Of course, there are many features missing from the phone. There is no POP3 email support, no Bluetooth, and no HTML web browsing. Yet, for this phone's target market, they are probably superfluous anyway.
I have been a little cynical about camera phones in the past, but will admit that the GX20 has won me round: it is the first handset of its kind that really works well. With its quality camera and superb resolution screen, it will seriously up the ante in the camera phone market.
These days, Beckham wears a shirt advertising Sharp's rival Siemens. But, ironically, through his deal with Vodafone he will still be part of the promotional campaign for this handset, which will cost between £100 and £250.
However, with a phone this good, the truth is that Vodafone probably won't need much help from Goldenballs anyway.
