Building on the foundation laid by Sony’s long line of touch screen Cyber-shot T models, the T500 brings more advanced shooting features, 720p video recording, HDMI connectivity, and a more svelte and serious appearance to Sony’s popular pocket cams.

Ostensibly more performance focused than some of its T series forerunners (Sony claims the camera is targeted to “innovation enthusiasts”), the T500 features a 10.1 megapixel, 1/2.3-inch SuperHAD CCD sensor coupled with a 5x, 33-165mm Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom lens. The T500’s touch panel is a wide-format (16:9 aspect ratio) 3.5 inch variant with 230,000 dots resolution.

Other key features include a face detection system capable of locking onto up to eight faces, Sony’s advanced in-camera slide show tools that allow the addition of sophisticated shot-to-shot transitions and the incorporation of background music, and HDMI connectivity (via an included dock) for easily getting playback to an HDTV.