Sony Ericsson C905i
Maxabout Review
Most Advanced Camera Mobile Phone
Monday, June 30, 2008
C905 is Sony Ericsson’s first Cyber-shot slider and its most advanced camera phone yet.
With an 8.1 megapixel camera and real camera flash amongst its cutting-edge capabilities, it offers easy photo-taking in a phone that derives its looks from a digital camera and offers the picture quality to match.
Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot phone is an all-round performer that maximises its camera credentials. It is a powerful 8.1 megapixel camera phone that looks, feels and acts like a real camera.
comes in a sliding form factor that features a very smooth action. The sliding mechanism is sprung, and flicks into place with reassuring precision. The whole device feels very well screwed together and features an intelligent selection of materials.
While most devices are clad in shiny plastics these days, the C905 is instead given a matte coating and some soft touch plastic. Not only does this look great, but feels expensive and resists fingerprints and scratches very well, too.
The front of the C905 is home to the 2.4" QVGA display that is capable of showing up to 262,144 colors. It's also covered with a piece of scratch-resistant mineral glass that seemed to resist fingerprints and grime well.
Below the display is the d-pad and two strips of keys. The strip to the left consists of the left softkey, Send key, and 'Toolbar' key. The strip to the right consists of the right softkey, End key, and 'C' (cancel) key.
The square 4-way d-pad is made from shiny black plastic, with a chrome outline. In the centre is a silver select button with a spun metal effect engraved on its surface.
Above the display is the device's earpiece, which is hidden beneath a small slit in a mirrored panel. This panel also houses the forward-facing camera lens. On either side of the panel is a small key, used for quickly accessing the photo gallery and changing the camera's shoot and scene modes.
Each end of the device is neatly rounded, contributing to its overall pleasant appearance. The top end is completely bare, and the bottom houses only the lanyard eyelet and slits for the loudspeaker.
The front of the device is made from matte black plastic, which changes to soft touch plastic on the rear. The soft touch plastic has been placed where it's needed, providing a grippy surface on the back.
The lower half of the rear is dominated by the battery cover, which fits snugly and, like the rest of the device, emits no creaks or squeaks.
Above the battery cover is the camera's active lens cover, which sports a brushed metal finish. With the device in landscape mode, the upper section can be slid downwards, causing the lower section to recess into the phone. With the lens cover retracted, the camera necessities are revealed, and the camera is activated.
With the usual high-end camera functionalities such as auto focus, face detection, red eye reduction, image stabilisation, Smart Contrast, BestPic and PhotoFix, you could be mistaken that this is a camera rather than a cameraphone. Images are crisp, and in dark conditions complemented by the xenon flash that blasts the alternative LED light out of the water.
The camera is easy to use with shortcuts for the most useful functions and the accelerometer kicks in when you flip the phone sideways, making it feel ever more like a proper camera in terms of taking and viewing pics.
The integrated speaker was adequate enough with sound coming through without a tin-can effect and, although it was quite loud, we wish sound could have been cranked up higher.
The C905 receives no complaints whatsoever about standard call quality and battery life, although it’s worth keeping an eye on the juice meter if you’re one of those people that takes photos of absolutely everything and then uploads them to the likes of Facebook, Flickr et al as that may drain your handset prematurely.
Talking of uploading, the C905 boasts HSPDA action of up to 3.6Mbps as well as the delights of Wi-Fi, assisted GPS and the ability to jump on the geo-tagging bandwagon with your pics to boot.
Main Features of Sony Ericsson C905i Cybershot:
1) True 8.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash
2) Great picture quality - with face detection auto-focus, smart contrast and image stabilizer
3) 2GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) included
4) The USB adaptor (CCR-70) provided in-box
5) 2.4” scratch-resistant mineral glass display
6) Send your photos wirelessly from your phone to your TV via Wi-Fi (using DLNA), or connect with wires using the TV-Out Cable ITC-60, also announced today
7) Upload photos to your blogsite or print your photos with great resolution up to A3 size
8) GPS-enabled for geo-tagging of photos and navigation support.