Sony Ericsson is renowned for producing some of the best camera phones on the market, so we expected good things from the C905. Pitched as a camera replacement rather than just camera phone, this phone has a lot to live up to. The Sony Ericsson C905 is currently available for free on a monthly contract of around £30 to £35 a month.
Design
Some manufacturers want to make their camera phones look more like phones than cameras, but Sony Ericsson has taken the complete opposite route, making the C905 look like a full-on stand-alone snapper.
People will probably scoff that the C905 is too large, as we did at first. But after using it for a while you start to realise that its size makes it easier to use when taking photos -- you can actually hold it properly, just as you would with a regular camera.
It's not Sony Ericsson's slickest looking phone but it is very functional. The keypad is well laid out and easy to use, as are all the other buttons, including for the shutter. There's also a proper lens cover that won't open and close in your pocket, which was a big problem with its predecessor, the K800i.
Features
Camera is king on the C905 and from the moment we picked it up we wanted to take pictures with it. The camera interface is easy to understand and you can adjust several settings, such as the flash, white balance and focus, among others, with just a few clicks.
There aren't as many gimmicks as you'll find on phones like the LG Renoir or Samsung Pixon, but you do get a competent camera experience which is emphasised by the good picture quality, even in low light.
The auto-focus is fast and the xenon flash provides a level of illumination unmatched by LED photo lights. When viewing pics a built-in accelerometer allows you to flip the phone sideways and the photo automatically changes from portrait to landscape.
An additional feature not available on previous Cyber-shot phones is the ability to geo-tag pictures using the built-in GPS. Web services such as Flickr will automatically use the data so that you can plot your pics on a map.
Our only minor issue with the camera is that you have to view a pic in the gallery, instead of in the camera mode, in order to send it via Bluetooth. We also think that it takes quite a while for pics to be saved on to the C905.
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User reviews15
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Mike Yates 1 October 2011
Good: General Design but particularly the Camera.
Bad: Only the keypad, allowing for the age of the product.
Comment: Wonderful camera.
One of the best of the pre-touchscreen phones.
An upgrade with a mixture of touchscreen and traditional interface would be perfect.
But it does need a better more solid keypad!
MrLiam 8 November 2010
Good: The camera, Walkman style player, battery
Bad: Kept dropping calls randomly, crashed after a year or so and video quality
Comment: First of all I used to have this phone before I upgraded to the HTC Desire which I also reviewed. Once I'd had it for a year or so, it started to crash and drop phone calls unannounced and randomly. I liked how long the battery lasted even with heavy usage. Obviously the camera taking stills was the phone's strong point. It would take monster images so easily and it also was laid out like a camera plus it had a xenon flash which was is the best of the bunch. However the video quality wasn't so impressive. Although the camera is 8.1MP, the video resolution is only 240p. My current phone camera is 5MP and 720p HD video...
ryanmcclenaghan 9 July 2010
Good: Camera obviously
Bad: Build quality, software
Comment: The phone worked flawlessly for about three months, excellent camera, user friendly etc. But after this the problems started, the phone began to freeze and the buttons stopped working, sent it back to be fixed, when I got it back it began to switch off by itself, so it was returned again. And then after about 15 months the camera stopped working, which really defeats the purpose of a camera phone. This was the start of a downward spiral of faults until I got an upgrade. When you spend over £500 on a phone you expect it to last. I really wanted to like this phone, and the initial signs were so promising, a real pity
See all 15 user reviews