Sony Ericsson C905 review

Sony Ericsson C905 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 12 November 2008

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.

The C905's camera comes with a xenon flash, auto-focus assit light and a proper lens cover that won't move around in your pocket when shut

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.

The C905's keypad is well-laid out and easy to use

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.