Camera Phones Plaza

Sony Ericsson has a tradition in making phones with good cameras. The Cyber-shot series is already well known and the phones, which are part of it, can replace a digital camera without any problems, unless you are a demanding user and you need to take pictures occasionally. Sony Ericsson C905 is the high end camera phone from Sony Ericsson, with an 8.1 megapixel camera. This is the Sony Ericsson C905 review.

Sony Ericsson C905 is a slide model with rounded edges. For its case creation it was used almost entirely plastic, only on the edges there is some chromed metal. The producer made the case with a lot of attention, the materials are very good and it is protected against fingerprints. The plastic is not at all slippery, so the phone cannot fall from your hand.

The front part of the phone is dominated by the 2.4 inch TFT screen which is resistant to scratches.  The phone has a secondary camera for video calls. Above the screen, near the speaker, there are two buttons that help you in camera configuration.

Under the screen we have the navigation key with four directional buttons and the OK button located in the middle. On its right and on its left we find the answer call / reject call buttons, and other keys for quick access to certain applications. When using the camera, you will notice that the directional key has four special functions. You can choose to expose, to enable / disable the flash, set the macro mode on/off and set self timer on/off. Once the slide is opened, you will find the number keys. There are just a little bit out in relief, but are large and well separated, so writing a text message is a pleasure. Keypad locks automatically when you close the slide.

On the left side, the phone has an M2 memory card slot and a USB port for computer connections. It would have been nice if this port would have been covered with a plastic lid, the phone would have looked better and the dust could not get in that easy. On the right side, Sony Ericsson C905 has all the necessary buttons for making photos. On the top side, there are the volume control buttons that can be used for zooming.  We have a button that opens the gallery of pictures and videos and then a button which switches between photo and video mode. The last button is used for taking pictures. All the keys are very easy to use.

Viewed from behind, the phone looks very much like a digital camera. A cap protects the lens from scratches and from dust. Once this protective cap is opened, the camera automatically starts. Near the lens, there is a xenon flash, a mini mirror for self portrait and a microphone for recording movies with sound.

Even though Sony Ericsson C905 has big dimensions, this is not a smartphone. The phone has no operating system such as Symbian or Windows Mobile, but has one of its own made by Sony Ericsson. The graphical interface has nothing special, is the same graphical interface you meet on most Sony Ericsson phones. The menus are well organized, so you get used to them quickly and you will find everything easily.

Sony Ericsson C905 is part of the Cyber-shot class, which means that it specializes in photography. It has an 8.1 megapixel camera, which is able to take pictures with a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. You can make smaller pictures if you like, at 5 or even 3 megapixels, so you will occupy less memory.

The camera is the best camera you can find in all the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot series. You can do a lot of manual settings, if you do not like pictures made in automatic mode. It also has autofocus, face detection, smart contrast, photo / video stabilization, BestPic, auto-rotation, macro, red-eye reduction. The Xenon flash helps a lot in low light so you can make a picture almost as good as those made from an ordinary digital camera.

If you like to take many pictures, it is good to get a card bigger than 2 GB. An 8 megapixels photo is about 2.5 MB. The Face Detection can detect up to three faces simultaneously. BestPic mode allows you to make 7 pictures in a very short time so you can choose the best one of them. In Fast mode you can make 7 photos at 8.1 megapixels, the images being captured at 0.8 seconds between them, while in slow mode time increases to 1.7 seconds. In this mode of shooting, you cannot use flash, because it does not have time to load. C905's camera is the best of all Cyber-shot phones. Colors, brightness, contrast and detail are excellent. Whether you take pictures at night or day, near or in motion, the device behaves perfectly.

The phone knows how to record a video. The resolution on which the video files are captured is 320 x 240, 30 fps. They are saved in MP4 format, each minute of recording occupying 3 MB of memory. The video capture is made with stereo sound due to the additional microphone near the camera.

The music player that is available on Sony Ericsson C905 is Music Player version 3.0. Even if it is not a Walkman phone, the player does a good job when playing music. It can read the most existing audio files. You can change the sound as you like, with a MegaBass equalizer that comes with some preset modes. The interface is simple and easy to use, the player can run in the background, and songs can be sorted by artist, genre or name.

Sony Ericsson C905 has an (RDS) FM radio, which can store up to 20 channels in your area. The interface is pleasant, easy to use and has TrackID, a function which recognizes the name of the songs. Like the music player, the radio can run in the background.

The web browser is NetFront HTML 3.4, the one used on SE C903 and C902 phones. The browser offers a virtual mouse, which makes browsing a lot easier. Another less common function found on mobile browsers is the "Find on page" function, which seeks a specific word on the current page. Searching is easy. The NetFront browser is surprisingly good, so you can surf on the Internet without any problems on this phone. If you are not satisfied with the NetFront, you can always use Opera Mini, which is pre-installed.

C905 has a quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE / 3G connection. For the internet, you have WiFi too, which works quickly and has the advantage that you can connect for free from hotspot areas. The built-in Bluetooth supports A2DP, which means that you can use wireless stereo headphones.

The preinstalled applications are mostly the same that you meet on any Sony Ericsson. The organizer has the same functions encountered until now: File Manager, Calendar, Task, Notes, sync, calculator and code memo. The calendar is great; it lets you keep track of time well, so you can note meetings and set alarms.

The phone has the best camera that we have seen before on a Sony Ericsson and is certainly one of the best cameras, even if we refer to all mobile phones. The 8.1 megapixel camera can compete with any dedicated camera, especially for a casual user. The phone is excellent from all points of view.

I hope this Sony Ericsson C905 review was useful.