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By Reuben Lee
Jun 19, 2008

Sony Ericsson has once again upped the ante in the camera-phone business with the latest announcement of its highest-resolution and most feature-packed camera-phone to date, the C905 Cyber-shot. From an industry-leading 8.1-megapixel camera and loads of imaging functions to connectivity options that include Wi-Fi, HSDPA and GPS, the Cyber-shot phone certainly has it all. Suffice to say, it looks really good on paper in terms of specifications, but can it deliver on its promised features? Well, here's what we have to say after a short hands-on session with a prototype C905 model at the recent Sony Ericsson press event held in conjunction with CommunicAsia.

Upside:
It's been a while since we've seen any improvement in the resolution of camera-phones in the market. While Samsung's 10-megapixel SCH-B600 in Korea probably still lays claim to the highest resolution you can get in a camera-phone today, the rest of the imaging handsets beyond its shores have stayed constant at 5 megapixels. So with its latest 8.1-megapixel Cyber-shot C905 due out this Q4, Sony Ericsson certainly looks set to continue its leadership in the camera-phone space.

While some people may find the C905 slider a little chunky, the phone actually handles pretty well as a camera. It has a large 2.4-inch TFT display which is great as a viewfinder, while the unique slidedown lens cover keeps the back of the phone streamlined. We found the large shutter button a plus when taking pictures, too.

To complete the whole digital imaging experience, the C905 is chockablock with features that one would normally find in most standalone point-and-shoot cameras today. The bevy of smart controls onboard the Sony Ericsson include an image stabilizer, face detection, autofocus, red-eye reduction and smart contrast (to adjust for optimal lighting levels), as well as a Xenon flash and PictBridge printing. The BestPic feature has also been improved on the C905 with the ability to turn on the LED light while in BestPic shooting mode. On the video-recording front, this handset comes with a video stabilizer as well as a video LED light.

What's truly amazing is that there's more yet to come. Beyond the wealth of imaging features, there's an integrated GPS receiver (with A-GPS) for navigation and image geotagging, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth stereo, USB, and FM radio. The onboard DLNA support also means you can send photos from your phone to the TV via Wi-Fi, or directly using an optional ITC-60 TV-out cable.

While we can't comment on the picture quality given that this is just a prototype, we were pretty impressed with the scratch-resistant LCD display which looked sharp and crisp. It's a pity the camera-phone has only 160MB of onboard memory, which is hardly sufficient for storing large 8-megapixel image files, not to mention music and video files. The good news is that Sony Ericsson will be bundling a 2GB M2 card with the C905.

Downside:
Our biggest gripe here is probably the design. Having earlier handled the solidly built Nokia E71, Samsung Omnia SGH-i900 and Samsung Soul^b, the C905 felt comparatively less substantial in hand than what we were expecting from a top-of-the-line model. The construction felt somewhat plasticky, though we were told that this was only a prototype, so we'll reserve judgement for the final commercial unit. In looks, the handset appeared thicker than its 18mm profile, but that's just our personal opinion.

We were disappointed that the C905 didn't come with an optical zoom lens, but that obviously will add even more bulk to its form factor.

Outlook:
Minor design quibbles aside, the new C905 Cyber-shot camera-phone is probably the closest thing there is to having a fully functioning digital camera in a mobile phone. It will be interesting to see how this 8.1-megapixel phone competes with the other offerings in the market when it launches in Q4. In fact, this may well spur other vendors to introduce even higher-resolution camera-phones, possibly pushing 8.1 megapixels as the next new standard in camera-phones.

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