Sony Ericsson C905
Discontinued 17th June 2008
The Sony Ericsson C905 is (as far as we know) the
first 8.1 megapixel phone to hit Europe and the general
world market, and it promises to bring a new round of
the megapixel wars as other manufacturers try to catch
up.
The camera is clearly the main selling point with
the C905, but Sony Ericsson haven't skimped on other
features. The C905 has GPS, WiFi, HSDPA high-speed data,
stereo Bluetooth and an FM radio.
The display is a 2.4" 240 x 320 pixel panel,
and tucked behind it is a slide-out numeric keypad.
There's also a version of the Access Netfront web browser,
push email support, instant messaging and of course
a multimedia player.
Because it bears the Cyber-shot name, the Sony Ericsson
C905 is obviously going to be very capable when it comes
to digital imaging. Yes, the 8.1 megapixel sensor is
the best in its class, but the C905 also has a bright
Xenon flash, autofocus, face detection, red-eye reduction
and an image stabilizer. The C905 also features Sony
Ericsson multishot "BestPic" functionality
and supports photo blogging.
The
camera integrates with the inbuilt GPS to allow geotagging
of photos. For video capture, the C905 again has an
image stabilizer plus a video light, and an optional
TV out cable (ITC-60) allows video clips to be played
back on a standard television. There's no mention of
the C905's video capture resolution and frame rate though.
On top of that, there's a secondary video calling camera
too. There's also a tripod kit (IPK-100) which is something
we think may come in very useful.
The C905's GPS can be used with Google Maps or Wayfinder,
but it's not clear what sort of satellite navigation
options might be available as standard. As the C905
isn't a smartphone, then the GPS functionality might
be a little limited.
Internal memory is 160MB, and the C905 comes with
a 2GB Memory Stick Micro M2 card in the standard sales
package. Talktime on 3G is up to 4 hours, with a maximum
of 9 hours on GSM. Standby time is a maximum of 15 days,
and the C905 also has a flight mode so that you can
turn the cellular radio off completely.
It's
certainly a nice phone, but there are a couple of drawbacks.
The biggest one is the screen size - at just 2.4"
the C905 doesn't compete well with the rival Nokia
N95 8GB or upcoming N96.
It would be nice to see a touchscreen, particularly
when you consider the built-in GPS. The other issue
we have is with the camera.. yes, 8.1 megapixels and
all of those other clever features are very nice to
have, but we would have hoped to see a decent optical
zoom - after all, Sharp were offering optical zoom on
the Sharp 902
back in 2004.
Coming in at 136 grams, the Sony Ericsson C905 is
hardly lightweight and is actually heavier than the
Nokia N95 8GB and N96 despite having a much smaller
screen. On the other hand, the C905 does have a pretty
good battery life, so perhaps that accounts for some
of the increase in mass.
Despite some quibbles, the C905 looks to be a very
good camera phone. Sony Ericsson say that the C905 will
be out sometime during the early fourth quarter of this
year in Night Black, Ice Silver and Copper Gold colour
schemes.
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Sony
Ericsson C905 at a glance
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Available:
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Q4
2008
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 2100 (C905) or
UMTS
850 / 1900 / 2100 (C905a)
or
No UMTS (C905c - China)
|
Data:
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GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFi
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Screen:
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240
x 320 pixels, 262k colours
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Camera:
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8.1
megapixels (main)
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Size:
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Medium-large
slider 104 x 49 x 18mm
/ 136 grams
|
Bluetooth:
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Yes
|
Memory
card:
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Memory
Stick Micro
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Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
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Yes
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GPS:
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Yes,
aGPS
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Battery
life:
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4
hours talk / 15 days standby
(3G) 9 hours talk /
16 days standby (GSM)
|
|
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