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Sony Ericsson Cybershot c905 Review

After about two weeks with the Sony Ericsson Cybershot c905, I have had a fair appreciation of the camera phone. Check out my full review below and the previous unboxing photos I took.

More of a Camera, Less of a Phone.
Sony Ericsson

The construction of the phone itself gives you an impression that the device was built as a camera rather than a phone. That’s not saying that this phone is not well-equipped — WiFi, GPS, and 3G/HSDPA are all present so I give it high ranks on connectivity. There’s Bluetooth, FM tuner and DLNA support so you can send your photos wirelessly from your phone to the TV via Wi-Fi.

This is the first time I ever used a Sony-Ericsson phone but I’m impressed with the UI and the very responsive menu. There’s much eye candy actually but I’m surprised that didn’t slowed down the phone a bit.

Pushing the Megapixel Limit.

se c905

If my memory serves me right, it was Sony Ericsson that first announced a camera phone in the 8.1 megapixel range.

You can set the resolution between VGA, 3MP, 5MP and 8MP but at full picture size, a single photo can reach over 2MB (3264x2448pixels). The lens module size is 5.91mm and has a large fixed aperture of f/2.8. The ISO is rated between 80-320 but my Adobe Lightroom reads an ISO 64 on some of the pictures.

Dedicated Camera Functions.

se c905A lot of the external buttons of the phone are dedicated to the camera function. On the right side of the device, you will find the zoom function, switch between video and photo, a dedicated play button and a large circular shoot button.

The buttons at the front side of the phone also doubles for camera function shortcuts — exposure, focus, timing and flash as well as the center shoot button. On the top corner, just beside the earpiece, two more buttons control the preset scenes and shoot modes.

Most of these buttons are back lit so you can easily find them even on low light or shooting at night.

Powerful Flash.

Haven’t seen any phone with as much flash output as the SE c905. The camera lens is encased in an aluminum housing along with two flash sources – a small circular one with 4 LED lights for taking videos and a bigger Xenon flash for taking photos.

I took several shots at daylight, at night as well a controlled environment using my DIY lightbox (more sample shots to follow).

se c905 se c905 se c905

No alterations were made on the pictures except for a resize and high JPEG compression. Without the flash, the picture quality becomes a little grainy on low light. You can zoom in up to 16x but resolution on that end isn’t pretty — that’s just cropping out the image but the 8.1MP helps even out the quality. There are many other bells and whistles that came with the camera functions but I might ran out of space if I list them all down.

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The phone comes with a 2GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) and an external USB adapter so you can just plug it in and hook up to your PC for easy file and photo transfers.

SE c905

All-in-all, I’d call this a solid camera phone and I’m sure Sony-Ericsson fans will love this model. I’m not sure though if the price tag of Php28,000 when it comes out later this month will appeal to many.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

55 Responses

  1. Avatar for pao pao says:

    hey Thennek Onamor , how much did the phone cost ?

  2. Avatar for Thennek Onamor Thennek Onamor says:

    Only d unit was replaced, same color, and warranty wasn’t changed because the unit has lapsed it’s 1 week replacement period. We were just given a favor by SE as it was proven that the unit was defective.

    But it took 1 month for the replacement to arrive.

  3. Avatar for Daniel Fernandes Daniel Fernandes says:

    Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot C905 has the high quality camera.There are many fascinating features in this mobile like stereo Bluetooth, GPS, a music player Together and many more.It’s quite sleek and also deliberate phone with a sharp design. The keypad device is very good, very spacious.This cell phone will be loved by the music lovers.

  4. Avatar for Dominique Balabat Dominique Balabat says:

    Hi Thennek Onamor,

    I wonder if they gave you the rules on replacement… Did they extend the warranty for another year? Would you be able to get the phone with different color?

    Please let me know as I forwarded my phone to Sony Ericsson a week ago.

    Thank you for your advise.
    :)

  5. Avatar for Thennek Onamor Thennek Onamor says:

    I suggest you bring it directly to Sony Ericsson shop and ask for replacement. We got our replacement unit after a month.

  6. Avatar for Ma. Laureen M. Sanchez Ma. Laureen M. Sanchez says:

    so the earpiece is really a problem. and i thought my defective earpiece was brought about by the fact that i dropped it (just 20inches height). and my unit has been with Smart Communications for 2 months now ( what greater injustice could there be?). Pictures with this phone is very good, but like i said, the earpiece died within 3 weeks, and Smart Com has been sitting on it for 2 months.

  7. Avatar for Thennek Onamor Thennek Onamor says:

    my boss bought a SE c905 unit. after a few days, the earpiece malfunctioned. we returned it to the shop and asked for replacement. the H.O. too received complaints of the same kind.

  8. Avatar for gregzky gregzky says:

    i just bought my c905 2days ago and i’ve been using nokia phone before as well as ASUS phones. wlang maxadong extravagant sa kanya it’s just that it has 8.1 MP camera, maganda naman but that’s just it.. ndi q xa mapersonalize like what i’m doing with my N73.. another thing is that kelangan mu laging timplahin yung camera wheneer you’re gonna take a shot unlike with the Nseries na on the spot pwede mung gamitin ung camera once you open the lense gowh na agad..ang dami pang emot before mu magamit tong c905..

  9. Avatar for mohammed kuhail mohammed kuhail says:

    i need to know how can i open word, powerpoint or excel files

  10. Avatar for vangos vangos says:

    i want to know if it has a option for the greek language

  11. Avatar for vangos vangos says:

    i want to know if the this phone has a language option for greek …. thank you

  12. Avatar for jhaycel jhaycel says:

    i bought my phone last feb 8 and after 18 days i think, i returned it co’z its to sensitive!!!! mxdong crain ng phone… in just 4 months 4 times n ung phone bmlik sa service center!!!! i really like this phone before co’z of its 8.1 mp cam.. put bukod dun… wla ng maganda pa.. X(

  13. Avatar for Mark Alcaraz Mark Alcaraz says:

    I just bought a C905 a couple of weeks ago. I recently lost my n82. I wasn’t very sure that switching to a C905 is a good idea until I’ve tried it.
    Being a nokia-loyalist, this will be hard to admit but… c905 is a very good camera-phone. It can replace some stand-alone digicams available on the market (yes, you can throw away your digicams that is less than 5mp). That being said, you can’t expect that the quality of the images produced by this phone is up to par to that produced by a DSLR. It’s like comparing a vios to an SLK mercedes. Still, the images produced by the phone is excellent. It takes better photos than my n82 (make that my now gone n82). The face detection works like magic. That goes the same for the smart contrast and best pic.
    I updated the phone’s firmware about a week ago. I didn’t have any difficulty during the process. It now comes with a “smile shutter”. As most of you know, the smile shutter feature can be enjoyed on a Sony Cyber-shot camera. Kudos to Sony for incorporating that feature into the phone. It made it truly a Cyber-shot camera-phone.
    The phone also comes with a GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and a bunch of other stuff. What makes this phone unique is that it is DLNA certified. I can connect it to my Vaio without a problem. Just make your home network as a “favorite” and voila, it works perfectly.
    The phone is well built. Unlike to that of the Nseries of the Nokia, this feels expensive (and it is. I bought mine for 25k). Although it feels more expensive and more elegant than nokia phones, I personally think 25k is too much because Nokia Nseries phones have more capabilities than this phone. I can open office applications and files on my nokia whereas I’m only able to store it here. It can’t open word, powerpoint or excel files. The web browser of the Nokia is better too. I’m able to watch youtube videos in the web brower on my nokia phone.
    But then again, this is first and foremost a Cyber-shot handyphone. It is (as of today) the best camera-phone on the market. I’ve used and compared the images produced by a Nokia, Samsung, LG and iPhone (yes, although it is pointless, i also compared it to an image prodiced by an iPhone) I can confidently say that this phone is a league of its own.

    So… to those looking for a decent music-player and an (dare i say) amazing camera, and a neat phone, then the C905 is for you. A bit pricey but worth the extra bucks.

  14. Avatar for Ochie Ochie says:

    I’m having problems with my C905. It was the fourth time I’ve returned my unit at Memo Xpress because of the faulty keypad. Keypad Number 1 and the Dpad malfunctions. I just bought my unit last December 2008 pero parang gusto ko nang pagsisihan kung bakit ko binili.

    Ok naman sya, this phone serves me well just like any digicams (except for the zoom, wala syang optical zoom eh, sayang..) at magaganda rin ang features nya. My k800i busted on me after 2years.

    Naiinis lang talaga ako sa faulty keypad. Yun lang…

  15. Avatar for crys crys says:

    I would so buy this, but it looks a little thick. And im not a fan of thickish kinds of cell phones.

  16. Avatar for ruth plan ruth plan says:

    nice phone!!!i wish i get one for my self

  17. Avatar for lacar lacar says:

    hello, help naman po. nag software update po ako kaso wla naman ung smile shutter. pano un?

  18. Avatar for ver ver says:

    parts of c905 is it available on the market? ESPECIALLY EARPIECE ON THIS THING???? where can i buy it pls inform me tnx,……

  19. Avatar for dissappointed dissappointed says:

    quest****@****.*** kok ga pernah nyambung ya..katanya siap melayani complain..percuma juga nanya call center soner..bilangnya ga bisa bantu dan mohon maaf trus..it sucks!!!

    woi soner..percuma gaya pasang kamera 8 mega kalo kualitasmu jelek banget..

  20. Avatar for dissappointed dissappointed says:

    hp c905, ternyata cepat rusak flexiblenya..jelek kualitasnya..dan rusaknya mesti diperbaiki selama 1 bulan..pake 1 bulan dipegang orang lain 1 bulan alias diperbaiki 1 bulan

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