Sony Ericsson C905A Mobile Phone

The Sony Ericsson C905a is a true Cyber-shot camera phone. In addition to its 8.1-megapixel sensor, it features face detection, auto-focus, a Xenon flash, PictBridge printer support, and GPS tagging—all great for snapping off important shots whenever you don't have that point-and-shoot handy. The C905a's feature array puts it in direct competition with the Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 and the Samsung Behold SGH-T919, T-Mobile's pair of heavy-hitting camera phones. In fact, the C905a fills a hole in AT&T's otherwise diverse handset lineup; none of the carrier's other devices can take pictures like this one.

The C905a is a bit bulky. It 4.1 by 1.9 by 0.7 inches and weighs 4.8 ounces. That's not terrible, but something to keep in mind when comparing it to other feature phones. My test model was nicely finished in Ice Silver plastic; you can also get the C905a in Night Black or Copper Gold. Plenty of useful, chrome-finished shortcut buttons adorn the sides, though the proprietary charger connector and lack of a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack were disappointments.

The 2.4-inch screen features 240-by-320-pixel resolution and displays up to 262K colors. Below the LCD are a five-way control pad and six hardware buttons. Unfortunately, the Send and End buttons are in between the others, so careful aim is required. Slide the front panel up and you'll reveal a recessed, membrane keypad finished in matte black. The keys are quiet, but a little too stiff for easy dialing. The slider mechanism itself was solid, though, and snapped into place with a reassuring chuck. There's a built-in accelerometer, which was useful for navigation as well as gaming. In short, not the most ergonomic phone on the planet, but perfectly usable.
The C905a is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM and tri-band (850/1900/2100) HSDPA handset. That means it's a true world phone with high-speed data capability both here and overseas. Voice calls sounded clear and loud in both directions, with good wind resistance, although slightly on the nasal side through the earpiece. Reception was solid, with a lock on 3G even in a rural area of Massachusetts that trips up other AT&T handsets. The speakerphone was a tad harsh but had decent volume, and the C905a sounded fine through a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. Battery life was on the low side at 3 hours and 46 minutes.

The home screen features colorful, alternating wallpapers that fade in and out every few seconds. Once you dive into the user interface, it's easy enough to get around. But that's mainly due to redundancy; the C905a features the same triple-menu, jam-packed system that plagues unlocked Sony Ericsson W995a. It could use some serious editing, but at least it's responsive. There are a few nice sounding ringtones on board, and plenty of options for buying new ones or assigning your own MP3 or AAC files. The NetFront Web browser is good enough for WAP sites and offers a mouse cursor. But it made a mess of desktop sites and took forever to load them even over HSDPA.
The C905a is AT&T's only camera phone with more than 3 megapixels, so it's by far the best the carrier has to offer. The 8-megapixel camera has lots of options (including face detection) and a very powerful flash for a camera phone. It lit up simulated indoor and night shots surprisingly well. But in outdoor daylight, the default exposure metering washes out bright areas and the edges of things appear just a touch soft. Thanks to the much better low-light performance, this camera comes out ahead of the W995a, but I still prefer the Samsung Memoir's daylight photos. You can tweak your photos after the fact with Sony Ericsson's PhotoDJ software, which lets you alter levels, fix contrast, or add captions.

The C905a's autofocus comes at the cost of a painful 1.4 second shutter delay, which can be eliminated by pre-focusing—it's all the desperately slow autofocus mechanism. Sony's BestPic technology is supposed to give you the option to take photos both before and after you click the shutter, but autofocus killed that option: with BestPic and autofocus, I just ended up taking photos 1.7 to 2.8 seconds after I pressed the shutter.

The movie mode takes compressed-looking and somewhat washed out 320x240 videos at 30 frames per second, but with a bonus: the VideoDJ editing software on the phone lets you trim and paste together videos without using your PC. However, the iPhone 3GS has a much better video mode, though its still image capabilities fall far behind the C905a's.

The BlackBerry Bold is a messaging and e-mail powerhouse and also offers more screen resolution than the C905a, but it looks dowdy compared to the Sony Ericsson's sharp lines. In short, if you're tired of cell phones that take poor quality photos, the C905a should be at the top of your list.