Important questions that I haven't seen answered anywhere else:
Stereo speakers built in - No.
Video recording - 320x240 MP4, 30fps, 2 channels, 32khz.
WOW - are Sony oblivious to the fact that every other phone and digital camera now offers at least VGA video recording, while the better ones offer HD video recording? And surely stereo speakers built into the phone should be standard practise?
Using the Sony C905 as a digital camera:
So what about photo quality? the biggest appeal of this camera has to be the built in 8 megapixel Sony "Cybershot" camera with "Xenon" flash. Well, the flash definitely helps with photos of people. But one area where camera phones have always been behind in image quality is noise - the basic facts are that the more pixels you cram into a small image sensor, the more noise you're going to get, and mobile phone cameras have the smallest sensors you can get. Have a look at this picture (click above to embiggen) taken without flash to see what a photo taken at ISO400 looks like, and you'll be able to see the noise, and lack of detail. There are no manual ISO settings on this camera, so it's basically pot luck as to how much noise will show up in the photos. So far all the photos I've taken with flash have used ISO200.
However, saying all that, the C905 is probably one of the better (possibly best?) camera phones you can get at the moment due to it having a proper flash (rather than just an LED), and no doubt Sony's experience with Cybershot cameras has played a role in producing a camera that can produce good photos. Further testing should show how good the quality really is.
Camera mode shown above - the shutter release works in the usual way, half a press focuses the camera, pressing fully then takes the photo. The only problem is that whilst the half press is fairly noticable, the full press doesn't feel like a proper shutter on other cameras - this is a bit disappointing.
Some of the features of the camera: face detection, smart contrast (a bit like increased dynamic range), red eye reduction flash,
What about the phone?
Neat stuff: Wifi built in, supports WPA2. Works well. GPS, with google maps, or "Navigation", can also be used to tag photos.
More cool features: RSS feeds, view these in the Media part of the phone, then when you go back to the main screen, they show up as a preview with a picture (as shown above) - unfortunately when you do read the RSS feeds it takes you to the phones browser which loads the full web page (slowly) instead of using something like Opera Mini.
Positives:
+ 8.1 megapixel camera with real focus + flash
+ Wifi, GPS built in
+ Built in RSS feeds on the main screen
Negatives:
- Satnav (Navigation) free for 3 months
- Battery only lasts 2 to 2 and a half hours when using satnav
- No car charger provided.
- Seems to trap dust / dirt making sliding mechanism sound rough.
- GPS hardly EVER works! "Navigation" useless, have to use Google Maps instead.
What's in the box?
The phone, a 2gb Sandisk M2 memory card, an M2 to USB convertor (hooray!), a leather wrist strap, USB cable, a charger, hands-free stereo earphones (needed for the radio to work - boo!), CD rom, manual, C905 camera guide.
How much does it cost?
I found a deal that suited me through phoneslimited.co.uk - which led me to order the phone from mobiles.co.uk (part of the carphone warehouse group) - I went with T-Mobile, £35 per month, £39 phone cost, 12 month contract with 300mins / 200texts, and "unlimited" internet (max 1gb per month) - and the phone came unbranded and unlocked.
nb. pictures added. this will be updated with further details soon. a full review of the digital camera side of phone will be added to DigiCamReview.com. Lots of sample photos added to DigiCamReview.
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