Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot hands-on: First look

Sony Ericsson C905 360-degree spin

The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot measures 104 x 49 x 18mm. Those quoted 18mm are actually the thinnest portion of the device. The area around the camera lens reaches up to 19.5 mm.

Design and construction

The C905 weighs 136 g and size-wise it's almost identical to the Nokia N81. We had an N81 8GB lying around the office and we took some comparison shots so you can see how they stack up size-wise.

Sony Ericsson C905 compared to the identical Nokia N81 8GB

The matt black plastic that dominates the Sony Ericsson C905 body is extra nice to touch. It doesn't catch any fingerprints and looks like the ideal choice - it reminds much of a pocket digital camera. Speaking of a digital camera comparison, here is how the Sony Ericsson C905 looks along the Casio Exilim EX-S10, which stands at 14.9mm of thickness.

Sony Ericsson C905 compared to the slim Casio Exilim EX-S10

Here are also some live photos of the silver-colored version of the Sony Ericsson C905, curtesy of our friends at MobilMania.

Sony Ericsson C905 Ice Silver version

Now back to the C905, the front panel design follows the latest Sony Ericsson trend seen in both low-end and high-end devices. All the keys are comfortable to use and with nice tactility. Above the display there are two additional shortcut keys - the left one shows you the last photo that was taken, while the right one opens the image gallery. Those two serve additional purposes, when the camera is on. The left one opens the Shooting mode menu, while the right one starts the Scene mode menu. But we'll say more about the camera later on.

The C905 design is trendy • there shortcuts keys above the display as usual

The keypad of the C905 is almost totally even, but it's enjoyable to type with - we didn't expect that, so it was a pleasant surprise. Flat keypads usually look good but suck at real-life typing - well this is not the case with C905. The keypad offers excellent tactility and touch orientation.

The C905 keypad is really comfortable for typing

The left side of the C905 features only the proprietary Fast port and the M2 memory card slot.

The Fast port and the M2 memory card slot are on the left side

The right-hand side features a volume rocker, a camera shutter key and two additional camera function keys. The first one opens the last photo taken, and the second one switches between still camera and camcorder.

On the right there is a camera shutter key, a volume rocker and two camera function keys

You can also start the camera with a longer press on the camera shutter key, but then you have to slide down the protective cover over the lens. Sliding the cover down starts the camera by itself, so we guess that would be the preferred way to take snapshots… or better yet, 8 megapixel photos.

The lens cover sports an excellent mechanism - it consists of two parts - when you slide the upper one down top reveal the camera lens, the lower piece sinks in to make room for the sliding piece. Both parts are made out for some fine brushed metal and really give the C905 a more refined look. Did we mention that we totally dig the C905 design?

The metallic lens cover looks great

Once the camera cover is slid down, the camera lens and all of its entourage gets revealed - there's the xenon flash, the self-portrait mirror, the video light and the video microphone. The video flash is also used as a focus assist beam in darker environment.

Sliding down the cover: xenon flash, video light and the large lens

The battery cover goes away with a slide. Under it hides the Sony Ericsson BST-38 Li-Po battery, which offers a capacity of 930 mAh. The BST-38 is a standard battery for many Sony Ericsson handsets, so you won't have problems finding a spare one should you need it. Sony Ericsson promise a battery life of up to 380h of stand-by time and up to 9h of talk time.

Unfortunately we can't comment on the real-life performance of the battery, but you can bet that with some intensive use of GPS and Wi-Fi, you may as well get a second battery to go along.

The Sony Ericsson C905 held in hand

Well, that's about all of the hardware part of our account of our hands-on experience. In case you are interested in things such as camera interface, GPS navigation and Wi-Fi networking, then follow the lead to the next page.