Sony ericsson c903 review

There are plenty of Cyber-shot camera phones out there for Sony Ericsson fans. Some manage to provide for great picture quality and some don’t. That’s just how it is. The C903 is the latest Cyber-shot mobile handset and here’s how it fared.

Form Factor

The C903 is a very generic device and I’m personally quite disappointed in the rather bulky and heavyset design. It has a 2.4-inch TFT LCD display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution, which is quite standard in this day and age. The surface is supposed to be scratch-resistant but it didn’t seem to be. The slider is smooth enough and the keypad pad is quite large and well designed for typing. All of the Sony Ericsson shortcut buttons are placed exactly where they would be on any other SE handset.

On one side is SE’s proprietary all-in-one port for the handsfree, USB and charger. Since this is not a Walkman series handset you have no choice but to stick to the bundled handset. Thankfully that’s a mute issue as the set is comfortable and provides good audio for both calls and music. On the other side are the volume/zoom buttons followed by a couple of camera function keys viz. dedicated Gallery button and a Video to Still and vice versa switcher. The Shutter release key is located just below that.

he camera can be activated by sliding down the rear portion. That will reveal the lens and the dual LED flash. The M2 card port is placed under the rear panel, which can be removed by sliding back a locking mechanism placed at the bottom and popping it open.

Features and Performance

There’s absolutely nothing new about the UI. The accelerometer works only with Media menu and the browser. The themes are highly animated and colorful so the potential for battery drainage is quite high. Nevertheless the system is smooth and there’s virtually no lag while activating or running apps. Multi-tasking is a real bi**h with most SE handsets though especially if you’re using the browser and need to switch to something else.

Camera

The 5 megapixel AF camera is quite feature rich, then again most Cyber-shot camera phones are. The features include Smile Shutter with Face detection that is capable of detecting multiple faces, Photo fix which is part of the editing features, Picture blogging to Facebook, Picasa, MySpace and Blogger. You can do the same with videos. The handset also offers BestPic and a Panorama mode (manual), Scene modes, White Balance etc.

Image quality on an average was just ok. No better than any other 5 MP camera out there right now. In well-lit outdoor conditions the image reproduction is good. It doesn’t do too well with low light. Colors don't look too bad but tend to get a little blotchy in some clusters.

The Bottom Line

With a price tag of Rs. 18, 850 (includes 1GB M2 card) you’d expect a little more for the handset. It’s great from the media angle with a good media player and FM radio. What burns me is the build quality and design of the handset, the lack of Wi-Fi considering the price and the camera has great features but turns out, it’s no great shakes. So bottom line (and that’s what this is) is that the price doesn’t quite meet overall grade of functionality.