SONY ERICSSON C903

Sony Ericsson C903 is a camera phone targeted towards users that believe in convergence. It is inspired from the T-series range of digital cameras by Sony and has a fancy camera cover that points towards it. Boasting of both face and smile detection, the phone aims to take the camera capabilities of cell phones to a new level altogether even with its 5 MP sensor. The phone was first announced by Sony Ericsson at this year’s MWC.

Sony Ercisson C903 specifications :

• Dimensions : 97 x 49 x 16 mm
• Weight : 96 g
• Display : 2.4″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD, 3G
• Card Slot : Memory Stick Micro (M2)
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• Camera : 5 MP with autofocus and LED Flash
• GPS : Supported with A-GPS support
• FM Radio : Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• Other features : Accelerometer, secondary camera, geotagging

Design and Display

The dimensions of the phone are rather small considering it is a slider phone. The body of the C903 has been made entirely from plastic that has a glossy glow to it. It looks attractive in the hand but only if you keep wiping off the fingerprints that it attracts easily. The D-pad has metallic accent to it and is very usable. Infact, all the keys below the display are comfortable to use.

The 2.4″ TFT display with QVGA resolution occupies up majority of the space on the front panel. The lighting of the display is controlled by the ambient light sensor above the display. There is a secondary call camera besides the sensor too for making video calls. Made up of scratch resistant surface, the display does a good job. It isn’t as good as some of the latest Nokia displays or even from Sony Ercisson but its good enough. Sunlight visibility isn’t a issue at all with the display and images appear vivid and bright.

The keypad revealed by sliding the display up is dressed up in all-white. The keys are almost flat with ridges between rows to enhance usability. Typing isn’t a problem on the keypad, although it may seem so when you look at it. The backlighting on the keypad is strong enough for dark environments too. The back side of the C903 deserves a mention, the camera cover slides horizontally like the T-series Sony digicams.

The left part of the phone has Fast Port without any protective cover, so keeping it clean will a pain. The M2 memory card is beneath the cover but it is hot swappable. The loudspeaker grill is tiny and goes almost unnoticeable. The right side has the volume rocker along with camera controls. The camera button that also acts as autofocus key is positioned ergonomically. The other two keys are for opening camera mode and gallery mode. The top part is completely free of any buttons or ports. The bottom has slider for opening the back cover.

Music Player and Camera

The music player found on the C903 is a slimmed version of the Walkman 3.0 music player. It supports auto rotation of the screen with the help of built in accelerometer. The player has all the goodness of the Walkman 3.0 player such as large file format support, background support, MegaBass equalizer etc. The Now Playing screen shows all the details related to the track being played currently. Features missing are SensMe and Shake Control that take the music experience to a new level, but there absence re-iterates that this is a camera phone. The audio quality is good but below what you get from a Walkman phone.

The C903 has a 5 MP sensor with autofocus and LED flash. We fail to understand, when will Xenon flash become a standard atleast on Cybershot phones. The LED flash just doesn’t cut it when taking pics in low lighting conditions. The camera however, is as capable as any other Cybershot phone and has all the goodness in the form of smile shutter, face detection, image and video stabilizer, BestPic, auto-rotate, macro mode, spot metering along with geotagging of photos.

The menu system consists of pop-up sub-menus that have icons as well as Multi Menu packaging and is easy to use. The camera toolbar houses all the scene modes, flash, focus, picture size, white balance, effects settings. ISO setting is notably missing from the camera settings. The camera has image stabilizer which is purely software based and isn’t as effective as optical image stabilisation. The camera has both face and smile detection.

BestPic mode has proved it mettle before and works well on this phone too.  Smile Shutter technology is used to detect smiling faces and snap a picture when they are detected. Geotagging works flawlessly using the inbuilt GPS receiver. The image quality of the phone is excellent and it does not disappoint. Images turn out with vivid color, sharp and crisp. Noise levels are high for low-light conditions as expected due to weak LED flash. Overall the image quality is brilliant for a 5MP phone.

Web Browser and Organiser

NetFront v3.4 with extended home screen is the browser pre-installed on the C903. There are loads of shortcuts that lead to free content on Sony Ericsson’s site. Rendering is great and complex sites are rendered perfectly on the browser. Full screen mode is replaced by auto-rotate that uses the built-in accelerometer. Panning and zooming of pages is quick without any lags. Virtual mouse pointer is present that enhances the browsing speed greatly. Terms can be searched on a web page using the “Find on Page” option. Opera Mini can always be installed if you are not satisfied with the default browser.

Time Management applications are plenty for accomplishing various tasks. The bundled applications include File manager, Applications, Video call, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Synchronization, Timer, Stopwatch, Calculator, and Code memo. Calendar offers daily, monthly and weekly views. Overall a good collection of application for the organiser.

Pros :

• Good design
• Great sunlight visibility of display
• Decent Music player
• Excellent camera
• Great browser
• Great organiser

Cons :

• Fingerprint magnet
• Uncovered Fast Port
• Poor video recording capabilities

Final Thoughts

The Sony Ericsson C903 offers an excellent camera with decent music capabilities. It has a good design and the display is good but not great. The camera is its highlight and it outperforms providing excellent images. Browser and organiser are two another great aspects of this phone. However it is a fingerprint magnet, has uncovered Fast Port and video recording capabilities are dismal.

Rating : 4/5