Sony Ericsson C902 Review (SE C902i)

July 23rd, 2008

C902
Here is another 5MP horse heating up competition in the high end camera mobile segment. SE fans have been waiting for the next 5MP ever since the Sony Ericsson K850i came in. The Sony Ericsson C902 is a simple, slim and plain 5MP camera phone which ends up being compared to the Nokia heavy weights. One thing we never understand is the reason why Sony Ericsson ignores data features so badly. A couple of years back they were the last ones to start offering EDGE, and now the high ends like K850i and the C902 lacks WiFi. Comeon guyz its 2008!!
C902 Camera Slider

Design:
The C902 is a slim candy-bar design, with no weird key placement like the K850i. The camera is seen no where untill you slide the top of the screen to reveal the lens. So if camera phones are banned in your office, this might well be a phone with a hidden camera that will let you sneak through the security (really!!). In hand the SE C902 gives a very solid feel and is much more (comfortable) easier to handle than the Nokia N95 or the Sony Ericsson K850i. Its really slim at 10.5mm.

The sides of the C902 are nicely designed with the volume buttons placed on the bottom (yeah sounds odd) on the right side, just next to the camera button. Though for cellphone users this is new, but Digicam users are used to have the Zoom buttons just next to the Camera click button. The charger / data socket is on the left.

C902 Side

Features:

C902 has all the standard media and communications (MP3, FM, Bluetooth, USB). Though it lacks on WiFi and GPS, it isn’t a smartphone that will please the business users. Its is rightly labeled the “best cybershot phone’. I personally feel that this one should have come much before, specially as the K850i disappointed. C902 makes up for lack of WiFi with its HSDPA / 3G network. But then 3G isn’t available everywhere, leaving EDGE as the only option for internet. The phone also features a full web browser and Google Maps.
The music in C902 is not Walkman branded but its good, while the MegaBass technology gives good output from the speakers. C902 offers a 160MB internal memory which is good, but moving on to the gigs is the trend. However 160GB + upto 8GB expandable is acceptable. One wonderful thing about the K850i was the interchangeability between M2 and MicroSd cards. Sadly thats missing in the C902, which supports only the Sony M2 card format. Not only is it an expensive option (compared to the MicroSD) its not universal either. Making SE users feel alien J.

Accelerometer has become a common term for cellphones after the iPhone. Just like the K850i the C902 offers a accelerometer that rotates the pictures that you are viewing (toggle between landscape / portrait).

Camera:
Camera had to be the talking point here, and the brand name Sony brings a lot of trust. Sadly the k850i wasn’t spectacular and difficult to use. And thankfully Sony Ericsson has left out the Xenon Flash that they used in the K850i. Yes Xenon Flash is supposed to be better than the regular ones, but if you had experienced the K850i, you would know what I am talking about. C902 has a lot of camera features and will please the camera lovers (Face-detection and Auto-focus). SE C902 offers a 5 megapixel camera with So does it replace your conventional digital camera? read here

The C902 also features the Geo Tagging (Geotagging feature) that automatically Tags the images shot by you with the approximate location of the place where you shot it. This is not as accurate as a GPS system but it utilizes cellular triangulation to conclude the location. The same can then be located on Google Maps that is integrated in the C902.

Verdict:
The C902 is no wonder. It lacks WiFi, GPS, Xenon flash and the only thing that impressed us is the simple design. No we don’t like simple, but then after seeing the horrible (and fat) K850i this slim and simple C902 suits us a little more. At just Rs 2000 ($50) more up for grab is the Nokia N95 which still looks a better option. The C902 leaves a few features but with strong media and a good battery life SE fans would love this K850i upgrade.

(Also I would have loved to see some more colour variations in the C902, currently they offer only the Black colour. Maybe red would look good).

Sony Ericsson C902 and C902i are the same model, ask SE why they confuse …!

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