Sony Ericsson's 8.1 megapixel C905 breaks free

No surprises here but at least Sony Ericsson's C905 Cyber-shot is now official. As a camera, we're talking Xenon flash, face detection, image stabilization and 8.1 megapixels crammed into a tiny sensor of unspecified make or dimensions. As a phone we're looking at quad-band GSM (9-hours talk / 380 hours standby) and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 on the C905a worldphone variant. It also comes packing an auto-rotating, 2.4-inch scratch-resistant QVGA display, aGPS with Google Maps, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, 2GB of included Memory Stick Micro (M2), and WiFi with DLNA support when this slider is loosed upon the globe in Q4.

Gallery: Sony Ericsson's 8.1 megapixel C905 breaks free

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[Via Esato, thanks Adrian L.]

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:07AM]

The quality of the photos won't rival those from a £80+ 8.x MP stand-alone digital camera due to the sensor.

The N82's Xenon flash was much more powerful than that of the K850s. Would be interesting to see how the C905's Xenon flash fares up.

[bk7 @ Jun 17th 2008 3:18AM]

Would have thought a major difference between this phone and even a £80 digicam, would be optical zoom. Fooled once by the K800i, im not falling for another camera-centric phone that doesn't have proper zoom.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:37AM]

The refresh rate of the cameras on Sony Ericsson phones in low-light conditions is appalling. Makes it so hard to get the right shot.

[Niz @ Jun 17th 2008 3:40AM]

I dont think any camera phone has had Optical zoom, i for a second thought my N82 did but it was just focusing :( i don't remember my previous camera phones focusing and they took photos fine? hmm anyway this is still pretty cool im not sure sure which phone they're competing with here. That or they've set the bar.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:43AM]

@Niz: The Nokia N93/N93i came out in 06/07 and has a 3.2 MP camera with 3x optical zoom.

[Niz @ Jun 17th 2008 4:09AM]

king yep your right my friend actually has the 93i. Yeh i remember using it i always thought of it as a video camera than a phone i keep forgetting. :)

[j_g_puff @ Jun 17th 2008 4:45AM]

Brilliant! There's not a day goes by when I don't look at my N95 8GB and think "damn, I wish my photos had another 3100000 noisy pixels blurring things up"

[Pdexter @ Jun 17th 2008 6:44AM]

Have to say that competition is taking right direction here. While Nokia has said that they will be improving camera quality rather than getting more mps in same goes with Sams.
And this is still the same SE now with just 8mp camera and 2.4 screen.
Good thing is that it looks pretty nice considering that it's a bit fat(thought not blaming SE for that).

Still i cant help than think that this will be as horrible buggy flop as k850i was. Most of the smartphone, feature phone buyers have already noticed that cybershot dosent mean better quality as Nokia and Sams danced around SE in the gategory where SE should be the one to show the way.
Thought maybe this will actually have good optics? Should see when reviews come out.

[Jamar @ Jun 17th 2008 12:43PM]

If you want a Cybershot phone with optical zoom, go for the SO905iCS. You won't regret it. Unless you want a proper xenon flash, that is.

[ethan @ Jun 17th 2008 6:43PM]

@Jamar - Its nearly impossible to get that phone at a even decent price, unless you live in Japan in something.

@Niz - The Samsung G800 Phone is a 5 Megapixel phone with 3x Optical Zoom.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 8:05PM]

@ethan - The Samsung G800 is thin and yet features 'internal optical zoom'. I bet it would be terrible.

[Oskin @ Jun 19th 2008 3:33AM]

I kind of agree with King on that one... I really don't see the point in a camera phone... I just bought a Nikon coolpix camera for my brother for like 150$ Canadian at best buy. Don't remember the model but it was 8.1 mp with a good optical zoom and its crazy thin too! Being used to my D80, i can tell you that its a kick ass camera for the price/size. And every Sony Ericson's camera phone I've seen were very disappointing imo. As far as i'm conserned, the 2 mp camera on my phone do the job (for a camera on a cell phone)

[Hellios @ Jun 17th 2008 3:31AM]

Can't wait to see the pricetag on this thing.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:54AM]

Flagship Sony Ericsson phones are usually pretty cheap with contracts. They're not on the level of flagship Nokia devices price/feature-wise, anyway.

[Hellios @ Jun 17th 2008 4:16AM]

Then you must have an awesome carrier, since my charges up to 650€ for the w950i.

I hate my carrier and my ISP.

[Alex @ Jun 17th 2008 6:31AM]

I know, right. That has to be the biggest camera, eva!

[Fappy @ Jun 17th 2008 3:44AM]

Its interesting to note that Sony Ericsson arent continuing with the K series. Dont blame them after the disaster that was the K850.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:48AM]

It's true that it was simply a slightly upgraded K800. The K750 was amazing for its time and although the K800 was just an update of the K750, it featured several new important features including a Xenon flash. The K850 didn't do anything much more over the K800 though, which is a shame - especially considering the power and features of it's nearest competitor (the Nokia N95).

[Niz @ Jun 17th 2008 4:04AM]

it is a better looking phone out the lot though its the cheapest 5mp xenon flash phone (i think) although it doesn't do much else this new c905 does a lot more.

[Mike @ Jun 17th 2008 10:48PM]

I believe the 'K' stood for Kamera or something in Swedish... hence the switch to 'C'

[CoolBug @ Jun 17th 2008 3:45AM]

why not wait and see what the end samples are?

these days we expect far too much.

eg how often do we get disappointed with movies these days... our expectations in this day nd age are extremely high and it'll always be hard to impress.

I'm due for an upgrade now. I want the w960i but this may persuad me to wait a few months...

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:52AM]

I believe it will be a slightly upgraded K850. The only real improvement over the K850 is the addition of GPS. Still no Wi-Fi, still no TV-out, still no more-open (e.g. Symbian) OS to allow new programs/functions to be added etc.

[Niz @ Jun 17th 2008 4:06AM]

it says above:

"TV-out, 2GB of included Memory Stick Micro (M2), and WiFi"

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 4:19AM]

As I said to CoolBug, I missed the Wi-Fi and TV-out information. I had the K850 on my mind at the time. The OS statement still stands, though.

I wonder how much internal memory and RAM it has. This thing will be completing against the N96 in the most part, which has 16 GB internal and space for a memory card (up to 32 GB courtesy of MicroSDHC cards) and a DVB-H receiver (Mobile TV) as two examples.

[Stranger @ Jun 17th 2008 3:53AM]

Looks really sweet although I do wish for a larger screen with higher resolution. But as someone said, let's see how it fares in low-light conditions.

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 3:56AM]

Yeah, it's a shame it has a lackluster QVGA screen.

[LondonConsultant @ Jun 17th 2008 3:59AM]

Sony's official press release doesn't mention whether this Cyber-shot phone can record video - let alone the resolution and frame-rate. Maybe video recording details are relevant for marketing purposes...

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 4:00AM]

Anything is better than the videos the K850 produced.

[CoolBug @ Jun 17th 2008 4:02AM]

@King Mustard...

it does infact have TV-Out and Wi Fi (with DLNA support...)

:)

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 4:06AM]

My bad, I completely missed this, sorry. Still, not having an open-OS is a bad move for Sony Ericsson. The only programs/games you could add to the K800/K850 was crappy Java ones, unlike the Nokia N-series devices.

[Richy @ Jun 17th 2008 4:19AM]

@King Mustard

This isn't really intended to go against the Nokia N series phones. This is a high spec 'feature phone', not a 'smart phone'. It's for people (such as my wife) who want a good camera (for a phone) and a phone. That's it. Nothing more. These phones are an awful lot cheaper for the networks to subsidise compared to the N-series.

I bet the vast majority of people who end up with S60 phones do not add a single application (beyond the occaisonal game that you can also get in Java).

SE are, I think, coming our with some Symbian (with a UIQ front end, I'm guessing) camera phones with proper touch screens. They might be worth looking at if you want a smart phone...

[CoolBug @ Jun 17th 2008 4:39AM]

@King Mustard

well... the Sony Ericsson G900 has UIQ 3.0 Symbian OS v9.1

so I assume the C905 will too...

http://www.uiq.com/sonyericsson_g900.html

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 4:43AM]

If that is the case, it could be decent competition to the Nokia N96 (which - even though aimed at different markets - will still be competing in the retail phone stores etc.).

[NightBlade @ Jun 17th 2008 4:55AM]

Nope, it'll have the A3 Sony Ericsson feature phone OS. It's quite nice, though. Best there is, in fact.

[CoolBug @ Jun 17th 2008 4:59AM]

oh okay NightBlade

I hope that means it will have a quick, responsive (more practical imho) OS like most SEs

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 5:39AM]

... with hardly any support for extra software. Exra decent software, anyway.

[substance90 @ Jun 17th 2008 5:12AM]

No touchscreen, no WM 6...

[yui @ Jun 17th 2008 5:17AM]

its about time to sell my SO905ics...
but wait...wait....where is optical zoom?!

[yusuf @ Jun 17th 2008 5:28AM]

In term of the image quality, can this phone replace a “real” digital camera?

http://orisinil.com

[King Mustard @ Jun 17th 2008 5:39AM]

No. Small sensor, no optical zoom, no dedicated processor, less powerful Xenon flash etc.

Depends on the stand-alone camera though, of course.

[Jonas @ Jun 17th 2008 5:42AM]

Price tag around 800USD in Sweden...

[Stranger @ Jun 17th 2008 6:44AM]

Which, when subtracting VAT gives a price of roughly $600-650 on American soil.

[BratPAQ @ Jun 17th 2008 5:47AM]

i think most people know at aware now that its not the megapixel, its the quality of the lens and optical zoom, id take a 5megapixel with optical zoom anytime over this 8megapixel memory space hog anytime.

[Jonas @ Jun 17th 2008 6:02AM]

Hands on picture:
http://www.idg.se/polopoly_fs/1.168347!imageManager/3184107260.jpg
http://www.idg.se/polopoly_fs/1.168349!imageManager/266945260.jpg
http://www.idg.se/polopoly_fs/1.168351!imageManager/1212758076.jpg

[Jeff Snugglebutton @ Jun 17th 2008 8:17AM]

MY GOD!!! That is one chunkkkky monkey

[Robert @ Jun 17th 2008 9:14AM]

Had the K800i it took great pics have the k850 it takes crap photos i refuse to get burned again by SE running before it can walk.

[King Mustard @ Jun 18th 2008 12:05AM]

I second that notion. The photos taken by the K850 when the flash is used turn out with a rather strong yellow tint. Shame, really.

[Alex @ Jun 17th 2008 10:15AM]

Looks great, so how much will that be Sony? Oh, darn...nobody will buy it because it's $699 (or something in that range).

[giedrys @ Jun 17th 2008 11:29AM]

Engadget, listen and learn: 905a is not a "world" phone. "a" stands for americas, "i" for international, and that will be a worldphone.

[Iridium @ Jun 17th 2008 11:31AM]

I'd love to buy a phone like that. But I can't becuase there are no carriers that can use the phone other than AT&T.

Shouldn't I be able to buy any phone and use it for any carrier. What happenned to that?

As long as the photos are acceptable it is fine. What do people want DSLR quality photos from a phone? I have a DSLR but I don't want to carry it all the time. I don't want to spend $250 on another point and shoot and most cameraphones in the US are VGA if you are lucky 2 MP with absolute garbage image quality.

I would think you could get a pretty nice 4x6 with a Cybershot Phone. That is all that matters.