Sony Ericsson's C905 shutterbug (and friends) in the wild

Press shots are often beautiful, but the problem with 'em is that they're usually about as real as Joan Rivers' face -- not the best way to get a real impression of what a device looks and acts like in the flesh. GSM Helpdesk scored some hands-on time today with the full range of Sony Ericsson's new wares, and the headliner of the bunch, the mighty 8.1 megapixel C905, is looking ready for battle. Not literal battle, of course, but battle in the marketplace with a whole host of feature phones being released this year from its top rivals -- particularly important at a time when market share is falling. The 2.4-inch display is apparently "clear" and plenty impressive for managing your extensive photo library, and we're digging the curvy styling; UIQ would've been nice, but we suppose the dumbphone set deserves killer cameras too. Also pictured are the low-end J132 and K330, the S302 (which with a 2 megapixel camera, may not be worthy of the name "Snapshot"), and the F305 gaming phone. We'd had high hopes for the F305 -- as we do for pretty much anything that can be shaken to control games -- but the live shots here are leaving us a little underwhelmed. Maybe the white version will do it justice?

Read - C905, S302
Read - F305
Read - J132, K330

[Mohammed Khadir @ Jun 17th 2008 5:53PM]

Have you guys heard anything about how much it will go for ?

[MrFairladyz @ Jun 17th 2008 6:22PM]

I dunno man id say itll be $150 with a 2-year.

is it just me or is Sony/sony ericsson coming out with like 10 new products a day for like the past week. Tv's cameras, phones, music players, bluetooth headests etc...

[Ace b @ Jun 17th 2008 7:06PM]

Maybe Sony lost a bet?

[Khattab @ Jun 17th 2008 11:09PM]

The MSRP in Europe (Germany) is 589 Euro.

[Alex Padilla @ Jun 17th 2008 6:02PM]

Engadget - 1
Joan Rivers' plastic surgeon - 0

[Alex Padilla @ Jun 17th 2008 6:03PM]

err, and...

Joan Rivers - -1

[Nex @ Jun 17th 2008 6:14PM]

Off topic but.. Anyone notice engadget didnt cover the release of Firefox 3, or the fact that as of a few minutes ago 1,561,394 total downloads, with 459,993 from the U.S. alone.. but if it was a Safari service patch they would have done hourly updates... sad..

[bk7 @ Jun 17th 2008 6:18PM]

Well I dont know if you saw earlier but they tried to, made a hash of it and deleted the post.

Well done on bringing Apple into this though..

[Nazul @ Jun 17th 2008 6:51PM]

Yes, I noticed that, downloaded F3 and am using it.

[Martin Rafferty @ Jun 17th 2008 8:35PM]

Did you notice that FireFox 3 is NOT a Gadget and downloadsqaud which is a sister site actually DID cover it? Did you notice that? (Not to say that Engagdment has never covered software releases but they should let their sister sites do their sisterly duties_)

[someduckperson @ Jun 17th 2008 7:08PM]

UIQ would've been nice? I've had a SE phone every year for the last 5+ years, just 'upgraded' to a P1i and it's the slowest buggiest interface I've ever used, wish i'd stuck to one of their normally reliable & responsive 'dumbphones'...

[Deluxe @ Jun 17th 2008 10:24PM]

God I'm on with you., I have the W960i walkman flagship, fuck off UIQ piece of crap! Gimme dumbphone OS with this awesome hardware.

[Viakenny @ Jun 17th 2008 7:16PM]

it will be quad-band GSM, UMTS/HSDPA 2100 (or the American version, the C905a, with quad-band GSM and UMTS/HSDPA 850/900/2100).

[Niki @ Jun 17th 2008 7:17PM]

YAY!

[Andrew Tanasescu @ Jun 17th 2008 7:45PM]

For people doubting the C905's camera potential check out some of its new pics.

http://www.planete-nokia.com/phpBB2/uploads/post-4-1213695546.jpg
http://www.planete-nokia.com/phpBB2/uploads/post-4-1213695839.jpg
http://www.planete-nokia.com/phpBB2/uploads/post-4-1213715637.jpg

[Andrew Tanasescu @ Jun 17th 2008 7:46PM]

hmm, only 3 urls at a time...

another pic
http://www.planete-nokia.com/phpBB2/uploads/post-4-1213718585.jpg

More pics at: http://www.planete-nokia.com/phpBB2/index.php?showtopic=4328&st=19245
its a french site. just look for "Par le Sony Ericsson C905" before the pictures cause there are plenty of other pictures in the thread from other phones.

[Hotrod @ Jun 17th 2008 8:57PM]

Pretty impressive, could possibly free up a pocket that used to hold a point & shoot.

[Ricardo Torres @ Jun 17th 2008 8:04PM]

That's pretty decent quality for a camera phone.

thnx for the info!

[Cash @ Jun 18th 2008 4:06AM]

Man I wish SE would drop that proprietary connector already. Not only is the thing huge, but they have to place it in some of the worst spots possible.

[Orinjz @ Jun 19th 2008 10:10AM]

I totally agree with you on the connector issue; it wasn't so bad when SE had them on the bottom of their phones (although it was still awkward). the most galling thing of all is that file transfers via the fastport (ha!) are still as slow as USB 1.

I can't wait for the day when SE gives the consunmer a mini usb connector or a proper 3.5mm headphone jack.

[Schfelzerberg @ Jun 18th 2008 5:19AM]

It's 8.1 megapixels and my sister's 5 megapixel Canon Ixus will still be doing rounds around this thing. And yeah, SE should drop the proprietary connector and just stick with mini-USB (or was it micro?). I mean... the other companies like their nemesis Nokia is doing it too.

[Jamar @ Jun 18th 2008 8:23AM]

Why on earth are they still using M2? Their Japanese phones have already gone microSD only!

[Alex @ Jun 18th 2008 10:28AM]

**SNAP**

there goes that slidy screen...