Digital Trends

Sony Ericsson C902 November 25th, 2008 | by Stewart Wolpin

Can a phone serve as a workable PMP?

Because the C902 is unlocked, its video capabilities are dependent on which GSM service you tether the phone to. We did not have a compatible AT&T card to test the phone with, and T-Mobile doesn't offer any video services.

But demo videos pre-loaded into the C902 looked sharp, like little HD videos, with no sign of the usual digital flaws. Thanks to the C902's accelerometer, videos can be watched full screen when the phone is turned sideways. This widescreen view helps a lot considering the screen's otherwise relatively diminutive dimensions, but I'm not sure I'd want to squint for two hours trying to watch a movie that way.

The C902's music capabilities are excellent, but the phone lacks the proper physical attributes to make it a total success. Compatible with MP3 and non-protected AAC, the C902 is easily loaded with tracks by either drag-and-dropping or via Windows Media Player (although, since WMP doesn't handle AAC files, you'll have to drag-and-drop your ripped-for-iPod tracks).

Once your music tracks are loaded into the phone, you'll have to drill through menus to get to the player, since there's no external direct-to-music button. The closest thing to it is a Media soft menu button that gives you a list of the varying multimedia content, meaning you're three to four clicks away from grooving. Thankfully, music starts to play instantaneously once a track is chosen.

The music play screen supplies the usual song data – track name, artist, album, time elapsed and remain, and play mode (shuffle or loop). You don't get album art, however. You can "minimize" the player, which hides the music play/data screen while you perform other phone functions. Pressing the soft Media key brings the music screen back.

The problem, of course, is that damned ancient and clunky two-pronged Sony-Ericsson jack. Rather than a standard 3.5mm jack, the C902 includes an adapter with that ridiculous plug at one end and a female 3.5mm plug with in-line microphone at the other, plus a two-piece headphone/earbud combination with a standard 3.5mm jack. Thanks, but this is still an awkward arrangement – now I have to worry about two sets of cables for private listening. Seriously, Sony, it is time to move on, jack-wise.

To enhance music sound, there's EQ settings for bass, mega bass, voice (presumably for talking books), and treble boost, as well as a separate stereo widening setting. 

Video

The C902 shoots 3ivx MPEG-4 320 x 240 pixel video, nearly twice the resolution of the usual H.263 .gp 176 x 144 pixel videos shot by other camera phones. Thanks to their greater resolution, when blown up, videos lack the nearly

unwatchable digital artifacts that infect other tiny videos.
However, footage shot in less than ideal lighting conditions suffers from more blurriness than expected. 

Camera

Not only is the C902 unique in the way it hides its camera away, it's unique in how you control it, too. Even though the C902 doesn't have a touch screen, the camera controls are touch sensitive. When you pull open the camera, the screen's bezel top and bottom lights up with blue backlit touch controls. The navigation pad controls additional non-touch menu options on the right, such as the toggle between still and video capture.

These controls make it ridiculously simple to switch shooting modes and find settings such as panorama, timer, scene mode and flash, which are normally buried inconveniently in options menus.

Image Courtesy of Sony Ericsson

Like any standalone digital camera, you depress the shutter release halfway to focus, then press all the way to capture the image. Pictures snap nearly instantaneously, and its Xenon flash can brighten a scene wider and farther than cheaper LED video lights.

Images produced by the C902 are among the best we've seen, although not as amazingly spectacular as those produced by the Motorola ZINE ZN5, which are the best we've seen from a cell phone. Colors are bright, even those lit by the flash, but night scenes lit by the flash can be blurry unless you manage to hold the camera dead still.