The customers still remember Sony Ericsson W880i. С902 has got exactly the same positioning with the only difference that W880i had an extra focus put on music and С902 has got the one on its photo capabilities. W880i is a market idol in the segment of music- (or relatively music-) phones, С902 becomes the same icon among photo solutions. At the same time, as we have already said, the camera is just an additional focus. The 5Mpix unit ranks among the most inexpensive ones; there is no xenon flash utilized in all top Cyber-shot devices. But one doesn’t expect all this from a tiny model 10 mm thick implemented in a metal casing and enjoying a camera lens guard of the unique design. The company have set a kind of record with this model, having outpaced the leader in the segment of slim devices - Samsung. The Korean manufacturer’s flagship is 2.5 mm thicker; the truth is it’s implemented in the slider form factor.

	Sony Ericsson C902 Specifications
Supported networks:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 + UMTS/HSDPA 2100
Memory:	160 Mb of user Memory Stick Micro slot (M2), up to 4 Гб No card bundled
Screen:	2,0" , QVGA (240х320), 262K
Connectivity:	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, поддерживается A2DP
Camera:	5 Mp (up to 2592х1944), auto-focusing, flash, video (QVGA 30 fps)
Battery life:	BST-38, capacity - 930 mAh up to 9 hours of talktime up to 400 hours of standby
Dimensions:	108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
Weight:	107 g
Guiding price:	€350-400

Sony Ericsson C902 starts a new trend; it’s a unique thing in its own way, remarkable and interesting. What position does the gadget take up in the manufacturer’s product range? The high price, strong fashion effect, minimal dimensions and high-quality materials, interesting innovations place this product in the category of things that are not destined to become mass ones. С902 plays in the same class with Samsung U900, but the latter is one of the two key models of the company for the year 2008 offering the best set of specs in the whole portfolio. It will be promoted most actively and due to the high expectations about the model as well as the great volume of storage supplies the price will decrease over time. The case of Sony Ericsson is quite a different story; the model is not a flagship in the true sense of the word. As well as for W880i in its time, one shouldn’t expect the price for С902 get down fast; such position is most correct in the view of forming the line of fashion products in different categories.

Design and ergonomics

The gadget’s design causes only positive emotions. The major part of the casing is made of metal coated with black or red paint; the "cover" lens guard, the insert at the bottom part of the handset and the front panel are plastic. The material is of high quality, the implementation gives rise to no reprimands as well. Even in spite of the presence of moving parts, С902 definitely looks like a monolith; it sits snugly in the hand and the dimensions are quite optimal. The framing around the screen is glossy; it tends to be easily soiled, which is noticeable. At the same time the back surface is matte and the strips of the plastic side edging painted silver and red result in an interesting visual effect.

The camera lens guard is implemented as a kind of cover; it automatically activates the camera and the sensor panels around the screen when open. This solution somewhat resembles Nokia 8600 Luna where the camera was protected with a slider covering the numerical keypad. This way or another, the design is reliable; the rigid fastening of the lens guard gives it a monolith feeling, casual openings are excluded. Besides, there are no protruding parts usually increasing the thickness of the gadget; everything looks most harmonious and is handy at that, ergonomics has not been sacrificed to design. The construction disadvantage is only those small scratches appearing on the front panel because of the close-fitting moving part of the casing. In most cases the scratches are imperceptible; that shouldn’t be taken as a drawback. The space with the onboard camera lens isn’t exposed to scratching since the rim of the unit protrudes about half a millimeter from the surface.

On the right edge of the handset there are the shoot button and the sound volume rocker. Because of the peculiar design of the camera cover they were moved downwards. It’s not too convenient to adjust the volume while talking; you have to use the other hand to do that. The firmware Fast-Port connector alone is put on the left edge. The brand-specific jack of the headset is big in size; its thickness is comparable to that of the handset itself, which doesn’t add to the ergonomics.

The keypad of Sony Ericsson C902 is hard enough to press, the keystroke is shallow. The phone isn’t too handy to type a great number of messages with. It’s a side effect of the minimal thickness - one always has to look for a compromise. The keys backlight is white; it turns blue in the camera mode. The central row of the numericals is backlit brighter, but it doesn’t cause any inconvenience. The symbols remain legible in the dark.

The back panel hosts the polyphonic speaker. It’s of a rather high quality; the truth is, the sound gets muffled when the phone rests on a flat surface or in the pocket, so there’s a good chance to miss a call. The battery cover is made of a thick plate of stainless steel; you won’t manage to bend it unless you apply special efforts. The cover is fitting even too tightly, any minimal play is excluded; the handset is a monolith. Under it there is an M2 type card holder, hot swap is possible. No memory expansion card comes with the sales package.

Screen

Sony Ericsson С902 is equipped with a QVGA (320x240) TFT-powered screen. The diagonal counts only 2 inches, which isn’t sufficient for a photo-oriented solution. However the screen size of this model is determined by the following factor: on both sides of it there are touch-responsive sections granting quick access to the camera settings. They are four on each side; the icons are invisible if inactive and backlit only in the shooting mode. One can draw an analogy with Motorola RAZR2 V8; the lower part of its exterior screen is of the touch type. But the principle of operation is different here - the icons are not a part of the screen; they are separate non-virtual elements. Quite accordingly, you cannot change their arrangement and quantity. However, there is no need for that: the eight items include all the settings necessary for shooting.

The quality of the screen itself is excellent; due to its small physical size the picture is smooth, distinct, the colours are highly natural. The poor margin of brightness can be considered a minus; the maximum level of backlight isn’t sufficient for most situations. This can be explained by an intention to reduce power consumption, which is coming to the forefront in the slim model. Let’s compare the brightness and colour rendering of the Sony Ericsson C902 and Nokia 6220 classic screens:

Battery life

Traditionally enough, the SE model is powered by a BST-38 battery with a capacity of 930 mAh. The manufacturer claims up to 9 hours of talktime and 400 hours of standby. The battery capacity is sufficient to keep the device running for about three days of moderate duty cycle (about an hour of talk time, two hours of listening to MP3 and shooting, an hour of other functions and menu browsing). The result is sufficient for the majority of users and quite remarkable for a slim handset.

	Samsung U900 Soul	Sony Ericsson C902
Standard duty	2 суток	3 суток
Multimedia cycle, video (3GP)	3:28	4:10
Multimedia cycle, audio (MP3)	11:56	16:05

Connectivity

Like the majority of 3G-models of the company, C902 makes use of the secondary camera for video calls. The gadget supports HSDPA but lacks an IR-port; there is just a Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR unit. It gives rise to no reprimands, including while using a stereo headset. The following profiles are supported:

• Basic Imaging
• Dial-up Networking
• File Transfer
• Generic Access
• Generic Object Exchange
• Handsfree
• Headset
• HID
• JSR-82 Java API
• Object Push
• Personal Area Networking
• Serial Port
• Synchronization
• SyncML OBEX binding
• Audio/Video Remote Control
• Phonebook Access

The Flight Mode option is available, although the SIM card is required to be kept in the phone; otherwise the handset will turn on, but the functions not dependant on a network (player, camera) won’t be available. It’s a major drawback of all Sony Ericsson gadgets (even smartphones) in comparison with other competing offers.

The wire connection is implemented using the traditional interface. USB 2.0 support is stated by the manufacturer, but in reality the data transfer rate is much lower – about 500 Kbps. The three supported connection types are: Modem Connection, Mass Storage and PictBridge.

The required mode can be selected in the respective menu. In our tests Mass Storage connection functioned correctly, both storage segments (internal phone memory and memory card) were showing up properly. The synchronization with the help of Sony Ericsson PC Suite coming on the bundled CD is possible. Only the location of the above-mentioned Fast Port on the left edge is disappointing.

An onboard FM tuner is available. It comes with the TrackID recognition service. RDS is supported; the autosearch function and a 20 station memory are available. The interface of the application is nice and handy. The quality of reception keeps at the same high level as the volume of sound does.

Java performance

As usual, the Java functionality sports a brilliant implementation in Sony Ericsson products - 3D profiles are supported, Java midlets can be sent via Bluetooth, the performance is also pleasantly high; everything is on a level with the said K850i:

	Java performance
Model	Sony Ericsson C902	Samsung U900 Soul
Jbenchmark 1.0.1 Score	7011	1329
Text	2197	310
2D Shapes	1705	314
3D Shapes	816	243
Fill Rate	555	134
Animation	1699	328
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	1221	152
Image Manipulations	402	179
Text	756	172
Sprites	583	157
3D Transform	765	130
User Interface	18943	129
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	167	187
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	305	211
Triangles ps	32956	18919
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	95 (3.2 fps)	131 (4.4 fps)
Smooth triangles	44004	41491
Textured triangles	25433	27654
Fill rate, KTexels	556	716

User interface

Sony Ericsson C902 is designed on the basis of the А200 platform; all the functionality typical of the platform is available here as well. For more details, concerning the implementation of the messaging and call services, PIM, multimedia and so on, please refer to the respective release:

Basic functionality review of the Sony Ericsson A200 platform

A number of original user themes are present. They change the graphical appearance of the interface, its overview. Except for the traditional 4x3 grid pattern, the main menu sports a couple of alternative views: rotating and single icon ones.

Preinstalled software

The two preinstalled games are: Need for Speed ProStreet and the Brain Juice classic logical entertainment.

A remote control application is available, which allows you to control some PC operations remotely, though the required software has to be installed from the stock CD to your desktop. Among other applications there is FaceWrap. With the help of this funny editor you can modify faces and other subjects in photos.

Google Maps 2.0 comes as a standard application of the А200 platform, but full-blown navigation is possible only with the onboard GPS-receiver. There is none of it in this model, but all of the base map functionality is present. The gadget makes use of cell towers to locate itself. The Google Maps application is free, the only advantage is that the software is preinstalled and enjoys some extra settings as compared to the basic version. Among the latter ones we’d check out Distance Measuring Tool (two measurement systems are available), Auto-Scaling Maps, List of Selected Locations, Google Maps Route Tools, Points of Interest (POI) Search and so on. In general the interface of the application is convenient; it gave a good account of itself, yet the lack of the route calculation capability, the possibility to save it and downloaded maps can be considered a disadvantage. The Nokia Maps 2.0 application available in most smartphones and a number of the latest models of the company considerably outpaces the rival in functionality, usability and remains the main offer on the mass market.

Multimedia features

The Media item in the menu is traditional for all the new devices based off the А200 platform; the MP3 player interface is exactly the same as in the majority of other phones, for example, K850i. The player controls are very easy to use, the options include auto repeat, random order playback, sorting by performer, genre, enhanced stereo (turning on that function didn’t give us an impression of the sound quality getting any better though). Progressive rewinding is fully supported. The info about the currently playing song is shown on the phone screen.

The headset is quite a trivial piece, no 3.5 mm adapter is present. The volume of sound during mp3 playback is sufficient for most environments except for some really noisy places; it’s one of the weak points of the company’s phones. The quality of sound doesn’t rouse censure; it’s comparable to all other models of the company including Walkman-solutions, but yielding in this aspect to the latest-gen phones by Nokia and Samsung. Such implementation will be sufficient for undemanding users. If with the gadgets initially positioned as music-oriented ones the quality of sound isn’t quite in keeping with such positioning, this point isn’t so much critical for a fashion phone focused on its camera capabilities such as С902. The continuous mp3 cycle lasted as long as 16 hours.

The TrackID service is fully operational. With its help you can record a part of the composition and it’s sent to the web. The information about the song title and performer name, if available, is forwarded to you in a message. This also means that the track is in the database and, of course, you can purchase it immediately. The service is interesting for a large number of users, mostly the youth. This feature is also useful with the integrated FM tuner.

Camera

The onboard camera capabilities of Sony Ericsson C902 are to be discussed in a separate article:

The C902 camera review and comparison to Nokia 6220 classic

The interface of the gadget is most convenient; the same can be said about management via the sensor panels - the settings are achieved easily in an almost one-touch fashion. Such implementation is quite sufficient for a fashion model, though Samsung U900 is on higher level, providing better quality of pictures and similar usability. There’s no ground for drawing any direct comparison with the Nokia N82 or 6220 Classic types of cameraphones; the models have different target audiences.

Photo samples at maximum quality settings:

SMAPE's opinion

The conclusions drawn regarding Sony Ericsson C902 are almost the same as for Samsung U900 Soul; we have deliberately called these solutions much similar in positioning and intersecting of their target audiences. Both the handsets sport the camera units of rather fair quality, well-thought-through and even somewhat identical systems of management (touch-sensitive panels in С902 and secondary screen icons in U900 Soul), a good number of other features. But neither of them can be considered a top-class cameraphone, since in such parameter as the quality pictures they yield to the purely photo-oriented solutions - Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia N82. The only alternative to Sony Ericsson C902 is Samsung U900 as well as the recently announced Motorola ZN5 – a slim cameraphone marketed under the brand of Kodak and equipped with xenon flash. The three solutions will form the basis of the fashion cameraphone segment, each being interesting in its own way.

C902 is a truly well-balanced and interesting solution, the icon of style among photo-oriented devices. The high quality of materials and implementation, metal applied, minimal dimensions, excellent design and perhaps the most convenient camera management system are unique features of С902. The model stays apart in the product range of the company, starting a new trend of cameraphones that assign primary importance to appearance and dimensions rather than quality of pictures and onboard camera capabilities.

The only minus of С902 is its price, which is going to reach about 400 euros in late June. Such a price isn’t quite reasonable for a handset with an integrated camera and not the very best specs. However, the latter statement doesn’t concern this gadget. С902 isn’t intended for an audience looking for maximum capabilities. In this case the quality camera is just a nice extra to all other specs of the product and the said price is more than adequate for a high-quality fashion phone.

+ Excellent quality of materials and assembly
+ Minimal dimensions for a 5 Mp cameraphone
+ Convenient design of the lens guard
+ Touch panels granting quick access to settings
- Small screen
- Hard-to-touch keypad
- No standard slots
- Poor quality of photos

Author: Anton Spiridonov, editor@smape.com

SMAPE.com

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