Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot

Although the C902 marks the dawn of a new range for Sony Ericsson (previous Cyber-shot phones were part of the 'K' class) it's ironic just how entrenched in the past it is. It may be the first in the 'C' series but for all of Sony Ericsson's ostentatious posturing this isn't a substantial step forward when compared to its direct predecessor, the K850. That isn't such a bad thing when you consider that the K850 was a thoroughly likeable (if rather unconventional) piece of consumer electronics, but the lack of genuine advancement is only going to come as a disappointment to hardcore Sony Ericsson fanatics.

Before you fill your head with visions of last year's model masquerading as an entirely new product, it's worth nothing that in terms of aesthetics the C902 does at least attempt to put some distance between itself and its older stable mate. Substantially thinner than the chunky K850 and sporting an unusual 'stripe' pattern which runs around the edge of the phone, the C902 most definitely catches the eye.

The physical interface has undergone some revisions, too; it would appear that the unusual D-pad of the K850 was something of a wasted experiment as the C902 has reverted back to a more customary control method. The four-way pad is reassuringly tactile and grants the user supreme control as they navigate the predictably polished Sony Ericsson user interface; the only bugbear we have is the fact that the 'enter' button in the middle of the pad is raised just a little too much and this leads to irksome accidental presses.

The numerical keypad harks back to the one seen on the W960, with wide oblong buttons that are ever-so-slightly angled. To be honest we weren't too enamored with this set-up. Unless you're the type of person who relentlessly chews their fingernails down to stumps then it's highly probable that you're going to struggle here – there just isn't enough space between each button. The keypad is also positioned too far down the face of the phone; during some particularly furious texting sessions we found that the handset very nearly flipped out of our clammy palm because we were gripping it too far down the body.

Another design concern we had involved the external speaker, which is situated on the bottom right-hand corner of the phone's rear. We found that when gripping the phone normally our hand would cover the speaker, resulting in muffled sound. However, when it was unhindered by brutish mitts it proved to be loud and clear, offering decent bass and crisp audio.

Naturally, as part of the Cyber-shot range, taking photographs is something you're likely to do often with the C902. However, when you first scoop up the phone you might find yourself spending a few seconds gazing in awkward puzzlement – the camera isn't where you might expect to find it. To activate it, you have to slide the top of the phone upwards. It's an unusual design choice that doesn't really seem to bring with it any real benefits, but at least the manufacturer is trying to do something different.

Another thing that stands out as somewhat bizarre is the diminutive display. Although it still boasts a pin-sharp resolution of 240x320 pixels, the two-inch screen looks embarrassingly small when placed alongside the massive TFTs of rival handsets. The reason for this shrinkage is because Sony Ericsson has expanded the touch-sensitive functionality seen on the K850 to create two thin slivers of illuminated controls, one either side of the screen.

When the phone is in camera mode, little blue symbols light up that relate to functions such as flash, focus, timer, etc. Considering the sheer amount of options offered by the Cyber-shot software these additional short-cuts come in very handy indeed, although they're unfortunately a little on the small side and it's not unusual to clumsily select the wrong option when you're attempting to frame the perfect shot.

Generally though, it's hard not to be impressed by the design and build quality of the C902. From the creak-free casing to the robust metal battery cover, it's obvious that plenty of effort has been spent to make sure this phone looks and feels like a highly desirable top-of-the-range product. Elsewhere, however, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what Sony Ericsson has done to make this stand apart from the K850.

For starters, aside from offering slightly improved control via the touch-interface, the photo-taking capabilities of the C902 are actually worse. The five-megapixel sensor is fundamentally unchanged from what we can gather, but for some reason Sony Ericsson has regressed to using an LED flash after featuring a superior Xenon variant in the K850. For a phone that takes itself so seriously as a 'point and shoot' snapper, this move is both puzzling and unforgivable; an LED flash is simply not up to the task of taking snaps in low light. Granted, there have been reports that users were having problems with the Xenon flash of the K850 and this obviously lends some weight to the manufacturer's approach with the C902, but surely reliability issues could have been overcome with a little effort?

Another unfortunate drawback is the removal of microSD support. Sony Ericsson has a long history of only allowing users to insert their proprietary Memory Stick format into its phones but the K850 marked a change in that policy and seemed to indicate that the company was mellowing by supporting industry-leading microSD cards. Sadly, if you've recently invested in a large-capacity microSD card and wish to use it on your brand-new C902, then you're flat out of luck – this is a Memory Stick Micro device only.

Thankfully as a gaming tool the C902 is a marked improvement over its forebear. While the quirky D-pad of the K850 didn't completely sully its gaming credentials, it certainly wasn't the ideal solution. The C902 retains the impressive 3D capabilities of previous Sony Ericsson handsets and boasts the now-ubiquitous accelerometer control, but the addition of a responsive D-pad makes all the difference (although we would have preferred it to offer eight directions of movement as opposed to just four). Need for Speed ProStreet was included with the phone we tested and it played like a dream, with silky-smooth visuals and excellent use of tilt control.

When you consider that Sony Ericsson is proudly positioning the C902 as its flagship Cyber-shot, the lack of tangible improvements over the K850 feels inexcusable – in many ways this phone represents a step backwards. However, even a below-par Sony Ericsson phone is better than what most of its rivals can muster and the C902 retains the hallmarks of the lineage – excellent user interface, silk-smooth functionality and praise-worthy build quality. It's just a shame that the exciting new 'C' range has to debut with such a familiar-feeling phone.