BARCELONA, Spain - Unveiled in London a week before the Mobile World Congress 2009, the Sony Ericsson C903 Cyber-shot is designed to be a powerful, yet easy-to-use camera-phone.

With a 5 megapixel camera which has autofocus, dual LED flash, video recording, picture and video blogging, SmileShutter and BestPic technologies, face detection, image and video stabilizer, and connectivity to the Snapfish online service, the C903 is indeed a powerful imaging tool.

Among the main specifications of the phone, one can find a 2.4" TFT display with 240x320 pixels of resolution, triband HSPA and quadband GSM connectivity, Bluetooth, TV-out, A-GPS, connection to the TrackID service, and USB connectivity.

The C903 is not a smartphone, although it does offer many desirable applications, such as Google Maps, Wayfind Navigator, YouTube, and others.

The phone has been released in many parts of the world in a version for the North American part, and another for the rest of the world; depending on regional availability, the C903 will retail in three colours: Lacquer Black, Techno White, and Glamour Red; all these are pictured in this review.

The material used on the C903 suggests that this phone is targetting the younger audience in the market, one which would need a good quality camera; however, the different colours can also stretch to different levels of society.

The front part of the C903 contains two raised soft keys, a d-pad, two raised call keys, the activity button, and the clear key. Above the display there is a camera for 3G videocalls, and a ambience light detector.

The numeric keypad, hidden by the sliding platform, resembles the format of that used on the Nokia N96. There are horizontal divisions, but no vertical ones.

On the right side of the phone there is a camera key, imaging function keys, and a volume/zoom rocker. These are raised, regular keys.

Sony Ericsson's Fast Port and the m2 memory card slot are located on the left side of the phone. The manufacturer has been recently making use of microSD memory card support, as these cards are cheaper and widely used in the market.

The back part of the phone contains a large sliding cover for the camera, which reminds one of the Samsung G800's sliding cover, although this one operates in a horizontal form. The cover is slightly too large, raises the device from the ground, and it also contributes to the (acceptable)96g weight of the phone.

The 5 megapixel camera on the C903 has autofocus, a dual LED flash, video recording, picture and video blogging, SmileShutter and BestPic technologies, face detection, image and video stabilizer, and connectivity to the Snapfish online service.

The Sony Ericsson C903 Cyber-shot is more of a device that needs to be added to the catalogue, rather than one which is being introduced in the market to innovate. The phone brings diversity and stretches the potential of the manufacturer's offerings in the market. In the consumer perspective, the C903 should be a cheaper high-quality camera-phone, and should please those look

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