Besides an auto mode, the scene settings that we mentioned earlier include twilight landscape, landscape, portrait, beach/snow, sports, and document. Though that's an excessive assortment of options, we were hoping for a better flash. Not only is it rather dim, you also don't get any settings like a red-eye reduction or an "always on" mode. The panorama mode was disappointing as well. Unlike the Samsung Innov8 and the or the Motorola ZN5, you must line up and take each shot yourself, as opposed to the camera doing it for you. What's more, the onscreen guide for lining up your next photo isn't very useful.
For all its hoopla, the Sony Ericsson's photo quality falls a bit short in early testing. Colors looked relatively natural, but images were a tad washed out. Also, we detected some image noise around smaller objects.
The camcorder takes clips in one resolution with sound. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 24 seconds, but you can shoot for much longer in normal mode. Editing options are similar to the still camera, if a bit slimmed down. The C902 has a healthy 160MB of internal shared memory, but we suggest getting a memory card just the same. Our review phone came with a 1GB Memory Stick Micro card, but the C902 will support cards up to 8GB. A handy onscreen meter will tell you how much space you have left.
When finished with your shots you have a number of options. You can scroll through them on your display in a slide show format. Creative touches abound--for example, as the phone cycles through shots, the display will zoom in slightly on the image's focus and pan around just a bit, or it will change the color tone, among other effects. You can even activate a background tune (sad, romantic, energy, and happy) as your shots whiz by. It's just too bad you can't select one of your own tunes as an accompaniment. Though it all sounds corny--and we admit that it is, just a bit--we still liked it.
What's more, when viewing photos you can zoom in and pan around the shot and the autorotate feature will always show the position in which you took the shot. The Photo Fix feature will adjust color and light balance, and you can use the PhotoDJ and VideoDJ apps to edit your work even further. If you've geotagged your shots, you'll be able to see where you took them. You also get Face Warp and Photo Mate applications.
Getting photos off your phone is very easy using Bluetooth, a memory card, or a USB cable. When using the latter, your PC should recognize the phone immediately-- even without installing the included PC Suite software (which we've never liked anyway). You should then to be able to access the phone and pull out the pictures that you want. You also can connect the phone directly to a photo printer and upload photos to a blog.
The C902's music player (MPS and AAC files) isn't officially a Walkman player, but it might as well be. Settings include an equalizer, playlists, stereo widening, Sony's Mega Bass, and shuffle and loop modes. The interface is minimalist, but functional. There are no visualizations, but the player supports album art. Just keep in mind that it won't recognize every song it plays. Other features include an FM radio, TrackID, and support for audio books and podcasts. Getting music on the phone is as easy as it was with photos.
You can personalize the C902 with a variety of themes, wallpaper, screensavers, and clock styles. Some of the wallpapers include animation, which can deplete battery life. As always, you can purchase more options and ringtones from Sony Ericsson via the WAP 2.0 Web browser. Alternatively, the phone comes with a Music DJ application for composing your own ringtones. Gamers can enjoy three Java (J2ME) titles, FotoQuest Finish, Need for Speed and Solitaire, with additional titles available for purchase.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) C902 in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was quite good. We enjoyed clear conversation, with sharp audio and loud volume. The signal remained relatively strong, and we encountered no static or interference from other electronic devices. Voices sounded natural, as well. The only issue we noticed--and it was minor--was that the audio cut out for a split second on some occasions.
On their end, callers said we sounded fine. They could tell we were using a cell phone, but on the whole, they didn't report many major problems. Some callers said the C902 picked up some background noise. Automated-calling systems could understand us as long as we were calling from a relatively quiet location. Speakerphone calls were decent, though the sound was distorted at the highest volumes. Still, we could understand our friends, and vice versa, when making speakerphone calls. Call quality over Bluetooth headsets was satisfactory.
The C902 supports EDGE and 3G service. Yet, it supports only the 2100 band (UMTS and HSDPA), which works exclusively outside North America. In places with 3G, the C902 supports video calling.
Music quality was enjoyable, though it suffered in comparison to Walkman phones like the W980.The speaker has decent output, but our tunes lacked range and sounded tinny. A headset will provide the best experience.
The C902 has a rated battery life of 9 hours talk time and 15.83 days standby time. It has a tested talk time of 5 hours and 55 minutes. According to FCC radiation charts, the C902 has a digital SAR rating of 1.32 watts per kilogram.
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