Sony Ericsson C510 Review Photos

19th March, 2009

Style & Handling Summary

The C510 looks very similar to the C902, but we love the big, vibrant screen. Unfortunately, this does encroach on the keypad and leave it a little cramped.

User Friendliness Summar

The screens are easy to navigate, and the shortcuts to the social networking sites (3 only) were very convenient.

Feature Set Summary

The C510 has an impressive spec list, especially for a mid-range handset, and it looks similar to the flagship device, the C902.

Performance Summary

The camera takes excellent shots, and the social networking features are bound to be a hit.

Battery Power Summary

Battery life is really excellent, we gave it five stars.

The Verdict

Considering the C510 is categorised as a mid-tier handset, this handset more than delivers

Mid-range handsets are becoming so well equipped that place them against the flagship devices from two years ago and they more than hold their own. The Sony Ericsson C510 is one such device with an impressive spec sheet, which includes a 3.2-megapixel camera, Google Maps and an accelerometer for auto-rotating images. It even looks like a flagship device, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Sony Ericsson C902.

It’s worth noting that though the C510 is available on all operators, 3 has an exclusive (albeit temporarily) of pre-embedding the device with a host of social networking apps.

 

Look and feel

 

As we mentioned, the C510 looks remarkably similar to the popular C902, particularly in its black variant. It is in fact 15g lighter and a tad thinner, but the candybar format coupled with the cleverly shielded slide-out camera are near dead ringers. The screen is both big and vibrant dominating the fascia of the handset.

Unfortunately, this has a slight knock on effect to the keypad, leading to a cramped experience with frequent inadvertent wrong key presses.

 

Camera credentials

 

To fire up the camera, you have to turn the phone over sliding the back open with your thumb. This is not as slick as on the C902, but it’s a good way of protecting the lens when it’s not in use.

As part of Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot range, we expected, and were duly rewarded with, an above average snapper. While it is just 3.2 megapixels, the manufacturer has included several beneficial features.

 

These include burst mode, which takes four snaps in quick succession, and face recognition, which sharpens the person’s features giving you a crisper, more detailed snap. However, we found with the latter that you need to be less than three metres from your subject and they need to be looking at you face on. Smile detection was another impressive function that automatically captures a shot when your subject grins. It worked flawlessly. One function that did baffle us somewhat was the ‘document’ mode. The idea is that when in this mode you will be able to capture sharper, more contrasting photos of texts or drawings. Good for capturing a business card one would imagine. However, we didn’t see any noticeable improvement, other than the image appeared a little brighter.

The more observant of you will notice that when using the camera, the ‘3’, ‘6’, ‘9’ and ‘#’ keys illuminate blue highlighting the fact that they double up as shortcut keys.

However, when using these shortcut keys, if you take too long in choosing, it will automatically select the mode you have rested on, which proved irksome.

 

Social networking

 

Click the favourites key found on the home screen and you’ll be taken to a list that includes one press access to Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and YouTube – all exclusive if you get the device on 3.
Log into your Facebook account to get your latest news feeds and updates; however, come out of this and until you log out, all your friends updates will be in view on your home screen in a carousel-like fashion. While the YouTube application is a welcome addition, the videos were often pixelated, and the volume was very quiet.

 

The verdict

 

Overall the Sony Ericsson C510 gets the thumbs up, particularly when taking into account its mid-tier status. The camera is capable of some cracking shots with plenty of on-board features and 3’s exclusive array of social networking applications are bound to be a big hit among the Facebook, MySpace and Bebo community. Another well rounded mid-range handset from team Sony Ericsson.