Sony Ericsson C510 review

Sony Ericsson was certainly one of the forerunners in mobile cameras when it launched the K800i in 2006, but its latest dawn of Cybershot cameras seem stuck in the past.

The C510, for example, is plasticky and doesn't feel anywhere near as premium as the Nokia N8 or other smartphones.

Sure, it's a little further down towards the budget end of Sony Ericsson devices, currently priced as Rs. 7,500 in India, but that doesn't mean Sony Ericsson should have gone down the plain styling route.

The back plate is a flimsy piece of plastic and the front leaves a lot of design to be desired. The sliding lens cover also feels a little flimsy and we can see it losing some security after a lot of usage. the front of the device is pretty plain, with solid plastic keys. The camera key lights up if you're using the camera, meaning it's easy to use in badly lit places.

Below the screen, there's a square four-way navigation button with select in the centre, with call answer and end buttons, soft keys for setting shortcuts and cancel keys on either side. The device we were reviewing was the 'future black' version.

The C510 has been marketed as a camera phone and with a 3.2-megapixel camera, it lives up to expectation.

However, the quality of the pictures should live up to the Cybershot name and that's where the Sony Ericsson C510 fails.

The shutter is slow, meaning your photos will come out blurry and even finding the shot is a task. The viewfinder is always a couple of seconds behind your movement, resulting in a jerky effect.

The C510 does feature Sony Ericsson's smile shutter technology that apparently detects a smiling face in a photo. We didn't manage to make this work though.

Other little Cybershot features include a panorama mode where you can stitch a number of shots together to create a panorama and a flash, which didn't really highlight the subject matter as we wished.

There's also the ability to edit the photos on device, thanks to the onboard Photofix application and send them to your social networks via the social networking tools.

Sony Ericsson has included the threaded messaging interface to make reading and replying to text messages a whole lot easier. considering the C510 is Java-based, it's great to see this feature isn't just limited to the top end smartphones.

In terms of pre-loaded apps, we've covered some of them above, but you'll also find Google Maps preloaded for making it easier to get from A to B. However, there's no integrated GPS so you'll have to rely on your mobile phone network to find out where you are. It's an antiquated system and will only provide you with a rough location guide rather than being exact.

The Sony Ericsson C510 is very definitely a budget Cybershot device. It's pretty disappointing in most places, but if you're looking for a phone that does calling and texting well, with the Sony Ericsson UI and onboard photo editing, it could be a worthwhile option.