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Sony Ericsson C510 Review

3

The Sony Ericsson C510 Cyber-shot doesn’t have too many exciting bells, and the whistles aren’t very jaunty. For a mid-tier phone, you’ll find a few features, mainly based around the tempting mobile internet functionality that 3 provides. It’s available on 3 from £15 a month on contract.

What we like
All keen social networkers take note: using Facebook on this handset is easy. When minimised, the application keeps running in the background and will throw story and profile pics up on the main screen of the phone when updates appear. Plus, if the recent changes in the site’s homepage have upset you, you’ll be pleased to see that the interface on the phone reverts back to the older style of news feed.

It’s not laden with features, but the C510 does boast HSDPA, and uploading is simple and speedy. Sony Ericsson has ensured you can upload to Picasa, YouTube, Facebook and Blogger without exiting the camera program.

Other surprises come in the form of the threaded text message layout, commonly seen on (whisper it) the iPhone, plus a dedicated favourites button to take you to sites such as eBay, BBC, Bebo and Google and several good looking menu interface options to make navigating a delight.

What we don’t like
Our main gripes with this phone come from its build. The camera lens is hidden by a sliding cover, which provides protection but requires you to push it down right at the end of the phone before sliding it. Fiddly.

That’s not the only quirk. The positioning of the two buttons closest to the screen is awkward, and it’s all too easy to accidentally exit the menu or bring up the shortcut menu, thanks to their proximity to the buttons underneath. Those with chunky chips for fingers are going to lose out with this phone.

Branded as a Cyber-shot phone, the C510 shoots for the floor instead of the stars. It only shoots in 3.2-megapixels and the flash comes from double LEDs, rather than a xenon – a crucial oversight.

As ever, Sony Ericsson has used its mind-boggling proprietary headphone input, rather than a standard 3.5mm jack. No points for that.

Our C510 model suffered somewhat from lag. It could take two or three seconds to switch between screens and menus sometimes. That might not sound like much, but if you’ve got as much patience as Charlie Brooker, it will quickly drive you mad.

Conclusion
There’s enough in the Sony Ericsson C510 Cyber-shot to make it a feasible choice, particularly in terms of internet functionality. Its budget price tag doesn’t hurt matters either. The Cyber-shot branding is misleading, though, and this is more of a good all-rounder than a digital camera replacement.

Specification

OSProprietary

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