tech: Sony Ericsson Cybershot C510

RSS, podcasting, blogging, Youtube, Facebook, Skype, photos and geotagging. Is the Sony Cybershot C510 the web 2.0 dream handset?

Uh, only possibly. The C510 is Sony’s attempt to make a ‘mid-range’ Cybershot handset, one that doesn’t cost too much but also has some cool features to make it interesting. So how does it rack up?

The first thing you’ll notice is the camera. Hidden behind a slider, it’s a 3.2megapixel jobbie. The screen is nice and big, there’s a video camera on the front for 3G calling and the menu system and interface are very pleasant indeed.

So what about that camera then? Picture quality is better than average for a camera phone of this cost, and geotagging means you can put these on Flickr and track where you took them.

This is the first phone with Smile Shutter, which takes a photo when it detects that everyone is smiling. This works pretty well. However, the shutter lag is multiple-seconds of grim, and the LED flash is next to useless.

So what of all those internet features to make use of the 3G capability? Well forget actual websurfing, because the browser is far too sluggish, unfortunately.

However, you can set up RSS feeds which appear on your home screen, and you can also use this functionality to get podcast updates. YouTube is functional but a bit jerky, blogging upload works fine if you want to write a post on a phone, and Facebook and Skype come with the phone on the 3 network and are the standard 3 versions of those apps.

So that’s the hip, what about the hmm? Well, Sony insists on putting the bulky power connector on the side which is a very strange place for it.

This is also where the headset plugs in, making it very hard to carry around. The screen is nice and big, but this kind of means the buttons are a bit too small.

But overall this is a pretty nice phone at a reasonable price with some functionality that takes it out in front of the rest of the runners in the mid-range race.

With battery life lasting in the days rather than the hours, it’s also surprisingly good as, shock horror, making phone calls. 4*s.