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Sony Ericsson C510: 3.2 meh-gapixel camera phone

The Sony Ericsson C510 is pitched as an affordable camera phone. Our model didn't work, so we can't say how good it is, but we thought you'd like a look anyway

Andrew Lim

The Sony Ericsson C510 was unveiled at CES this year, but recently we got our hands on a photo model and thought you'd want to have a gander too. Positioned as an inexpensive Cyber-shot camera phone, the C510 keeps things simple in a standard candybar casing.

It's slim and light, but doesn't feel too delicate. On the back of the C510 there's a 3.2-megapixel camera that's protected by a large sliding mechanism. Since this model was a demo one and didn't actually work, we can't tell you how good the camera is but we can say it features face and smile detection to help you catch shots you might otherwise miss.

Dual LED photo lights provide all the illumination for pictures in low light, so we assume they won't be as good as a xenon flash. 3G means you can download content and browse the Web relatively quickly, and there's a VGA camera on the front for video calls.

Our first impressions are that the C510 does the basics well but is essentially just another Sony Ericsson. Nothing really stands out on the C510 and it feels like a previous model in a slightly new casing -- there's simply no pizzazz. That said, we need to test a working model before we can make up our minds, so watch this space for updates.