Sony Ericsson C902

The Sony Ericsson C902 offers a typical Sony Ericsson candy bar design in four colors red, bronze, silver, and black. It's attractive by all accounts, and we like the silver stripes that wrap around the edges of our red version. At 4.3 inches by 1.9 inches by 0.4 inch, the phone casts a trim shadow and it slips easily into a pocket or bag. Weighing 3.8 ounces, it's a bit heavier than it looks, but the trade off is a comfortable, solid feel in the hand.

The C902 has a 2-inch display that supports 262.144 colors (320x240 pixels). Like most Sony Ericsson displays of its caliber, it's bright and vibrant with bold colors and sharp graphics. You can change the brightness only. You can choose from three menu styles, but each interface is attractive and user friendly. The display is rather difficult to see in direct light, but that's not unusual.

The navigation array consists of a square toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys, Talk and End or power buttons, a shortcut control, and a clear key. The toggle is spacious and pleasantly tactile, but the remaining keys feel just a bit cramped. It will be a personal issue, so users with large hands should give the phone a test run before buying.

You can set the toggle to act as a shortcut to four user defined functions and you can access additional shortcuts with the aforementioned button. The keypad buttons are raised above the surface of the phone giving them a comfortable, tactile feel, but we noticed that they were somewhat cramped. You can dial by feel, but the back lighting was a tad dim. On the right spine there's a volume rocker and a camera shutter key.

The rocker is rather thin, and we wonder why Sony Ericsson placed it on the bottom end of the phone rather than the top. We got used it eventually, but it wasn't very intuitive at first. On the right spine you'll find the port for the USB cable, the charger and wired headsets. As you'd expect from Sony, it's a proprietary connection and the single port means you can use only one peripheral at a time.

There is a Memory Stick Micro slot, but it's located behind the battery cover, which can be tricky to pry off. The C902 slides apart to show the camera lens. You might be wondering where the C902's camera lens is, since it's nowhere visible at first glance. To expose it you must slide up the phone's top end about a quarter of an inch.

As the phone's back slide splits apart you'll see the lens, flash, and self portrait mirror. It's a unique and effective touch, since it conveniently hides the camera parts when you don't need them. Also, we appreciate that Sony Ericsson gave us a self portrait mirror. A single speaker also sits on the C902's rear face.