Sony Ericsson C510 with anti-gurn feature

Sony Ericsson have announced the Sony Ericsson C510, along with a couple of other mobile phones, at the CES 2009 exhibition in Las Vegas.

And about time, too! There have been loads of cool new gadgets on show at CES this year, including an entire army of new HDTVs, but very little in the way of mobile phone announcements.

Finally, Sony Ericsson have given us something new to report with the C510. More details after the jump.

Sony Ericsson C510 overview

So what is the Sony Ericsson C510? It’s a CyberShot phone for starters, but one with only a 3.2 megapixel camera. Don’t worry, though, as megapixels aren’t everything, and the C510 makes up for its lack of them with a variety of other neat features.

For example, there’s Sony Ericsson’s Smile-Shutter feature, which takes a photo as soon as the camera detects your subject smiling. If this works as Sony Ericsson claim, I’m giving this straight to two of my friends, both of whom have what can only be described as Ugly Cameras! The delay with their camera is so great, that you have to sit there grinning an inane rictus grin for over a minute before the camera finally takes the photo, by which time you’re left looking a gurning goon!

They make matters worse by uploading said pics onto Facebook, but that’s another story!

Sony Ericsson C510’s photo features

Anyway, back to the C510. As well as Smile-Shutter, it also comes with face detection, which focuses in on a face to ensure it’s in perfect focus (which may not actually be a good thing, depending on the quality of the face!). Naturally there’s autofocus, which you’d expect from a CyberShot camera, and there’s also a few extra goodies that integrates the C510 rather nicely with the Web.

For example, you can upload your images and videos directly to sites such as YouTube. No messing about with the Web browser – just select a video, and the menu gives you the options of sending it via email, MMS, or uploading to YouTube, all with just one click. Very nice.

More impressively still, the C510 is integrated with HP’s Snapfish service. Snapfish is a photo priinting service whereby you send them a digital image, and they’ll return a physical print of the photo. With the C510, you can do all this with a single click – simply select the image, and with the menu item select “Send to Snapfish” and it’s done.

Sony Ericsson C510 Specification

• Reliable 3.2 megapixel Cyber-shotâ„¢ camera
• Smile Shutterâ„¢ – clever technology that detects a person’s smile and immediately takes the photo!
• Face Detection – focusing technology of up to three faces at a time
• Auto-rotation – alter the landscape and portrait view by rotating the mobile phone
• Snapfish by HP – pre-installed application allows users to send print orders from the phone to Snapfish and have quality photo prints delivered to their homes.
• YouTubeâ„¢ enabled – upload your videos and images straight to the web
• Photo Fix – adjust light balance, brightness and contrast simultaneously
• SMS conversation style – see your entire SMS conversation history at a glance
• Slide in lens cover and illuminated imaging Shortcuts
• Auto focus – take the best shot

Sony Ericsson C510 Summary

I really like the C510 on first impressions.

It’s not massively over-featured, but what it does have, ti does really well.

The addition of one touch uploading to YouTube and Snapfish is a really nice touch.

Best of all, though (and particularly in these challenging times), the Sony Ericsson C510 will be a rather cheap mid-range phone, meaning it won’t cost the earth!

I’ll leave the last word to Sony Ericsson themselves:

“We have been leaders and innovators in the camera phone segment since the company was started,” said Sven Totté, Head of Imaging Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “Now we are delighted to unveil the C510 Cyber-shotâ„¢, our most accessible Cyber-shotâ„¢ phone to date which includes a host of new features normally found on more premium phones.

“Features like Smile-Shutterâ„¢, YouTube integration and Snapfish by HP integration make the C510 Cyber-shotâ„¢ a really fun mobile phone to use. This phone will enable us to engage new markets and consumers to our Cyber-shotâ„¢ phone experience.”

[Source: Dialaphone]