Sony Camera Phone

Show most tech geeks a cutting-edge cellphone and they’ll poke and prod it and ask questions. But when I showed my camera-equipped Sony Ericsson c905 to some coworkers who spend their time in the IT department, one replied, “That’s not a cellphone with a camera, it’s a camera with a phone attached!”

Released in July, I’ve been playing with the c905 for almost two months. As a phone, it has delivered, providing clear service in and around Mammoth Lakes, Calif., which has touch-and-go service to start. But as a camera, the c905 — which has 8.1-megapixels of image resolution — has been even more impressive.

One camera-phone feature stood out: You can share photos with this phone in an instant. It is equipped to offer quick and easy access to upload high-res photos directly to Web sites that support “geo-tagging,” including Flickr and Snapfish.

In my tests, the phone’s image delivery system — which sends high-res photos over the air like a cell signal and automatically uploads them online — has worked slick.

The c905 has a lens cover, which is not common on a phone but critical because high-resolution shots are worthless if the lens is scratched. The Sony phone also includes a new image sensor, red eye reduction and other features found on regular point-and-shoot cameras.

For minimalists who want to carry a great camera without bringing a “real” camera along, this is a great option. It retails for around $300. But the phone can often cost less with an AT&T contract, the only carrier that supports it right now. www.sonyericsson.com

—Stephen Krcmar lives and works in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.</i