Read the full Sony Ericsson C905 review

At a glitzy launch in London's Mayfair this week, Sony Ericsson's PR custodians covered the walls of a posh art gallery with scores of photographs ranging in size from postcards to massive A3 posters.

The subjects were a motley bunch - a clutch of sports celebrities such as Lewis Hamilton, Ian Botham and David Gower - combined with apparent holiday snaps of landscapes and tourist resorts. The aim was to show the development of mobile phone cameras from the first sub-megapixel efforts to the latest state-of-the-art Cyber-shot: the 8.2 megapixel Sony Ericsson C905.

When you arrived at the massive A3 photos taken by the C905 you couldn't help but be impressed. The fine detail, even on these poster-sized blow-ups, is breathtaking - there's no sign of JPEG 'mosquitoes' (or compression artefacts) even when leafy trees are contrasted against a bright blue sky - which usually brings out the mozzies in swarms. And the colours are dazzling and still lifelike - especially in the daytime shots (and it was noticeable that 90% of these pictures were daylight exteriors).

So we've seen what the Sony Ericsson C905 is capable of in terms of its photographic output - images that bear comparison to a high-end compact digital camera, or indeed a low-end DSLR. But what about the handset itself? Well we had 20 minutes to play with it at the launch event and our first impressions are very favourable.

First, when you hold the handset in your hands it gives a weighty feeling of durability and quality - it does clock in at a substantial 136g. The casing is a mix of high-impact plastic and metal which feels much more expensive and less 'plasticky' than the previous top-end Cyber-shot, the Sony Ericsson K850i. As is the fashion these days, the back of the case is slightly tapered on the edges and fills out in the centre to accomodate the battery.

This is the first Cyber-shot slider phone and the handset slips open and shut with a satisfying chunk with very little 'wobble' in the vertical axis. The move to a slider form factor means that Sony Ericsson can ditch the unpopular raised rocker switch of the K850i in favour of a more standard - if squarer - controller. The pointless touch sensitive screen keys of the K850i are also jetissoned - yay! - in favour of proper menu keys that form the top of two rows of three keys on either side of the controller.

But best of all is the fact that Sony Ericsson's design department have stopped reinventing the wheel and provided the C905 with a proper keypad at last. Yes, we have four rows of three large sized, rectangular keys with the numbers and letters printed clearly on top. No metallic grains of rice like the W880i or tiny, misaligned plastic chipolatas as found on the K850i. The keys felt solid and responsive and we're pretty sure that texting and dialling will be effortless with this new arrangement.

The C905 is the first Cyber-shot to be equipped with assisted GPS and though we couldn't test this (we were indoors and it requires a SIM card to work) we were assured that it would be more responsive than the lugubrious GPS on the first Nokia N95 and the Sony Ericsson W760i. Like the upcoming iPhone 3G, the Sony Ericsson C905 will also support the geo-tagging of photos out of the box.

As you would expect, the camera features of the C905 are second to none. Not only is there autofocus but there's also the gimmicky, if entertaining, face detection functionality which locks onto your bonce for supposedly better results. Other standard Cyber-shot features - xenon flash, digital 16x zoom, image stabilizer, BestPic - are all present and correct. Normally we take digital zoom with a piece of salt but when you have 8.1 megapixels - or about 3250 x 2500 pixels - to start with, cropping or zooming onto bits of interest can now deliver decent images, especially when combined with image stabilization and autofocus.

The only slightly less-than-impressive feature of the Sony Ericsson C905 was its display. Yes it's reasonably sized at 2.4 inches and delivers the standard 240 by 320 resolution but it didn't seem particularly bright indoors and when viewed alongside the 12-month old Apple iPhone looked very anaemic indeed. Still this is a pre-production model but it will definitely something we'll being close attention to in our full review of the C905.

The C905 has a Wi-Fi antenna and Sony is also bigging up its ability to automatically network with other components - such as a PlayStation 3, Bravia TV or Vaio laptop - using the DLNA standard. DLNA - or Digital Living Network Alliance - is a set of interoperability protocols designed to ensure various electronic devices can easily network with each other without complicated setting up or servers. Its backers include consumer electronics giants such as Sony, Philips and Toshiba as well as mobile phone companies like Nokia, LG, Motorola and - obviously- Sony Ericsson.

We saw the system demonstrated with a Sony Playstation 3 where, with the minimum of fuss, we could browse the music, videos and photos on the Sony Ericsson C905 on a high definition TV using the Playstation controller.

It's an impressive feat - and certainly heralds the future of device networking - but unless you have a PS3 or one of the very latest HDTVs it probably won't be a selling point this year. But it's nice to know that the C905 is prepared for the time the future finally plonks itself down in our living rooms.

Overall then, the Sony Ericsson C905 is a very impressive looking mobile phone. Sony Ericsson has addressed most of the issues with the K850i and come up with a phone that feels good in the hand and does all the standard phone things well, but also boasts the highest specced camera on the market.

We'll give you the full review of the C905 as soon as we can get our hands on one for a proper test, but the early signs are very promising indeed. Perhaps the Apple iPhone isn't going to have the whole market to itself after all.