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Sony Ericsson's budget Cyber-Shot phone is a real bargain. Costing half as much as the flagship C905, the C510 nevertheless offers an excellent 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, a flash and geo-tagging, plus Sony's usual high quality music player and an FM radio. The C510 also comes with 100 MB of memory, space for a memory card, Bluetooth and motion-sensor gaming. Available in Black or Silver.

The C510 looks like the perfect phone for these credit crunched times. You want a high quality Cyber-Shot camera? You want the latest gadgets like geo-tagging, motion gaming and YouTube videos? You got it! And all this in a mid-range phone, available free on a £15 per month contract! No wonder that the C510 is proving to be so popular.

The phone is a traditional Sony Ericsson candybar, available in a choice of Black or Silver. The keypad is nicely designed and easy to text with. It's a standard size phone - not large, not ultrathin - but surprisingly lightweight. The display is compact at 2.2 inches, but has a nice high resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and 262k colours, matching the display on Sony's high-end phones such as the SE C905. The phone has a built-in accelerometer, which enables the display to rotate automatically between landscape and portrait modes when you turn the phone. The accelerometer also powers motion-based gaming.

This is a CyberShot phone, so the quality of the camera matters. The camera in the C510 is rated at 3.2 megapixels, so it can't match the latest 5 and 8 megapixel phones such as the C902 or the C905. But then it's half the price. Compared with similarly-priced rivals, it offers an excellent camera, equipped with face detection autofocus, an LED flash and digital zoom. With care the C510 can produce print-quality photographs. And if you're more of a happy snapper than a pro, the C510 has plenty of features to help make snapping easier. The Smile Shutter™ automatically takes a shot when your subject is smiling - you just have to point the camera in the right direction. We'd say that for this amount of money, this is probably the best camera phone you can buy. The camera offers geo-tagging too. The camera can also record video clips, and video calling is possible too.

The C510 is equipped with Sony's usual excellent music player, and the C510 features MegaBass (for enhanced bass frequencies), PlayNow (for downloading ringtones and other premium content) and TrackID (music recognition software.) An FM radio with RDS is also included. The C510 comes with a SE headset and you can also use an optional Bluetooth wireless stereo headset. With 100 MB of built-in memory, the C510 compares well with other phones in this price range, and has enough space to store a few CD's worth of music. You can upgrade this by adding a Memory Stick Micro™ giving up to 4 GB of storage.

The C510 is a 3G phone with HSDPA for high-speed internet access. It can also be used on a GSM network, supporting GSM 900, 1800 & 1900. Connectivity options are Bluetooth and USB. Battery life seems to be pretty good.

We like the C510 a lot. In its price range it's definitely one of the best featured phones currently available. A cheaper option would be the old Sony Ericsson K770i. Similarly-priced alternatives from other manufacturers would be the Nokia 6600 Slide or the Samsung Soul.

Features of the Sony Ericsson C510 include:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, face detection autofocus, 3.2x digital zoom and geo-tagging
• Video camera with video light / 3G video calling
• Display: TFT, 262,144-colour, 240 x 320 pixels (2.2 inches) with auto rotation
• Media player with album art, MegaBass, PlayNow and TrackID
• FM radio with RDS
• MP3/AAC ringtones
• Speakerphone
• Voice recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email
• Google Maps
• 3D Java games with motion gaming
• Animated wallpaper
• Web browser, RSS feeds, blogging
• HSDPA (3.6 Mbps)
• Personal organiser functions
• Flight mode
• Vibration alert
• Memory: 100 Mbytes plus support for Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) (up to 4 GB)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB mass storage, modem
• Triband (GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900) plus 3G (UMTS 2100)
• Size: 107 x 47 x 12.5 mm
• Weight: 92g
• Talktime: 4 hours (3G) - 10 hours (2G)
• Battery standby: 350 - 400 hours