Enhancing the face recognition function on the original C905 – which helped to optimise the focus on up to three faces within the frame – Smile Shutter takes it a step further. Hold the shutter button down and the camera won't actually take a snap until it identifies a smile within the frame. Useful for catching fleeting smiles on uncooperative subjects such as kids, and it passed the smile/frown test too, holding fire until teeth were clearly bared – not that it could tell the difference between a smile and a grimace.

Compact, but certainly not the slimmest

Another welcome addition to the C905 Plus's photo arsenal is an HD Snapfish application, which handles ordering of prints of your pics. Snapfish is incorporated into the camera's menu system, so all you have to do is click on 'Order prints' when you're viewing a pic and you're on your way, with the first 20 6 x 4in prints offered for free. Video takes a step down in quality as you might expect, maxing out the resolution at QVGA's 240 x 320 pixels at 30fps – unlike the VGA 640 x 480 pixels of fellow 8Mp models, the LG Renoir and Samsung i8510.

Besides the camera, video viewing has been the main beneficiary of SE's upgrade. The Youtube application is tucked away in the Organiser folder, which is where most other downloaded software end up, and it's similar to what you'll see on many smart phones these days.

Tipping the C905 Plus on its side will flip the resolution into landscape mode, but unfortunately there's no full-screen option for viewing videos on Youtube, and depending on how they've been uploaded, you're often left with a small picture surrounded by black frames. This is a shame, since the 2.4in screen looks decidedly cramped in comparison with rival 8-megapixel camphones like the 3.2in screen on Samsung's M8800 Pixon or the LG KC910i Renoir's 3in version. Anything to make video look better on the smallish screen would have been appreciated.

The same goes for BBC iPlayer, which now comes pre-installed and allows you to watch live TV, as well as catch up with programmes from the last week or so, and listen to DAB radio. The HSDPA 3G connection supports up to 3.6Mbps downloads, so you can watch streaming video, but quality can be variable depending on where you are and dropouts aren't uncommon. You're almost always better off searching out a Wi-Fi connection, if available.

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The iPlayer is quick and easy to use but, as with Youtube, video quality on the smallish screen isn't ideal, and we get the feeling it could have been better. DAB radio sounded fine but, in this context, it's not necessarily preferable to the built-in FM radio, unless you're in an area with particularly bad FM reception. And speaking of FM radio, there's one onboard with RDS and 20 presets. The frequency range is 87.5-108MHz and, if the DJ won't tell you what's playing, TrackID should be able to identify it for you.