Sony W290 vs Sony W810

Lets look more closely at the Sony W290 and Sony W810, one being a Small Sensor Compact and the other is a Ultracompact and both of them are produced by Sony. There exists a huge gap between the resolutions of the W290 (12MP) and W810 (20MP) but both cameras offer the identical sensor size (1/2.3").

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The W290 was announced 5 years prior to the W810 and that is quite a significant gap as far as technology is concerned. Each of the cameras feature different body design with the Sony W290 being a Compact camera and the Sony W810 being a Ultracompact camera.

Before going straight to a detailed comparison, here is a short summary of how the W290 scores vs the W810 in regards to portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a sample of the gallery pics for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W810. The whole galleries are provided at Sony W290 Gallery and Sony W810 Gallery.

If you are aiming to lug around your camera regularly, you will want to take into account its weight and proportions. The Sony W290 comes with external dimensions of 98mm x 57mm x 23mm (3.9" x 2.2" x 0.9") accompanied by a weight of 167 grams (0.37 lbs) and the Sony W810 has measurements of 97mm x 56mm x 21mm (3.8" x 2.2" x 0.8") accompanied by a weight of 111 grams (0.24 lbs).

See the Sony W290 and Sony W810 in the new Camera with Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Don't forget, the weight of an Interchangeable Lens Camera will change dependant on the lens you use at that time. Underneath is a front view proportions comparison of the W290 against the W810.

Taking into account dimensions and weight, the portability rating of the W290 and W810 is 94 and 96 respectively.

More often than not, it's hard to visualise the gap between sensor measurements purely by checking specs. The visual below will provide you a stronger sense of the sensor dimensions in the W290 and W810.

As you can plainly see, the two cameras feature the identical sensor size but not the same megapixels. You should expect to see the Sony W810 to resolve greater detail with its extra 8MP. Greater resolution can also make it easier to crop images way more aggressively. The older W290 is going to be disadvantaged in sensor technology.