Now, here’s something that could become quite popular when it hits the streets. A couple of pictures were seen floating around the planet-se forums showing a Sony Ericsson-branded mobile speaker with a W995 sitting snug on top it. The speaker seems pretty small in comparison to the W995, but the MS-410 might gain some fans just because of its diminutive size that could go into anyone’s pocket right next to their favorite Walkman phone.
No information on price or a release date, but we are sure Sony Ericsson is already prepping one.
Sony Ericsson’s Idou is a 12 megapixel camera phone which might make an impression once it arrives. The handset will be a great tool for both mobile entertainment and fast communication and it looks like Sony Ericsson has prepared a Stylus which seems destined to go with the handset. Sony Ericsson hasn’t made it clear if the stylus will be bundled with the Idou or if you will have to get it separately. But it’s good to know that we’ll have an alternative to our fingers to control this device.
The Athena is on its track and we’re waiting for it to be released in Q3 this year. And it might not be called the Athena after all so make sure you check for the Sony Ericsson S312 once it gets released. We don’t have all the details so far but we should expect the Athena to be an entry- to mid-level phone. We have no prices for you just yet but stick around and we will deliver.
Sony’s OLED Walkman might just be a great iPod touch competitor. And Sony has decided to unveil the specs of the X1000 Walkman series. Here’s what you’ll get if you purchase one:
3-inch (432 x 240 pixels) OLED touchscreen display
33 hours of music playback, 9 hours of video playback
There’s certainly more space for your music than on the iPod touch but there’s no store filled with unnecessary apps for this Sony Walkman. So what will you choose? The iPod or the Walkman?
Koreans are sure to rejoice as the Sony Experia is scheduled to come out next week locally. Sony Ericsson opened their local office to launch the Experia to the Korean market and has actually been hiring to build up the Sony Korea branch.
Xperia becomes the second phone to be made available in Korea for 2009. HTC had launched the Touch Diamond a week ago.
Sony Ericsson today unveils four new panels for its Xperia X1 mobile phone. Available to download from mid-march March 2009, the latest panels enhance the unique user interface of the X1 that enables users to customise the handset, bringing the content and applications they want onto their active desktop.
A new CNN panel keeps you constantly updated with the latest news, sport, or weather and a host of CNN content including access to CNN’s popular citizen journalism tool, ‘i-Report’. Browse information by category, personalise your experience or plug in your location and get instant updates for wherever you are in the world.
A unique Skype panel brings quick access to Skype on the X1, telling you at a glance which of your friends are online. Browse easily through your contacts and call or instant message them in just a couple of clicks, or customise your handset using the evening, daylight or event based effects.
For those who just want to have fun, a new Mytopia panel lets you play bingo and poker games with people around the world. With millions of users there is always someone online to play against or you can play by yourself. You can even collect virtual coins and improve your rank by winning live matches.
For those always on the move, the specially developed ‘On the Road’ panel includes large touch icons and a simple layout. Offering direct access to your music playlists and tracks, navigation tools and easy to use call-handling, this panel will makes your driving convenient and entertaining wherever the road takes you.
The Xperia X1, announced at Mobile World Congress in 2008, brings a totally new experience to mobile phone users by introducing nine easy-to-use, interactive panels which sit on the touch screen interface of the phone. The unique user interface gives users an “always live” experience, offering the flexibility to tailor the phone’s desktop with information that is relevant to them at any given time.
The X1 comes pre-loaded with a wide range of panels including a Google search panel. Facebook and Windows Live panels are already available on www.sonyericsson.com/fun for download onto the Xperia X1.
The Sony Ericsson G700 is part of the Japanese-Swedish company’s series of Web-enabled phones announced earlier at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Design
Admittedly, the G700 doesn’t excite since the design aspect follows the trialed-and-tested candybar formula. In the hands, it’s a different story altogether. Our G700 review model doesn’t feel shabby at all, providing a nice heft all around. What we really like is how everything, from the keypad to the 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD, to the front-facing video call camera, is tightly integrated to maximize the front real estate of the handset. It is also remarkable how the company still manages to fit nice, stubby buttons on the keypad.
At the back, Sony Ericsson has chosen to use a ribbed pattern casing which feels nice to the touch. Even though it may be purely for aesthetic purposes, suffice to say that other than the front display, you won’t be dealing with greasy fingerprints on the G700. On the same side of the phone are the onboard speakers, a 3-megapixel camera and a pair of LED photolights.
The proprietary connector is on the left edge of the phone, stacked above the M2 expansion card slot. Beside it is an indicator LED that lights up in red when the phone is charging, green when there’s an incoming text message. Sony Ericsson has also included a dedicated keylock button on the side which ended up being one of the most frequently used keys on the handset. LG’s KF700 model also has a similar keylock feature.
The metallic stylus has a translucent tip and is located on the upper left corner of the handset. Unfortunately, the stylus is a tad too short for comfort. To sum it up, the ergonomics of the G700 is excellent.
Features
Even though the G700 is a touchscreen phone, its touch UI is positioned as an option. Sony Ericsson has kept the left/right softkeys, which we think is a great move. This will help capture a group of users previously reluctant (or skeptical) about adopting touch interfaces, preferring the precise tactility of conventional buttons. Unlike the K850i Cyber-shot, the three dashes below the display serve only as markers and are not touch keys.
The G700 is a full-fledged smart phone in disguise. It runs on the Symbian UIQ platform with 128MB of RAM. That puts it on par with the W960i Walkman and the P1i, but with a much sexier design. In reality, that would give something for everyone, from the average Joe looking for a smart phone that’s not over the top, to the business user who wants something that doesn’t look too serious.
On the default Home screen is a row of touch menus nested on the bottom edge. These are large enough to be used with our fingers, and swiping it left or right does the job of scrolling to the next option. There are only four shortcuts to commonly used applications, but more can be added from the settings. Once you’ve done a proper configuration, there’s a high chance you won’t ever need to go into the phone’s menu. Calling up the task manager immediately shows the list of opened programs and provides an option to quit the application to free up memory resources.
Previously, when we wrote about the G700, the HTC Touch Diamond hadn’t been announced yet, much less a chance to see the TouchFLO 3D in action. Now that the Diamond is a reality and we’ve spent a considerable amount of time with it, we feel Sony Ericsson still has some ways to go for touchscreen displays. The iPhone proved that interface is king and the Touch Diamond serves to cement that point. We aren’t saying the interface isn’t good on the G700. In fact, we think it’s great for a mass-market phone, providing the touchscreen option without making it the sole input method. However, when put alongside its competitors, the G700 touch properties pale in comparison.
The G700 obviously isn’t Sony Ericsson’s first attempt at the UIQ interface and it has done much to improve this over the years. The upgraded Note application is a result of the upgrade. This comes with its own dedicated hard button on the phone’s control bar. We could scribble, type or draw on the note, change the background color, file them according to different categories, and send them directly to a blog or to another person via Bluetooth or MMS. Although decent, we won’t consider it a killer feature that would make you rush out and buy the G700 just for this.
Other features of the handset include tri-band GSM with 3G connectivity, Bluetooth stereo A2DP and FM radio with RDS. Pity there’s no Wi-Fi, which would have made the G700 an all-rounded smart phone. The media interface is similar to many of the current Sony Ericsson models we’ve talked about, so we won’t delve into that.
It’s another regret that the camera module doesn’t come with autofocus capability, so we don’t recommend going too close to your subject when shooting. Otherwise, we like the punchy colors of the pictures taken with this 3.2-megapixel camera and the onboard LED lights lit up evenly during our tests. In addition, the phone’s display holds up well under bright sunlight, typical of Sony Ericsson phones.
Performance
The 950mAh Li-polymer battery is rated for up to 12 hours of talktime and slightly over 15 days on standby. On average, most users would be able to get about two days of mileage from a fully charged cell.
As mentioned earlier, the G700 runs on the Symbian UIQ platform with 128MB of RAM. However, we found the phone very sluggish, especially when opening applications. For example, if it wasn’t already running in the background, opening the message folder took up to 5 seconds at times. The performance took a further beating when we were listening to music via our wireless earphones or watching videos. The latter caused our review unit to crawl to an excruciatingly slow speed and even stop responding on occasion.
The onboard speakers were very loud. In fact, it was much louder than we expected, to the point that the music jarred even when not at maximum volume. In the hindsight, you probably wouldn’t miss a call on the phone.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about the G700 when it comes to features. Most importantly, its touchscreen appeal coupled with a conservative hard button approach should make the G700 a popular choice. Unfortunately, the phone’s sluggish performance is a letdown. It probably wouldn’t matter as much to the mass market, but smart phone users would likely be bothered by this.
What the G700 doesn’t have, the G900 gives. For those looking for a high-res camera with autofocus and Wi-Fi connectivity, the G900 fits the bill.
