Alleged Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 Handset Spotted

Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said a while ago that it did not plan on rushing to the market with a Windows Phone 7 device, but that it would wait a little longer before making the move.

However, a series of allegedly leaked photos with a Sony Ericsson Windows Phone 7 prototype handset have made it into the wild recently, showing that the company is already working with Microsoft's new mobile operating system.

The handset that can be seen in the photos attached to this article is clearly a prototype device and not something that would go on sale, but it still looks as appealing as it can be.

The phone in these photos sports a full horizontal QWERTY keyboard with 4 rows, along with a large touchscreen display.

Previously, Sony Ericsson launched some smartphones as part of its collaboration with Microsoft, some of the most popular of them being the Xperia X1 and X2, both of which came to shelves with the same side-sliding form factor as this prototype.

As the guys over at WMPoweruser note, the handset seems to run under an older flavor of Windows Phone 7, and chances are that it would be an early device that Sony Ericsson was working on, but which might never arrive on shelves.

The Redmond-based software giant announced last year at MWC that Sony Ericsson was among the launch partners for Windows Phone 7, but the duo did not settle an agreement over Xbox Live, rumor has it, and the handset vendor did not announce such a phone as of yet.

For those out of the loop, we should note that the company launched an Android phone that sports a game pad with PlayStation controls, called Xperia PLAY.

Last year, various reports on a Windows Phone 7 device from Sony Ericsson did emerge, but the company said that they wouldn't launch one anytime soon.

However, the vendor might have not abandoned all plans for Microsoft's mobile operating system, and the emergence of these photos might be seen as a proof of that.