A new leaked image of a mysterious Sony Ericsson clamshell phone appeared recently, and it almost surely presents a real device, not just a Photoshop-made concept, as in the case of many other leaked images. Unfortunately there are only few details about this phone, and no one even knows its name. However, it's obviously a Z-series handset, since all the Sony Ericson phones that came in a clamshell form factor belong to this series.

The leaked image first appeared on SE4m, a Sony Ericsson dedicated forum from Saudi Arabia, and shows a pretty cool phone that apparently has built-in GPS, Web browsing capabilities, Bluetooth connectivity and, logically, a photo camera. We can't say how good this camera is, but it's hard to believe it will have less than 2 Megapixels.

The latest Z-series phone announced by the Swedish-Japanese joint venture is Sony Ericsson Z770, a 3.5G stylish clamshell that was first showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, between 11 and 14 February. It will come with advanced email capabilities, Google Maps Mobile, Access NetFront Web browser, a 2 Megapixel camera and other nice features, and we can assume that the new clamshell shown in the leaked image has similar or even better features. Maybe it's the successor of Z770, although this would be a bit weird, since Z770 will only be available starting from the second quarter of 2008. We should wait for some official details that will surely come, sooner or later.

Sony Ericsson doesn't have too many clamshell phones in its line-up, and it prefers to produce more candybars. Sure, there are more than 15 SE clamshell models, but this accounts for only about 20% of the total Sony Ericsson handsets number. Anyway, it's good that the company keeps on making clamshells, as some mobile users only like this kind of phones.