14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson Alicia, a new Walkman handset that first appeared on the Web more than one month ago, will be released by the Swedish-Japanese company under the official name of Sony Ericsson W707.
This info does not come from Sony Ericsson, but from the SEMC Blog, where it's also said that the W707 will be released as the little brother of W980, the high-end Walkman phone which should become commercially available starting these days. Like the W980, the new Alicia / W707 is a clamshell that comes with a glossy finish. Unlike W980, though, Alicia seems to have two displays on the external case (in addition to the main internal screen): a square one and a round one that can be a music controller, too. The round display is also capable of showing weather-related information and various animations.
The new Alicia will pack a 3.15 Megapixel camera with video recording (no auto focus and no flash), similar to the cameras included in the W980 and the W890 candybar. Also, the W707 will bring nice music features, but not as advanced as the ones included in the W980. Furthermore, we should expect the W707 to feature HSDPA connectivity, Web and email capabilities, as well as other goodies to make it a nice Walkman handset.
Sony Ericsson Alicia / W707 will probably be officially announced on July 22, when it's said that Sony Ericsson will present a new batch of handsets, including the 5 Megapixel W902, the W595 slider, the W302 and the so-called Remi.
There is nothing left to do now but wait and see if the Swedish-Japanese company indeed unveils the Alicia clamshell together with the other new handsets. We'll (hopefully) find out the release dates and retail prices of all these SE phones.