14 DAY TRIAL // Initially said to be officially presented on September 8, Sony Ericsson G705 has come a day later – today, on September 9. The G705 is pretty much what everyone expected it to be: a good-looking slider phone with a set of attractive mid-end features.
An interesting aspect about the new SE handset is that, although it's from the G-series and it's presented as a "personal assistant," it doesn't run on Symbian UIQ and neither on any other mobile OS, leveraging on a Java platform. Therefore, we're not talking about a smartphone – which explains the "(some) brains" reference in the article's title.
The official features of G705 are: a 2.4 inch TFT display with 262K colors, 240 x 320 pixels and automatic rotation, A-GPS, Google Maps, Google shortcut key, Wi-Fi and DLNA, quad-band GSM and HSDPA connectivity, YouTube access, full HTML browser, email with Exchange ActiveSync, Music and Video players, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 3.2 Megapixel camera with fixed focus, flash, geotagging and video recording, 120MB of internal memory and a 1GB M2 card (offered by Sony Ericsson for free).
"The G705 is ideal for those who need a bit of help organizing their busy life. This life-enhancing phone has everything you need to keep track of your daily activities and is perfect for keeping in touch with friends. It also allows you to stay fully up-to-date thanks to the full HTML browser, email support, and desktop RSS feeds – all delivered at turbo 3G speeds," states Catherine Cherry, global product marketing manager at Sony Ericsson.
Sony Ericsson G705 weighs 98 grams and, when not slid, it measures 95 x 47 x 14.3 millimeters. Its battery should be able to provide up to 10 hours of talk-time or up to 400 hours of stand-by time.
North and South American users who might have been waiting for a new Sony Ericsson slider should be happy to find out that the G705 has a version made for them too, which comes with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA connectivity (850 / 1900 / 2100). The G705 will also be available in an Orange-exclusive edition, called G705u, dressed in Luminous Black and coming as the first UMA-enabled Sony Ericsson phone.
The European and Asian versions of G705 will hit the market in October 2008, while the American version is expected to be launched in the first months of 2009. No pricing details yet.
