Everyone knows that rumors come true in the end, even if after a long time of waiting. At least this is the case when talking about latest mobile phones that are to be launched in the near or more distant future. For example, only a few months ago we were thrilled about some leaked images of Sony Ericsson's P3i smartphone, while no sooner than yesterday we found out that the phone has been listed on a Chinese website, so we should expect a future launch in the second quarter of 2008.

Now, do you remember the picture made by a Sony-Ericsson fan that was listed on a specialized forum? Well, it was the picture of the new so called P5i model, the successor of not even announced yet P3i smartphone. While we're not sure about the exact look of the device, Sony Ericsson let us believe that it will bear a two-way slider design.

As seen in the pictures, Sony Ericsson just patented a new dual-slider design that will enable mobile phone owners to use a QWERTY keyboard, as well as a numeric keypad, both on the same device. This is not a new idea if we think that Nokia has already patented such a design, but if it helps mobile phone users we should be thankful.

The two-way sliding mobile terminal offers users the possibility to take advantage of the auto-slide mechanism that features a full QWERTY keyboard which pops out lengthwise, but can also use the numeric keypad which pops out widthwise. The design will certainly help the Japanese-Swedish company to keep the thickness of the smartphone very slim and stylish.

There's no way we can tell yet if the two-sliding mobile terminal is the rumored Sony Ericsson P5i, but there are some similarities between the pictures leaked a while ago and this registered patent. What we know for sure is that Sony Ericsson is actually preparing to launch a similar smartphone, sooner or later next year.