14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson W980, one of the latest Walkman handsets from Sony Ericsson, was recently approved by the FCC, hence it's ready to hit the US market. Of course, FCC's approval doesn't mean that the W980 will surely be available across the US. But, since the handset features quad-band GSM connectivity, it's capable of working on the networks of AT&T and T-Mobile, hence one of these two carriers (or both) will most probably offer the handset in the future.
Although it was first unveiled back in February, during MWC 2008, the W980 is not yet available in any of the countries for which it was announced (European markets mainly). Anyway, Sony Ericsson has already come up with a video presentation with the phone, so it should be released pretty soon.
Coming in a clamshell form factor, the W980 has lots of features that can make it one of the best music phones out there. The handset brings the well-known Walkman Player, stereo speakers, shake control, external music keys, TrackID, FM radio with RDS, FM Transmitter and no less than 8GB of internal memory.
Furthermore, the W980 also packs a 2.2 inch internal display with 256K colors and 240 x 320 pixels, a 176 x 176 pixel external display, UMTS/ HSDPA connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, NetFront browser, email, Instant Messaging, RSS reader, organizer, voice memo, USB 2.0 and a battery capable of providing up to 20 hours of music playback with a single charge.
Since the W980 is a handset particularly designed for playing music, its photo camera does not feature auto focus or flash. However, it comes with 3.15 Megapixels, hence it should still offer photos at a pretty good quality (depending on the environment).
The retail price of Sony Ericsson W980 is not known for the moment, but it will surely not be an affordable one.