14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson W980, the latest-announced handset from the Walkman series, could become available sooner than expected, as in the case of another Walkman phone, the W760, which was released without any official announcement.
The official launch date of W980 is the "third quarter of 2008", which could mean July, August or September. But lately, the handset was seen live on several occasions, hence Sony Ericsson might surprise us with a quicker release.
First announced in February, during MWC 2008, Sony Ericsson W980 is the most advanced Walkman handset to come in a clamshell form factor. The phone's highlights are: clear stereo sound, intuitive music control keys, 8GB of internal memory, Walkman player, shake control feature, FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter, TrackID, stereo Bluetooth with A2DP and an external 256K color display that lets you easily see all the music-related info you need.
The rest of the features included in Sony Ericsson W980 are not bad either: a 2.2 inch TFT internal display with 240 x 320 pixels and 256K colors, HSDPA connectivity, NetFront browser, email, Instant Messaging, USB 2.0 and so on. The camera included in W980 is a 3.15 Megapixel one with video recording, but no auto focus and no flash. This could have negative effects on the photos made with the W980, but after all we're talking about a Walkman phone and not a Cyber-shot one.
Weighing 100 grams and measuring 92 x 46 x 16.9 millimeters (when closed), the handset packs a 930 mAh battery capable of providing up to 20 hours of music playback, 9 hours of talk-time and 370 hours of stand-by time.
Announced until now to come only in black, the new W980 will surely be available in other color versions too, as most of Sony Ericson's mobile phones. We're now waiting to see if the handset will indeed come sooner than announced.
