14 DAY TRIAL // The new Sony Ericsson Z558 is the first clamshell phone from the Japanese-Swedish joint venture with handwriting recognition that is not working on a Symbian operating system. The handwriting recognition feature works for Chinese, Thai and English languages, and this way, a Chinese that knows Thai and wants to write SMSs in English and has this mobile phone in its hands would be in heaven.
Besides this, the tri-band Z558 working on 900/1800/1900 Mhz networks also packs quite a punch inside its black gloss and brushed metal combination finish, having a262k colors TFT touch screen, with a resolution of 220x176 pixels, an external 128x36 pixels STN display, a 1.3 megapixel camera, email through POP3 and IMAP4 protocols, push email, FM radio, Java MIDP 2.0, OMA DRM 1.0 (Open Mobile Alliance Digital Rights Management phase 1), an internal 18 MB user memory, a music player with support for MP3 and AAC, a speakerphone, an expandable Memory Stick Micro M2 card slot, which supports memory sticks up to 1 GB, and connectivity through GPRS class 10, EDGE, USB 2.0, WAP 2.0 and Bluetooth.
This ingenious handset will be available in China from October 2006 under the brand Sony Ericsson Z558c, and under the name of Z558i in other parts of the world at a time and price that are not yet known.