14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most crowded booths at the Mobile World Congress 2009, in Barcelona was Sony Ericsson's. The company showcased a medium number of devices, in different stages of development. Obviously, what made the headline was the first handset to feature a 12 Megapixel camera, Sony Ericsson Idou (pronounced 'I DO'). The new multimedia device opens these year's hostilities for camera phone supremacy on the sales market. LG and Samsung are coming closer every year, but for now Sony Ericsson seems to have the upper hand with the Cyber-shot series.
Sony Ericsson Idou has been presented at the MWC 2009 as a multimedia device, which means it is not a Cyber-shot-series handset. Moreover, officials of the company said that Idou was more of a music-oriented device as it integrates Sony Ericsson's Walkman interface. Several pieces of the product were displayed at the event, but none were the final version. Only a few parts of the phone were fully functional, such as the multimedia area and contacts, but most likely more options will be added, as officials said.
After giving up the UIQ platform, Sony Ericsson took over the now open-source Symbian Foundation OS, which is presently running on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic smartphone, and included it on its brand new camera monster phone. Powered by the new Symbian S60 5th Edition OS, Idou features a 3.5-inch TFT resistant touchscreen with a 360x640 pixel resolution, 16-million-color support and accelerometer sensor. Based on the prototypes showcased at the event, its data sheet may look like this: HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi, microSD slot card (8/16GB card included), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0, built-in GPS with A-GPS function, built-in 12.1 Megapixel camera (4256 x 2832 pixels) with autofocus, xenon flash, video capabilities, video LED flash and geo-tagging, face and smile detection functions.
Still, these specs are subject to change, as Sony Ericsson's officials stated. Moreover, the name of the smartphone could also be a different one, as Idou is just a codename. The handset will be available on the market in Q2 2009, at a price that will be disclosed later on.Next on the list is the latest Walkman-series phone, Sony Ericsson W995, also known as Hikaru. Considered one of the most advanced multimedia phones coming from Sony Ericsson (save for Idou), W995 features a built-in 8.1 Megapixel camera (3264x2448 pixels) with autofocus, flash, video capabilities, and geo-tagging and face detection functions. Unfortunately, video recording hasn't really been improved and only offers users the option to record WQVGA clips at 30fps.
Even if Hikaru embeds the largest screen ever included in a Walkman-series handset, at 2.6 inch it doesn't really offer the experience that you get on a 3-inch display, even though it has accelerometer sensor. Other features of the slider include: HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, built-in GPS with aGPS function, 3.5mm audio jack, 118 MB internal memory and M2 slot card for memory expansion (8GB card included). A nice add-on to the phone is the cool kickstand on the back of the phone, which enables users to watch movies keeping the phone on any surface, just like a TV. It's the same kickstand that Nokia included with the N96 slider.
The bad news is that Sony Ericsson W995 doesn't support DivX or XviD and the medium-sized display doesn't have the widescreen aspect ratio. Further, W995 will be the first phone to feature the Sony Ericsson MediaGo multimedia management synchronization service. The application enables users to smoothly transfer files between the phone and the PC via a USB cable. Moreover, MediaGo is also capable of automatically synching a wide range of multimedia files. Media Go will be available for all markets from the W995 launch in 15 different languages. While there's no info regarding its price yet, we already know that the Sony Ericsson W995 slider should be available in selected markets starting from Q2 2009.The cyber-shot series has also been updated with a new camera phone, Sony Ericsson C903. Just like W995, this is a quad-band slider, but surprisingly it only features a 5-megapixel camera (2592х1944 pixels) with auto-focus, image stabiliser, video and flash. Camera image geo-tagging and face and smile detection are also available functions. Other interesting features of the slider include TV-Out, YouTube application, Google maps, Wayfinder Navigator 7, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate.
Even though C903 has a scratch resistant surface, its shiny plastic seems to be a fingerprint magnet. More features of the slider: 2.4-inch TFT display, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS function, FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 105 MB internal memory and M2 slot. The Cyber-shot-series phone will be available in Lacquer Black, Techno White, and Glamour Red colors starting from Q2 2009.
The last handset that Sony Ericsson presented at MWC 2009 is the mid-budget music-oriented W395 slider. There's nothing exceptional in its data sheet, except for the fact that it will most likely be more affordable than its big brother that was mentioned above, W995. Featuring a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and video capabilities, Sony Ericsson W395 will probably not excel at taking pictures. Still, you get very good music features: Walkman player, TrackID music recognition, FM radio with RDS and Stereo speakers.Other highlights of the slider include scratch resistant surface, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, 10 MB of internal memory and M2 slot for memory expansion (1GB card included). The W395 Walkman supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and will be available in selected markets from Q1 in Dusky Grey and Blush Titanium color versions.
