14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson unveiled yesterday two new handsets meant for the North American market, namely the W508a Walkman phone and the C510a Cyber-shot camera phone. Both of the new handsets feature video calling capabilities, complemented by quad-band EDGE and tri-band 3G support. What differentiates the two devices is their form factor, besides the obvious music phone versus camera phone features.
The new C510a is a candybar phone, while W508a presents itself as a clamshell. The two do not come with astonishing features, yet they both sport a very polished OSes, and are expected to become available sometime during the first half of the year. For what it’s worth, carriers should consider the fact that the W508a Walkman resembles a lot the devices offered by Rogers and Fido and it lacks the 1700MHz frequency support.
The specification list of the C510a Cyber-Shot shows that the handset features quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri-band 3G support, a 2.2″ TFT display providing a 240×320 pixel resolution and 262k colors, a 3.2-megapixel camera w/ “Smile Shutter” and front-facing video calling, video playback capabilities, YouTube/streaming video enabled, media player (Mega Bass, PlayNow, and TrackID), and FM radio with RDS.
Also present are 100MB of internal memory, as well as Memory Stick Micro (M2) support. The phone measures 107mm x 47mm x 12.5mm and weighs 92g. Its battery can provide up to 400/300 hours in stand-by, and up to 10/4 hours of talk time on EDGE and 3G, respectively. The phone should become available in the first quarter of the year in both Future Black and Radiation Silver.
W508a Walkman comes with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri-band 3G support, a 2.2″ TFT display with a 240×320 pixel resolution and 262k colors, a 3.2-megapixel camera featuring front-facing video calling, video playback functionality, YouTube/streaming video enabled, Walkman player sporting Mega Bass, PlayNow, TrackID, SensMe, and Shake Control, as well as Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.
More features include 100MB of internal memory, support for Memory Stick Micro (M2), up to 400 hours of standby time and up to 10 hours of talk time offered by the battery, which can also deliver 24 hours of MP3 playback. The handset measures 93.5mm x 50mm x 14mm, weighs 98g, it will come in Metal Grey or Poetic White with eight interchangeable faceplates and it is expected to hit the market in the second quarter of the year.