14 DAY TRIAL // The Z588 tri-band clamshell from Sony Ericsson, working on 900, 1800 and 1900 networks, has just been approved by the Federal Communications Commission, thus hurrying its appearance in the mobile phone stores all over the world.
This handset is the first non-Symbian handset developed by Sony Ericsson that comes with a 262k color touch screen for Chines input, a stylus, and with Thai and English text recognition. It also features a 128x36 pixel STN external display, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 18 MB of internal memory which can be expanded to 1 GB with the help of the Memory Stick Micro M2 card slot, Java MIDP 2.0, music player which offers support for MP3 and AAC audio files, FM Radio, OMA DRM phase 1, speakerphone, push e-mail, and connectivity through the GPRS class 10, the USB 2.0, the Bluetooth 2.0 and the WAP 2.0.
The handset will be available some time this month in Expresso Black color, and will be sold under the names of Z558c in China and Z558i on other markets. There are some questions remaining: will the Z558i also have Chinese handwriting recognition? Should I begin taking Chinese lessons if I want to buy this device? I hope not.