Sony Ericsson plans Bluetooth watch and new phones
The flood of phones, beginning with Nokia earlier this week in Manila, hasn't stopped. Adding to the deluge is Sony Ericsson with its own 5th anniversary launches of mobile devices. However, stealing the thunder from its three new handsets (W830i, Z558i and K320i) is its announcement of a Bluetooth wristwatch (MBW-100).
The MBW-100, developed in collaboration with watchmaker Fossil, comes with an OLED screen below the watch face that works as an extension of your phone's display. This allows you to see who's calling, get notification on new messages, reject incoming calls, as well as control your music playback on your phone without having to take it out of your pocket or bag. The MBW-100 also sports a nifty out-of-range notification feature that alerts you to when you are separated from your phone.
Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson continues to beef up its popular Walkman phone lineup with its latest offspring, the W830i. Based on the soon-to-launch 3G-enabled W850i, the W830i slider sports almost identical design and features but sheds the 3G for EDGE support. It will also provide over-the-air (OTA) music download services and will be preconfigured to utilize the onboard PlayNow 3.0 service.
The Z558i clamshell is the company's first non-Symbian-based phone to feature a touchscreen and stylus for inputting Chinese, Thai and English text characters. The K320i has been designed as a basic phone for business users with an onboard suite of productivity tools, such as PC synchronization, automatic Bluetooth pairing, push email support and full HTML browser.
Both the K320i and Z558i are due on shelves before the end of October. The W830i and MBW-100 Bluetooth watch will ship some time in Q4 of this year.
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In a nutshell |
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Wow factor: Sony Ericsson's first Bluetooth Watch developed in collaboration with watch maker Fossil
Notable features:
Bluetooth 2.0
OLED display (below watch face)
Auto pairing
Music playback controls
Water resistant (up to 30m)
Mineral crystal, scratch resistant glass
187.5g
Availability: Q4 2006
Estimated price: 300 euros
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Wow factor: The non-3G version of the Sony Ericsson W850i
Notable features:
Triband with EDGE
2-inch QVGA TFT display with 262K-color support
2-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and LED light
Walkman Player 2.0
Bluetooth A2DP
Flight mode
Comes with 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card
Availability: Q4 2006
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Wow factor: Sony Ericsson's first non-Symbian-based phone with touchscreen and handwriting recognition
Notable features:
Triband
220x176-pixel TFT touchscreen display with 262K-color support
1.3-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
FM radio and media player
Chinese, Thai and English character recognition
Speakerphone
Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot
USB 2.0 and Bluetooth
Availability: October 2006
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Wow factor: Entry-level phone targeted at business users
Notable features:
Triband
1.8-inch 128x160-pixel TFT display with 65K-color support
VGA camera with 4x digital zoom
Media player
Bluetooth 2.0, infrared and USB
Automatic Bluetooth pairing
Push email and full HTML browser
Availability: October 2006
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