I bet some of you have checked out the JavaOne conferences, but obviously no-one has gone through them in depth. In on of the videos, Rikko Sakaguchi at Sony Ericsson actually leaks an upcoming phone, well, sort of… After having showcased the video below at the JavaOne conference, Sakaguchi says “actually… you saw the device in the video? That’s something that we’re going to launch this year.” However! If we look closely at a few screenshots from the video, you’ll notice that there’s actually two devices, and not one. Could this be different prototypes for one phone? I mean, Sakaguchi did say “the device”.
Remember, Rikko Sakaguchi is the Senior Vice-President and Head of Product & Application Planning at Sony Ericsson, so it doesn’t get much more official than this.
I must remind you though that this video is almost 2 years old, so a few things might have changed. Now, feel free to let your minds wander.
It’s no secret that music artist Usher has been lucky enough to get a hold of several hot Sony Ericsson phones to use in his music videos months before they were out.
Now, Sony Ericsson has signed Usher to promote a few of their upcoming Walkman music phones in a major music marketing push. The two Walkman phones in question are the W350 and W980. This marketing push will span over 20 European countries (lots of coverage!), and will also include sponsorship rights for his upcoming full European tour later in the year. This is definitely a clear sign that Sony Ericsson will continue their strong focus on music, and especially the Walkman brand.
- Working with an artist such as Usher is an ideal fit for us. Here we are at the start of an electrifying launch campaign, poised to deliver a totally 360 degree experience for all consumers and Usher fans alike, it’s truly an exciting prospect, said John Bernard, who’s responsible for marketing at Sony Ericsson to MobileToday.co.uk.
Japanese Acrodea are known for having developing very cool 3D user interfaces, that’s capable of integrating all sorts of multimedia content. It was today announced that Sony Ericsson and Acrodea has signed a master license agreement, meaning Sony Ericsson can globally release products with both the Acrodea VIVID UI and VIVID Panorama applications pre-loaded.
You can read more about the amazing VIVID UI here, where you can also find a few demos. Information about the VIVID Panorama application can be found here. Now all we can do is await the phones with these applications pre-loaded, and expect to see more of this.
Sony Ericsson has just launched a mini-site with a set of wallpapers of the lovely Maria Sharapova and the stylish Z555. The computer wallpapers can be downloaded here in the following sizes; 1024 x 768 pixels, 1280 x 1024 pixels, and 1920 x 1200 pixels (hallelujah!). At the same site, you can also download a set of wallpapers for your Z555 phone (or any other phone with a 176 x 220 pixels display).
So, I think we promised you some photo samples from the C902. It is without doubt the best camera phone by Sony Ericsson yet, and the beta software is quite good in terms of sharpness, although we’d like a bit more saturated photos as well as less photo noise. Apart from that, these are very good photos by a pre-production unit. Press the thumbnails for full-size versions.
‘Brilliant!’ was the first thing coming to my mind, when getting the C902. The surface of my new phone is well polished and as smooth as glass. In addition to that the C902 is very thin for a Cyber-shot phone. Yet, the build quality is very good, and there’s a smooth transition between the nice materials and the weight of the phone.
The camera slider mechanism has been improved, so the lens cover feels solid and nice to use. As you all know, the C902 features a 5 mega pixel camera with auto focus and a new sort of LED-flash, called a Photoflash, which - according to Sony Ericsson - is on par with a xenon flash. It also contains a touch-sensitive surface around the 2″ display for advanced camera controls, which is very advantageous when taking photos.
I’m totally convinced by the camera quality. I’ve never seen such a good camera in such a thin phone! When you take photos, you’ll of course have to store them somewhere. For that, the C902 holds 160 megabytes of internal memory, which can be extended by a Memory Stick Micro memory card.
Let’s move on to the music department… The speaker is really awesome considering the thinness of the phone, and is comparable with K750’s speaker. The Mega Bass sounds very good on my BOSE QC2 headphones and the music player is very much comparable with the Walkman player.
Overall, the C902 is very, very neat and commendable for everyone who’s looking for a slim and well-built camera phone in the upper end of things. It’ll be priced at approximately £220 - £250, and is expected to hit the stores later this month.
Expect our full review of the C902 later this month, about the same time as it’ll start being available. Gallery of the C902 can be found here.
Our e-mail inbox has been smoking with e-mails coming from all our readers about the fact that the FCC has approved the C902 and R300. So far, I had decided not to write about it, as I didn’t feel it was that big a deal, but seeing that everybody’s writing about it and that our readers have been wanting us to do the same, I might as well do it.
As said, both the C902 and R300 have been approved by the FCC, which basically means that the hardware is now pretty much ready for the market, and that only the software is yet to be completed. As always, we’ll have to do with the mediocre quality photos available at the FCC website. For those interested, you can find the C902 at the FCC here, and the R300 at the FCC here.
I personally believe that both phones will do very well - especially the R300 (and the R306) in India and other emerging countries.
It’s no secret that music artist Usher has been lucky enough to get a hold of several hot Sony Ericsson phones to use in his music videos months before they were out.
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