We’ve had a chat with Kenneth Møller, National Account Manager, Sony Ericsson Denmark and Iceland, about today’s announcements as well as some general phones talk. Here’s what he had to say

Q. The new C905 Cyber-shot features an 8-mega pixel camera - was that a necessary step?

A. The amount of mega pixels is one of many factors we’re continuously working with to get the best image quality. With the C905 you can even share your photos via DLNA to i.e. your TV or Playstation 3 and thereby show the photos in a large size. This is where the amount of mega pixels makes a considerable difference.

Q. An important factor when it comes to mobile phone cameras, high resolutions and alike, is the size of the camera sensor. Any news on this front to avoid picture noise, colour errors, and alike?

A. C905 has a larger camera sensor than what we’ve seen in previous models, but apart from that we’re working on advanced features such as face detection and smart focus, which in different ways is what consumers of compact cameras and mobile phone cameras want.

Q. Many will say the C905 lacks optical zoom. Why was this feature excluded?

A. During the development process we’re continuously evaluating based on what combination of features that delivers the best user experience and the best combination of features, size and price. In the case of C905, we think the 8.1 MP in combination with the possibility to share your photos on your TV is the best solution. Apart from this you can now also geo-tag your photos with the built-in aGPS and use it for navigation purposes.

Q. The TV-out cable ITC-60 is announced as an accessory to the C905 - can it be used with other phones?

A. C905 is the first phone by Sony Ericsson with TV-out functionality.

Q. The Sony Ericsson F305 is the first model in a revived F-series of gaming phones. Will this series be reserved cheaper phones, or will we also see more expensive phones in this series in the future?

A. We strongly believe in our new F-series, but can only make statements about announced products.

Q. What makes the gaming experience on the F305 unique compared to i.e. the K850 and W910, both also featuring a built-in accelerometer?

A. With an accelerometer as in F305, you get expanded possibilities to use different movements.

Q. With the Cyber-shot phones now in the C-series, will the K-series be used for price-friendly phones such as the K330?

A. The K-series will be used for phones in the entry-level segment. When it comes to imaging, we’ve got the S-series; Snapshot to complement the Cyber-shot range in a more competitive price level.

Q. The C905 in particular has received lots of publicity in the media and on various forums. Is this a so-called hero product?

A. We announce what we think gives the best user experience in the imaging segment. With the C905, we announce several new technologies and applications, that we believe will take the photos from your mobile phone camera to the next level. That’s why we strongly believe the C905 will communicate to all.

Q. What will the new phones cost?

A. It’s not Sony Ericsson without the operators that can set the prices for the markets, and they can vary by market. Our estimate is that the C905 will cost around the same as the K850 did when it was released.

… and now some more general questions.

Q. The XPERIA brand was launched earlier this year, and even since we haven’t seen any further additions in the XPERIA range. Are there any plans of announcing one or more this year?

A. We’ve announced the X1, which will be released during Q4 2008. We can however not comment further on any unannounced products.

Q. How does the future look for high-end phones by Sony Ericsson? At the latest few announcements the primary focus has been on cheap entry-level models - is it the plan to continue this?

A. We’ll be expanding our product portfolio in full to satisfy all kinds of markets.

Q. Is there still a market for ultra-thin phones?

A. The size of the phone is still an important factor, that must be balanced with the feature set and price.

Q. Numerous competitors have announced luxury models - does Sony Ericsson see a future for these phones or are they niche-products?

A. Our goal is to deliver a unique user experience for consumers with different needs. This goes for all segments.

Q. Professional UIQ-phones are a rare sight nowadays - are there any models in the pipeline or is the platform less suitable than Windows Mobile for this kind of phones?

A. Sony Ericsson today works with a set of different platforms that all add different parts to the portfolio. UIQ is still an important platform, complementing Windows Mobile in X1.

PS. Sorry about any mistakes in the text. Had to do this in a hurry, so the translations are definitely not top notch!

Filed under: Announcement, C series, Camera, Cyber-shot, Exclusive, F series, Interview, J series, K series, S series, Uncategorized

(12 votes, average: 3.92 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Sony Ericsson - the brains behind Bluetooth, however self-centered that may sound - is planning to announce three awesome-looking Bluetooth headsets on the 17th this month. These three all offer superior battery life and - in my opinion - look very slick.

They’ve all got some features in common. These are up to 800 hours of battery life in standby mode (that’s over a month of battery life!) or up to 11 hours of talk, auto-pairing, digital noise reduction (DSP), auto volume-leveling, removable ear-hooks, as well as Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rates (EDR) for a faster and more stable connection.

HBH-PV-715 seems to be the cheapest of the three, and is - once again, in my opinion - the better looking of the bunch as well. It’ll come in either the pictured white trimming or a black one.

HBH-PV-720 is the headset for the more sophisicated and fashionable of us. You can personalize its look with StyleUp covers, and it comes with a pouch and a silver necklace.

HBH-PV-740 is the professional headset for the business man or woman. It’s the only one of the headsets to feature a status display, and it’s the only one to come with a headset desk stand and USB charger. Apart from that, you also get the silver necklace with the HBH-PV-740.

No word on availablity or price on these ones, although the price will probably be in the range of £60 - £100.

Filed under: Accessories, Announcement, Bluetooth, Exclusive, Upcoming

(22 votes, average: 3.36 out of 5)

 Loading ...

We told you about the Snapshot series quite some time ago in a post about the new nomenclature of Sony Ericsson phone names, and today we’ll be unveiling Sony Ericsson’s first phone in this series - it’s called the Sony Ericsson S302 Snapshot.

The S302 Snapshot is a cheap camera-enabled quadband GSM phone with further support for EDGE networks. It’ll be available in Europe (S302) and China (S302c).

The S302 Snapshot sports a fair 2 mega pixel camera with fixed focus, meaning your shots won’t get past the snapshot-level, which is basically expectable from a product with that as its surname. It does, however, feature the more advanced camera interface from earlier Sony Ericsson phones, and considering it’s a low/mid-end solution, that’s not half bad. Further more, it’s got a photo light and it features PhotoFix as well, if you decide to use that.
Your favourite moments can be recorded on video, although it won’t be in that great quality, and the internal memory of only 20 megabytes is also somewhat of a hindrance if you had plans about holding your entire photo album on it. It is, however, expandable with a Memory Stick Micro card.

Photos and videos can be easily transfered via either Bluetooth 2.0 or USB 2.0 (notice the 2’s, did you?). If you don’t want to use either, you can post both your images on a blog, or print them directly with the built-in PictBridge support.

Other features worth mentioning are A2DP-support, media player, support for various audio codecs, PlayNow, TrackID, a built-in FM radio and the Access NetFront xHTML web browser.

The S302 Snapshot measures 101 x 46 x 11 (12) millimetres, and weighs a mere 79 grams, making it quite light. Its display is a 2-inch TFT-display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The battery life is set to 7 hours of talk or 300 hours of standby.

The phone will be available in early Q4 this year, and announced on the 17th. It’ll come in Thunder Grey and Crystal Blue colour trimmings. Its price is yet unknown, but it’ll be quite low.

Filed under: Announcement, Camera, Exclusive, New phone, S series

(22 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

The Sony Ericsson F305 is Sony Ericsson’s first Motion Gaming-enabled phone. Or well, no, that’s actually not true, but it’s the first to go by that name in particular. It’s a quad-band GSM phone with support for EDGE network speeds.

This low/mid-level phone sports some rather cool gaming features. The three pre-loaded games - Bowling, Bass fishing & Jockey - will enable you to use movements to play the game. Say, you load up the bowling game - how do you play it? Simply imitate the movement of the bowling ball throw with the F305, and you’ll be playing the game. Simple, isn’t it? It’s a bit like the concept behind Nintendo Wii, although I find it hard to believe this will work just as great as the Wii does. Other than the special gaming features, the F305 offers a set of PlayStation-like gaming keys just above the display, as well as a shortcut key to your games. If you’re in the middle of a game, but the battery is running low (meaning you’ve played almost 8 hours!), you can quickly plug in the battery Power Pack CCP-100 (extra accessory), and you can play for hours again. That’s actually a rather clever accessory, and I hope it’ll be available for other phones, although there’s a chance that won’t happen.

F305 features loud stereo speakers on the back of it, making your gaming experience even better. If you feel like challenging a friend of yours in a match, you can do this via Bluetooth on some games.

F305 has got a decent music player capable of playing the most standard audio compression codecs, including the über-compressed eAAC+ codec. The phone memory is a bit limited though at only 10 megabytes, so you’ll have to expand the memory with a Memory Stick Micro card. Your music can then be transfered via a USB connection. You can stream your music wireless in stereo, as the phone features the Bluetooth A2DP profile. You can also have a listen to the radio with the built-in FM radio, and recognize the music playing with TrackID.

The display on the front of this Polar White or Mystic Black phone is a 2-inch large TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, and up to 262.144 colours. While the resolution isn’t exactly excellent, it’ll make the rendering of 3D games quicker, and more games are available for phones of this screen resolution.

The F305 measures a good 96 x 47 x 14.6 millimetres, and weighs in at just 97.5 grams, making it a bit heavier than it actually looks. F305 will be out in selected markets in Q3 this year. We expect the price tag to be relatively low, considering this is a low/mid-end phone.

The F305 will be officially announced on Tuesday 17th.

Filed under: Announcement, Exclusive, F series, Fun, Games, Uncategorized

(43 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

 Loading ...

I promised that I’d do a post answering most of the tons of questions asked in the comments of the Sony Ericsson C905 post. So, this is what I’ll be doing in this post. Note, that it’s possible there might be some slight changes in the final production unit.

Q. What kind of phone is this?

A. It’s a quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE phone (all versions) with UMTS & HSDPA support in the European version (2100 MHz) and American version (850 / 900 / 2100 MHz). We’re guessing it’s 3.6 Mbps HSDPA.

Q. When will it be available and at what price?

A. It’ll be available in early Q4. We expect the price to be around £400 SIM free.

Q. What’s the camera specifications?

A. It’s an 8.1 mega pixel camera sensor (3264 x 2448 pixels) with auto focus and face recognition, and many more advanced camera features. It’s got a xenon flash for still photos, and a photo flash (the improved one) for videos. Videos are recorded in VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels). It does not feature optical zoom. The focal length is 5.91 mm, and the aperture is fixed at f/2.8.

Q. What kind of display is it?

A. It’s a 2.4 inch large scratch-resistant TFT display made of mineral glass. The resolution is QVGA (240 x 320 pixels). It can show up to 262.144 colours (18 bit).

Q. Is this a smart phone? What’s the OS?

A. No, this is a feature phone, not running any sort of smart phone operating system. It looks like it’ll run a newly developed OS based on the older A2 platform, although this has not been confirmed.

Q. What’s the web browser in it?

A. Access NetFront.

Q. How much memory does it have?

A. 160 megabytes of internal memory storage, and a 2 gigabyte Memory Stick Micro (M2) comes bundled.

Q. Does it feature W-LAN?

A. Yes, it does, and with further support for DLNA. No details on whether this is 802.11b or 802.11b/g.

Q. Does it feature a 3.5 mm jack port?

A. No, it doesn’t feature a 3.5 mm jack port.

Q. Does it feature mobile TV?

A. You can have TV streamed to the phone via UMTS / HSDPA, but there’s no DVB-H support or alike.

I guess that was it

Filed under: C series, Camera, Cyber-shot, Exclusive, New phone, Upcoming

(28 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)

 Loading ...