On the 17th of June Sony Ericsson invited me for their press event in Amsterdam. The day started as usual with a slide show by the head of Sony Ericsson in Benelux. At first he wanted to remind us of the fact that Sony Ericsson has already sold 66.5 million Walkman phones and 22 million Cyber-shot phones. Here some more numbers about Sony Ericsson as a brand;

Continue reading “The newly announced products”

Filed under: Announcement, Article, C series, Camera, Conference, Corporative, Cyber-shot, F series, Games, J series, K series, Prototype, Rants, S series, Upcoming

(6 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5)

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Here they are! Hope you’ll enjoy them, and do feel free to press the thumbnails to get the full size image (it’s not that fun to just look at the thumbnails, is it?). PS. Sorry about the N95 8GB comparisons - guess he had to find another brick to compare the C905 with.

Thanks, MR!

Filed under: Announcement, C series, F series, Gallery, Games, J series, K series, S series

(17 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)

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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 progress 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)

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… and a few official photos of the new Sony Ericsson F305.

Continue reading “Sony Ericsson F305 photos”

Filed under: Announcement, F series, Gallery

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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We’ve already told you about C905, F305 and S302, so we’ll leave you with a link to each. Also announced today was the three Bluetooth headsets, we’d posted about, as well as an HSUPA modem with a built-in memory card reader called MD400, and the MD400g with the additional of a built-in GPS unit.

Two other phones were announced today, as expected. These were J132 and K330, both low-end phones with for the entry-level markets. Both feature a built-in FM radio, and the K330 comes with a VGA camera as well. The specifications aren’t ground-breaking, but that’s why they’re for entry-level markets

More coming up in a bit!

PS. Sorry about the late posts today; I had my physics exam today (yes, horribly scheduled!).

Filed under: Announcement, C series, F series, J series, K series, S series

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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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

(25 votes, average: 4.28 out of 5)

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