It appears that Sony Ericsson is once again teaming up with Sanrio, this time to release a special ‘Hello Kitty’ version of the F305. There aren’t any details as to what it’ll include, but the obvious would be special Hello Kitty content, such as ringtones and wallpapers. The F305 doesn’t support themes, so they can’t include any of those. By the looks of it, this won’t be for the Japanese market…

Source: Eldar Murtazin’s blog

We got our hands on SE’s dedicated gaming handset, the F305. It’s a low-endish slider with a 2 inch large screen. Its resolution is 176×220 pixels and it shows up to 262.144 colours.

Other features include a 2 megapixel camera (unfortunately said camera lacks both auto focus and any light) and an accelerometer for motion based gaming.

Take the jump for more information and pictures.

The build quality if our unit is pretty solid. The slider isn’t wobbly at all, everything fits. There’s been a problem with the display glass falling off, but that seems to be a singularity with this special unit, we never heard of similar problems from other users.

The retail package includes a second battery cover, a wrist strap (so you won’t throw your phone against the wall while bowling) and a pretty poor headset, the HPM-60.

Turning on the F305 is quite disappointing. As the phone is not a Sony Ericsson, but a Sagem license product, the user interface is neither A1/A100 nor A2/A200, but something below that is building on the OS of the absolute low enders like T280 or T303.

So you’ll find yourself with a phone that can’t use themes. A phone that can’t fast forward or rewind while playing a song. A phone that does not support multitasking.

On the positive side, we can mention the 11 pre-installed games, some of them based on the motion sensor, plus the additional 50 games ready to install on the 512 MB large memory stick (M2).

Bowling or fishing with your mobile as the remote is quite a lot of fun, once you got how to use it.

The F305 supports two keypad lighting modes, one for normal use and one for the game mode.

There’s a bug with the lighting, though. Once you entered the games’ list, the lighting switches. When you enter a game, exit and go back to the menu, the keypad will stay off. You’ve to lock and unlock the phone to get it back to normal.

I’ll leave you with these impressions and the clear statement:

If you bought SE phones because you love the UI, don’t buy this.
You’d be disappointed. I was.

/xell.

Maximys over at SEMC Blog has gotten his hands on a complete list of the additional fifty games that comes with the Sony Ericsson F305. He has posted a PDF file with the titles, screenshots and a short description to each. Check out his post about the games, including the PDF file, right here. If your Internet connection is limited, we’ve gathered the game titles after the jump.

(1) 3D Night Fever
(2) 3D Crash Fever
(3) Cop Speed
(4) 3D 9 Ball
(5) mBounce 3D Bowling
(6) Bass Fishing
(7) Cricket Game
(8) Ping Pong Sweetie
(9) Astro Love
(10) IQ Booster
(11) Truth or Dare
(12) Monkey Paradise
(13) Extreme Pinball
(14) Mobile Fortune
(15) Tarot
(16) War for Magic Crystal Summon Masters
(17) Agent Hugo
(18) Ratso Golf
(19) Frog Prince Adventure
(20) Sudoku
(21) Exploding Zone
(22) Knife Soul
(23) Fighting King – Kungfu Fun
(24) Saint Arms-Longinus and Ares
(25) Maya Magic Crystal
(26) The blood covenant
(27) Demon’s Castle
(28) Devil City
(29) mBounce Video Poker
(30) Card Casino
(31) Bird and the rhino
(32) Fighting Basketball
(33) Devil’s contract
(34) Silent Sniper
(35) Mechanical War
(36) The Ancient Mystery
(37) Star Hammer
(38) Coin Rush
(39) Temperature 32
(40) Trump Mission
(41) The Pyramid
(42) Magic Road
(43) Patternman
(44) Monster Indoors
(45) Piggys Run
(46) Wing of Dragon I
(47) Forest Rush
(48) Lost Holyland
(49) Back to Athens
(50) Balloon War

Source: SEMC Blog

Ok, now on to the new products – they’re divided into 3 groups for different audiences as seen below.

The first group consists of two entry models, the J132 and the K330. Both are low-end phones with all basic phone features like phone book, torch, (radio) alarm, and the K330 also supports Bluetooth. A VGA-camera with video recording up to 12 minutes is also present and so is Java support.
The J132 comes in Night black and Heaven blue, K330 in Gold on black and Green on black.

Also in this group are the three new Bluetooth headsets HBH-PV715, PV720, PV740.

For the PV-720 you can buy additional style-up covers, so you can personalize it.

The next group contains the F305 – F being for fun. This phone is all about fun and entertainment, it’s equipped with a motion sensor, dedicated game buttons and even stereo speakers.  The phone also has a M2 memory card slot, 2 mega pixel camera and three pre-installed games; Bowling, Bass fishing and Jockey. Additionally, 50 games by Gameloft will be available to download via Playnow. You can get the phone in two colours, Polar white and Mystic black. Along with this phone comes 2 style-up covers and additional the CPP-100 for an extra power boost.

The last group was all about making pictures and sharing them – this includes the S302 and the C905.
The S306 is a 2 mega pixel camera phone with a smooth design and a glossy finish. This phone comes in two colour variants – Crystal  blue and Thunder grey.
And now what you have all been waiting for – the one and only C905. This is basically a camera with phone functionality! It’s so amazing with its 8 mea pixel camera and the big sensor, this is really worth buying. This is the first Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot in the slider form factor, but SE did this on purpose. Their goal as to make a phone that looks like a camera instead of a phone, and to do this they used a metal casing that feels really solid and is a little bit heavier than what we’ve seen in previous Cyber-shot phones.

Also announced were the MD400(g), the CBC-100 battery charger/adapter and the ITC-60 TV out cable for viewing your C905 photos on your TV set.

After the slideshow it was time for lunch, meaning we could finally play with these new models! My personal opinion about the phones;

• J132 and K330 – both really annoying without the back key.
• F305 – looks good and it’s surprisingly small. But the games are not that special.
• S302 – great cam for a 2mega pixel phone still in development.
• C905 – damn, this phone is good! It’s like the phone K850 never became and the UI is real fast.
• Also got my hands on the X1 and its user interface has been speeded up a lot, too.

By Thomas Hondema aka Reversedhex.

[View with PicLens]

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Thanks, MR!

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!