Soo Sony Ericsson has put up the promo videos of their new low-end, namely the S312 and the W205 on their website. But since their flash players are a tad inconvenient to embed (start automatically), we’re posting them in a user-friendly YouTube format. Or rather copying them, since we didn’t actually go through the process of uploading the videos. You can see them below.
In my opinion they’re quite good. Fantastic even. I mean, some of their high-ends have worse promotional videos (read W995).
Another day, another handset. That phrase largely sums up the S312. Cynical? Read on and find out …
Let’s start with the good. It’s a basic wee handset that will appeal to those looking for a no frills, no nonsense handset. The 2 MP camera isn’t rock bottom spec and should be fine for random Facebook photography fun. There’s a couple of additional photo features, such as photo blogging, and a photo fix feature to enhance shots. There is also a dedicated video camera key, which is a nice touch I suppose. A photo light is also a nice addition although probably of little use for anything more than basic photography. An M2 memory card slot is also nice to have, whether for pictures/videos or music.
The fact that the handset supports EDGE is good too although realistically you probably won’t be doing much browsing on the small screen.
It is nice to see TrackID featured though. This is a great wee feature that I’ve long sung the praises of and it’s especially nice to see Sony Ericsson include it in their low-end handsets. A2DP support is also a welcome inclusion. Kudos chaps!
Ok let’s turn our attention to the bad. Generic. That one word sums this handset up in its entirety. I’m not being overly harsh when I say that because in all honesty the S312 doesn’t offer anything that we haven’t seen before. What can they include in a low-end handset I hear you ask? It’s not so much the feature set, although that is part of it, but rather the relatively unimagintive design; it’s basically a cookie cutter handset that we’ve seen countless times before from various manufacturers.
If Sony Ericsson are sensible they will price this handset very cheaply although given their track record I have feeling that probably won’t happen. A low price would be the S312’s saving grace because if it were very cheap then its feature set could really compete with the products from other manufacturers in the generic low-end category.
Also announced today is the VH300 - a small and simple Bluetooth headset.
In short it isn’t a bad handset, but it’s nothing to get excited about either. Those who want a basic handset with the odd extra might like it, but for the rest of us it’s not much more than a quick mention in a blog. Move along people, nothing to see here.
Having read some of the comments about my rather cool (and totally copyrighted!) way of handling the F305, T700 and W302 in the unboxing videos (read: tossing them around a bit), I’ve decided to go all in with a large durability test, and - naturally - caught it all on tape, err, memory card! The durability test included no less than thirty Sony Ericsson phones that all received some TLC before being airborne. To my great surprise, none of the phones received any scratches from this test - great job, Sony Ericsson!
All right… My time is up, and I’ll leave you with the video and a question just below it…
So, have I got too much time on my hands or too many phones to be in my hands? That’s the question!
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;
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.
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