Price Range: $299.99 to $345.60

Made for the actively mobile

An active lifestyle needs an active phone, and this one’s got it all: music, communications, imaging and all the essential active accessories.

The Sony Ericsson W710i is a Walkman phone in a clamshell format. It’s designed for an active lifestyle, with rubber inlays to improve grip, a belt clip and a sports armband. The W710i even has a motion sensor to measure time, speed and distance when you run, and a step counter for walking. Central to the W710i are its music player functions. The music player is stereo and can support a wide range of formats including MP3 and AAC. Audio quality is high, with Mega Bass™ to enhance bass frequencies. A stereo headset is supplied, which enables the RDS FM radio to operate. Alternatively a Bluetooth stereo headset can be used.

The phone comes with dual screens which allows the user to see what music they are playing when the phone is in the open or closed position. The external screen is a STN type greyscale display which has a screen resolution of 128 x 128 pixels. The W710i has a clear & colourful internal TFT display which provides 262k colours & a screen resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The Walkman™ music player is highly useable & provides the user with an extremely high quality performance & sound. The user can tune into their preferred radio station with the use of the built in FM radio with RDS. The FM radio RDS feature allows the user to enjoy having a text information service provided by the radio station. The radio station can provide information on the song that is being played, the current news & sporting headlines.

Sony Ericsson is still easing into the flip phone game, and the W710i is just the second Walkman flip phone after the Sony Ericsson W300i. But where the entry-level W300i skimped, the W710i delivers in both its high-end features and its accessible design. On that note, the W710i has a smart form factor with a unique white and gray color scheme. Admittedly it’s a tad boxy, but it’s not a design we’d grow tired of. And while it borders on bulky (3.4 by 1.9 by 1 inches; 3.6 ounces) it’s easily portable, it has a solid construction, and it feels comfortable when held to the face for talking. A small looped antenna juts out at the top of the handset.

Camera
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 2.5x
* Picture blogging
* Video record

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* MegaBass™
* Music tones
* PlayNow™
* TrackID™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Price Range: $265 - $369

Entertainment on the go

This all-round entertainer will keep you amused for ages. Take hours of music with you. Make video calls. Enjoy 3D gaming. The fun never stops!

This compact music and video phone is alive with audiovisual entertainment. Fast Web access lets you stream music and movies in real time. Carry the Internet in your pocket! Get up-to-the-minute news feeds via RSS, and visit your favorite Web sites, whenever you fancy. Get your pictures online in seconds. It’s a snap to share what you see with the 2 megapixel camera and integrated picture blogging.

Sony Ericsson K618i supports a 2.0 MegaPixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom, less than W810i that can zoom up to 4x. The camera gives the user high quality images and the digital zoom digitally crops and magnifies the centre of an image to make the subject appear nearer or further away. Press once the dedicated camera button and the integrated camera activates. The 2.0 Megapixel camera has 256MB internal memory with extra memory available through memory stick micro cards. Further more, it comes with Mobile Blogger, a application that allows users to post their pictures directly to their own website or blog spot on the web. This way family and friends can easily access the site and view the pictures in no time. You can also record motion video to your phone with the video recorder. Thanks to the viewfinder display, you can you can see what will be in the picture before you take it.

The NetFront browser is built-in for Web access, which works fine on Vodafone Live but doesn’t suit regular sized Web pages that aren’t designed for mobile screens. Any Web page with too much content will become a burden to scroll through. A RSS reader lets you keep up-to-date with your favourite RSS feeds.

Camera
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 2.5x
* Video record

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Price Range: $415 - $449

The future of communication is here

A 3G smartphone that lets you leave your PC behind while traveling, yet access everything you need for effective communication. It’s all here, now.

The design of the P990i incorporates a conventional numeric keypad which can be flipped open or removed to reveal the full QWERTY alphanumeric keypad beneath. In addition to key-based data entry, the p990i has a touch-sensitive screen with a stylus to operate an onscreen virtual keyboard. Most users seem to prefer this to the real keyboard. The phone also has support for handwriting recognition. The 3-way jog dial can be used for scrolling and selecting and most phone functions can be accessed without opening the flip.

P990i Specifications P990i takes effective communications to new heights. You have everywhere access to the Internet, push e-mail to get your e-mail straight to your phone and video calling and messaging for effective communications. Utilize the fastest existing wireless networks and the most advanced network operator services. Take pictures to be proud of. The P990i has a 2 megapixel digital camera with video. Catch the moment and save it or send it. Show what your camera can do. Symbian OS 9.1, the latest version of the most-used open smartphone operative system is now launched and P990i has it. Add innovative applications to your phone and make it a powerful and effective business tool.

The P990i also has several hardware buttons located all around the casing. On the right side, above the Memory Stick Pro Duo slot, there is a configurable button which can be used to launch selected system application (e.g. the Web browser) or quickly switch to the standby (Activity) screen, main menu or task manager. On the other side of the memory card slot there is a camera shutter release button: press it halfway to autofocus; press it all the way down to take a picture or start recording a video clip. This button is accompanied.

Camera
* Auto focus
* Camera - 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 2.5x
* Photo light
* Video record

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support
* WLAN

Price Range: $290.00 to $653.13

For the digital connoisseur

A quality camera that’s also a phone: a 3.2-megapixel digital camera with all the functionality and connectivity you’d expect in a top 3G phones.

Sony Ericsson falls in the market niche of highly functional devices for which size is not that important. It’s a camera phone and the devices we like to call camera phones are phones that boast a digital camera that’s on par with the low-end digital cameras on the market. Speaking of camera phones, nowadays we see an increase in the maximum image resolution. We see implementation of new features which not long ago belonged to the world of the digital cameras only - such as specific scene modes, xenon flash, auto focus. Recently announced Nokia multimedia phones would even have optical zoom. The camera functionalities of the mobile phones are becoming increasingly important since the battle for the ultimate multimedia device continues - a device that can take great pictures, capture hi-res video, one that plays high-quality music, one that you can browse photos or play games on, one that helps you organize your daily schedule and browse the Internet, and in the same time functions equally well as a regular phone. Right about now buying a new mobile phone is always a bit of a trade-off on some of those things. There is no perfect phone.

At 3.2 megapixels, the K800i’s camera has the highest resolution available at the time of writing (August 2006), but its the quality of the optics that really determines the quality of a camera, and the K800i doesn’t disappoint. With autofocus and a real xenon flash (most camera phones have a weaker LCD flash that leads to poor exposure and red-eye), the K800i is a real digital camera, not just a toy. Picture quality is very impressive indeed, and is a match for many dedicated digital cameras. The K800i comes with a novel feature called BestPic™. BestPic takes nine pictures at a time, enabling you to choose the best. There’s also a picture stabiliser, helping to eliminate camera shake. Naturally the K800i supports direct printing on PictBridge compatible printers, so you don’t need a computer in order to print your pictures.

Camera
* Auto focus
* BestPic™
* Camera - 3.2-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 16x
* Image stabiliser
* Picture blogging
* Red-eye reduction
* Video record
* Video stabiliser
* Xenon flash

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Infrared port
* Modem
* PictBridge
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Price Range:

A modern classic – compact yet comprehensive

The elegant clamshell design will fit comfortably into you hand. Open it, and there’s everything you need for communications, imaging and entertainment.

The Sony Ericsson Z550i is also a clamshell like its competitor the 6131. It is a GSM Tri-band phone while Nokia’s 6131 is a GSM Quad-band phone. The Z550i is smaller and thus lighter weighing just 93 grams with dimensions 87.5 x 45.4 x 20 mm. The Z550i has a 256K TFT color screen on the inside and a mono-display on the outside. The external mono-display does well displaying the time, name of the contact or number of the incoming call, FM Radio Station, and alerts (message, missed call, reminders, etc.) The contrast of the inner screen is good and looks very pleasant to the eyes. The screen is smaller compared to the 6131, that’s because of the comparatively small dimensions of the clamshell.

The phone has dual screens & the external screen provides the user with a useful external monochrome display. The external screen displays the time & date along with calendar reminders. The internal display provides 262k colours on a TFT screen which measures 1.9 Inches. The phone comes with wallpaper animations, screensavers & themed colourful displays which allow the user to create a personal feel to their phones displays. The Z550i camera phone comes with a 1.3 megapixel digital camera feature complete with 4 x digital zoom. The user will find the camera feature fun & extremely user friendly with some very useable editing features. The user can use the video record feature if they need to capture the moment in motion. The user can stream video onto their Sony Ericsson Z550i & the phone comes with a Video DJ™ feature which allows the user to create a video sequence by simply combining different video clips together & incorporating sound for a perfect finish.

The front of the phone houses the 1.3 megapixel camera lens and an external display set in landscape mode, similar to the one used on the Z610i. A self-portrait mirror is located just above this display. Located on the right hand side of the phone are the volume keys, while on the left is the memory card slot situated behind the battery cover. The card is still hot-swappable, but you’ll have to remove the battery cover first. The proprietary Sony Ericsson Fast Port can be found on the bottom edge of the handset, which does double duty for plugging in the charger and USB data cable. Finally, on the back of the handset you’ll find the loudspeaker and battery cover with the same brushed metal finish as the rest of the phone.

Camera
* Camera - 1.3-megapixel
* Digital zoom - 4x
* Video record

Music
* Media Player
* Music tones
* PlayNow™

Messaging
* Email:
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* Modem
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support