Sony Ericsson comes out with sub 1cm thick 3G Walkman phone

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 07 February 2007 05:48

Business IT - Technology

Sony Ericsson has added two new models to its range of "Walkman' cellphones with MP3 players: a 3G model that is only 9.4mm thick and a 2G GSM model at 14mms. The company has also released a wireless modem card that work on four different technologies.

The 3G W880 is the slimmest Sony Ericsson phone ever, the company claims. It ships with a 1GB Memory Stick Micro able to store up to 900 music tracks, and has 2.0 megapixel camera.

The 2G W610 Walkman stores up to 470 music tracks on the 512MB Memory Stick Micro, provided in the box. It also offers the TrackID music recognition application; a feature that enables the user to record a clip from the FM Radio and quickly receive a notification of the track name, artist and album. It also comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera.

The W880 Walkman phone operates in 3G mode at 2100MHz and in 2G/GPRS at 900/1800/1900. It will be available in selected markets from Q1 2007. No pricing indication has been given. The W610 Walkman is an EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 device and will be available in selected markets from Q2 2007. Again, no pricing information has been given.

Sony Ericsson's new mobile broadband PC Card for laptops, the PC300, is the company's first to support HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE and GPRS. It will support HSDPA at 850, 1900 and 2100 MHz, which means it should be usable on Telstra's Next G network. It will support EDGE/GPRS at 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz. It will work with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and MAC-OS X.

However it will be a while coming, it is not due to be available until Q3, by which time the new ExpressCard format should be gaining ground: new laptops may not support PC Card format.