Sony Ericsson Shows Off Feature-Heavy Cell Phones 164
An anonymous reader writes "As if waiting until the end of the month for the iPhone wasn't bad enough, Sony Ericsson has announced a set of super phones due to come out later this year. The Sony Ericsson K850i features an impressive 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and xenon flash, while the W960i comes with a whopping 8GB of on-board memory, stereo Bluetooth, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. These were among several other new devices Ericsson unveiled recently, in hopes feature-heavy offerings will put it firmly back on the camera and music phone map."
lame (Score:4, Funny)
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Tithe to your cell provider (Score:2, Insightful)
So you go and pay so many extra $$s to get your nice "shiny" cell phone with all of the "shiny" extra features, and you realize that you are going to replace it within two years. (Actually 2 years seems to be on the outside.)
Why do you want to pay so much extra for a disposable camera and music player? That is what it really is. I see some great small MP3 players for really cheap and a real digital camera takes way better pictures and both of them
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I don't see why people need mp3 players in their phones but I've been actively searching for a cellphone that takes good photos, especially macro photos for clear full-page photos of documents. Why? Because I'm in real estate and it'd be nice to whip out a cameraphone and snap pictures of a contract or lease and have a copy on me and on the PC at all times. Never
Re:lame (Score:4, Interesting)
Real keys, in other words, with tactile feedback. Much preferable.
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Besides, I want a phone that can handle a reasonable amount of accidental drops. If I want a fashion accessory, I'll get a new jacket or some sunglasses, not a new phone.
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Re:lame (Score:4, Interesting)
Knowing how good SE phones have become over the last few years, and the decent music playback abilities of the Walkman branded ones, there's every chance that this will become a iPhone killer in some markets, mostly here in Europe: not tied to one provider, full 3G capability, a decent camera (not tacked on as an afterthought), Symbian OS with thousands of apps available, and the Opera browser onboard. I know some people have mentioned that the battery life isn't mentioned, but my K800i will happily work for more than a week without a recharge.
Not really much to complain about there really to be honest.
Less shiny? Well, that'll be less fingerprints then...
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The w960i actually does come with a touch screen, way to read the article!
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Other features include stereo Bluetooth so that you can listen to your music wirelessly and a 66mm (2.6-inch) touchscreen. Alongside the K850i, this handset also supports the Microsoft Exchange Server, meaning you can access your work emails on the go.
enjoy your time watching web pages
and how much battery life? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:and how much battery life? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:and how much battery life? (Score:4, Informative)
I moved from an Ericsson t68 to a Sony Ericsson t610, and found the UI went backwards slightly. Previously, all menu items were numbered, so you could skip to the one you wanted by pressing the keypad button. With the t610, this shortcut still worked, but they weren't numbered, so you had to count the options, making it only marginally faster than using the little joystick.
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It's worth repeating this point. The OS is not only fast and easy to use, it also looks gorgeous. Sony took the lessons from OS X to heart very quickly and have made all their phones beautiful with the sorts of slick animation and semi-transparency you'd expect from an Apple product.
The iPhone looks interesting and I'd like to play with one, but I pretty much already decided that my next phone would be the next generation of SE Walkman p
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This is all well and good.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This is all well and good.. (Score:4, Informative)
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Yup, I've tried plenty of phones, and Sony Ericsson always delivers a great product. These new phones look amazing. Their cameras have also being surprisingly good in the past. Nokia N92 had a 2MP camera justl ike the K750i, but K750i delivere
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Maybe they meant it in the same way as 'iPod killer'..? :-)
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Whenever I use a Nokia phone, I get the impression that their UI guys write specs in Finnish and pass them off to programmers who don't speak Finnish, and so just look at the pictures and guess.
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From my experiences with other Nokia's deparments that could be really close the truth :) One team, which I was supposed to lead, was totally moved to some foreign country where people doesn't even speak english. It's been 3-4 years now and I'm not sure if they have made any real development so far.
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You open the lens cover and the user interface jumps into camera mode. Turn the phone into the horizontal position and the shutter button is on top like on normal cameras (it even blinks a few times after you open the cover) slightly depressing it will start the auto focus (which holds after it locks, so you can position the camera to an other place without refocusing) full depress takes a picture.
His sister Ulrika Ericsson (Score:1, Funny)
So the obvious question is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Fuck the features. Does it get good reception and decent range? Can it survive being dropped, mishandled, weather etc? Does it actually last for more than 18 months? Can I hear you properly....?
Mobiles these days jut have too much crap and not enough just plain phone.
Re:So the obvious question is... (Score:4, Informative)
Why? I like features! But OK, here are your answers. Yes it gets decent reception and range, at least, I've never had any problems with that when my friends didn't. Can it survive being dropped/mishandled/weather etc. Well I took my W800i through the Mexican jungle, have dropped it more times than I care to think and I've had it for about two years now yet it all still works. The only part I've had to replace is the external mini-jack adapter which doesn't seem to be too robust ... if you let the cable catch on things eventually the wires inside will work loose and you'll have to buy another. The phone itself is pretty robust though.
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In every review of a new "smart phone" posted on /. there is always one person that gets modded up for
If want a plain phone then go out and get one. Stop whining about the smart phones. Here check out Motorola [motorola.com] or Nokia [nokiausa.com] it wasn't that hard to find plain phones
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I'd say that most people like you (there are always a bunch of them on every mobile phone s
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Convergence = good (Score:4, Insightful)
So, important functionality - for me, camera and electronic dictionary - are important enough for me to warrant their own devices. I am willing to sacrifice precious space in order to get the best possible function in these areas. It means carrying a DSLR in a small pack, and having a separate Casio dictionary.
Other functions are nice and I would not want to be without them, but they're not so important that I want to give up precious space for it. For me it includes things like a sound player and radio (covered by my mobile phone), GPS (I have one that I never bring along), text reader (dictionary), web surfing (phone). These functions need to be built in another device or I end up not using them (but still missing them if I lack it).
Of course, what constitutes essential and what is optional differs from person to person. You listen to music all the time, and just take the occasional snapshot? Get a iPod or other real player and just use the phonecam instead of getting a "real" camera that ends up gathering dust at home. Fortunately, many of these functions are low-cost addons to existing devices, and doesn't hurt a user that wants to be without. Besides, there's low-end phones and other stuff out there for those that absolutely do not want to be saddled with it. Notably, for all that people complain about all those extras, basic models just never sell well when a manufacturer actually tries to listen to the complaints.
Re:Convergence = good (Score:5, Insightful)
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Just get a clip-on gadget utility belt and you'll never have a problem with lack of pocket space again.
Repels women too.
"Cell" phones (Score:1)
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Because "portable wireless communication and data retrieval device" takes way too long to say.
"Cell phone" was what they were called first and the name just stuck. When you "dial" someone's number, you may not use an actual rotary dial, but you certainly use the word. I'm "typing" this response, but it doesn't mean I'm lining up little wooden blocks with letters carved in to them. Language rarely evolves as quickly as technology.
Double standard (Score:5, Insightful)
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But they invite comparison... (Score:2)
his is the closest thing to an iPhone killer we've seen so far. The W960i not only comes with a whopping 8GB of on-board memory, it also features Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus.
Other features include stereo Bluetooth so that you can listen to your music wirelessly and a 66mm (2.6-inch) touchscreen.
Although it does support exchange, seems a lot more targeted at "Fun" users than at business people, most of whole will be using Blackberrys anyway. And the
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"closest thing to an ipod killer" cracks me up.
I would call the 3.2 megapixel camera,(iphone does not have) 3G(iphone does not have). All killing the iphone right there. Should not have been released without 3g, but hey second generation you can give apple another 700 bucks for technology that every other phone has now.
Puto
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Right, because the extreme quality of Cell-phone cameras is the major distinguishing feature that people choose a cell phone on.
Did you mean they don't have a camera at all? The iPhone does come with a 2.2 MP camera, equally as last resort in my mind, and we don't even know what the quality is like from either as results can differe drastically.
3G(iphone does not have).
Translation: Somewhat faster mobile internet, but much shorter battery life
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I do not use it all the time. But it i there when I need it. And it was not at a 500 dollar premium.
I like apple, and honestly, I think they will sell a shit ton of phones. Just for the wrong reasons.
Puto
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And I do WiFi faster still, which I am nearby 80-90% of my average day.
And I live in Denver, where when I am not around WiFi I would get 0k with 3G.
And I don't see that I will really have a problem with having some network in most places, instead of a kind of fast network in a few, and have better battery life to boot.
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Wow, you really don't know a whole lot of "business people", do you?
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I'm not sure what you're trying to say here - are you saying Blackberries are unpopular? They're ridiculously common in the financial industry (I work in IT at a large, large bank).
I plan to buy an iPhone on the 29th, because they're cool and I have a spare $500, and don't current have/need/want a Blackberry. But most business smartphone users I've seen have Blackberries
Yes we know.... (Score:2)
Actually yes, it's just that I don't particularly care about careful editing on Slashdot.
You were able to read it, so what's your issue? Superanal grammar and spelling nazis have ever been the vocal minority.
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Note that 8GB is "whopping" for an Erricson, yet many people complain 8GB is "paltry" for the iPhone, and a reason to skip buying one...
Ofcourse... And do you know why?
Apple i-Products: mainly music devices
Sony Ericsson: mainly cellphones
So sticking 8GB on iPhone is paltry compared to the 80GB iPod but sticking 8GB (internally, mind you!) on a cellphone is amazing compared to 40MB standard internal storage which you usually get (that's why most cellphones comes with some kind of memory expansion slot).
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No, the better comparison is that the iPhone (and the new Sony Ericsson) has exactly the same amount of memory as top end iPod nano, which doesn't play movies. Flash memory SSD's are a lot more expensive than regular HDD's. Eventually 2.5" and 1.8" SSD's will take over for mobile devices (love to have that new SanDisk in my MacBook and iPod), but we're a few years from that.
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Nokia N95 (Score:5, Informative)
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I have to say though that it misses three things which would make it the perfect phone:
1. No integrated qwerty-keyboard. After having had a keyboard on my phone (Treo) there's no way I will ever buy a phone without one. Writing sms/email without it is so painful. Even a small keyboard like on the Treo is quite usable.
2. Crappy QVGA resolution. Why oh why don't they upgrade the resolution of the screens? VGA is possible these days and
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As a K750i owner (Score:1)
- No cover on the camera lens. Looking at how beat up the cover is on my K750i, it's needed.
- Where's the joystick, is it supposed to be that thing around the 2 and 5 keys?...
- Where did they steal those pickup and hangup keys from? They sure don't look like they belong to this phone.
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5MP ? (Score:3, Funny)
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Modded funny, but this is more insightful than most people think because no matter the MP
rating on a camera the receptor is the main part. How fast, how receptive it is to color
and such. (may have the wrong word here, but photo-receptor comes to mind)
The MPxl rating is *supposed* to tell you how good it is, but a good film camera can be
subject to the film quality/speed.
I got an education (and warnings) against some c
Can't wait (Score:2)
K850 - probably no real improvement over k800 (Score:3, Informative)
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"Useful" in the mugshot or coroner's report sense of the word. Yeah, you can see the detail of your girlfriend's face in the photo you took at the party, but she looks like a bloodless corpse in a rictus of horror.
A built-in flash is OK for taking "useful" photos of stuff, but not good photos.
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LOOK OUT! (Score:3, Interesting)
Thats $500000 for #define MAXENT 1500000 (Score:2)
again they use some stupid ass business manager to decide the numbers.
Btw, do windows mobile devices handle infinite entries since its MS coded.
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The feature they forgot to mention... (Score:3, Insightful)
Who cares about features? (Score:2)
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My cingular Rzr lets me blue tooth stuff on an off the phone. But I usually use motorola phone tools.
My cingular sx66 has wifi, and lets me blue tooth stuff off the phone.
And as someone who used to work there, can't recall all that many phones that were locked out, if any at all.
Verizon is the company that changes the phones to lock the features.
And my new blackjack, lets me do all of the above to.
Puto
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Nokia has a nice offering too (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing these phones don't have is touch screen, but I'd question whether it's really that great to have, afaik they haven't go round the problem of greasy finger-prints making you need to clean screen every 5 seconds problem with them yet.
The reality is, compared to offerings like this and like Nokia's offerings the iPhone looks really dated, 2 megapixel camera? no GPS? no 3rd party apps?, what's more the iPhone is actually even heavier than the N95! The iPhone is essentially, to us Europeans/Asians at least the kind of thing we'd have expected at the low end of the market around 3 - 4 years ago, as an example I used to have a Nokia 7650 around 5 years ago, other than the things that improve with age, such as screen quality, megapixels on camera, memory this phone actually still did more than the iPhone can out the box, it could also still run Doom at full speed such that it was perfectly playable.
So again, I ask where does the iPhone actually fit in? It's a low end phone with a high end price, the only people over here I can imagine buying it are those that want a phone that interacts well with their Apple hardware, which isn't exactly the biggest target demographic to aim for! Still, I guess I shouldn't speak too soon, the iPod was extremely feature-crippled compared to other portable audio players yet I still fell into the trap of buying one so maybe the Apple hype machine will pull the wool over our eyes once more
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As for sony I remember the P800 from around that time. It was an excellent phone.. good battery life (longest I've ever had), reasonable camera, it had even Opera as its web browser! Its let downs were it was a touch screen (not durable enough - both of mine broke because the touch screen cracked rend
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The reality is, compared to offerings like this and like Nokia's offerings the iPhone looks really dated ... The iPhone is essentially, to us Europeans/Asians at least the kind of thing we'd have expected at the low end of the market around 3 - 4 years ago...
You answered your own question. The American phone market is stunted.
What potentially saves the iPhone is that there's a tough trade-off between features and usability, which Apple does work hard to get right and which few others do (in particular Nokia, who used to be OK at it but somehow lost the thread). This is a big reason why iPods sell well and more featureful MP3 players, frankly, suck. Apple might get it right with their phone, and maybe it will be rev 3 that finally is of value to people in mo
No more Ericssons for me. (Score:3, Interesting)
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I don't want another Ericcson since Sony bought them. Had a P800, and a P910i (and maybe a P900?), but I'm a Nokia man all the way now. N80ie for me, and N95 from work. Good stuff.
All my life I have had only Nokia & Sony Ericcson phones.
I like the Nokia's better, but Nokia's Customer Service sucks.
Sony Ericcson's Customer Service on the other hand is amazing.
Couple of years back, sitting in the USA, I had purchased a
Sony Ericcson of some website (Made in Thailand, Made for
France). I needed a Tri-Band GS
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But does it have the most important feature (Score:2)
But does it have the most important feature for me, which is a permanently unlocked version that can be used with any phone provider, without sticking me on some plan (I just want month to month, even pre-paid).
And of course it needs to be durable (drop it from head height every day w/o damage, except for scuffing on the case), last for at least 3 years, and have a reasonable charge time.
Oh, for God's sake (Score:2)
Seriously guys, cellphones? Yeah, they're cute, with "big" cameras, WiFi and oodles of memory. You'll have this available in less than 6 months from other vendors and in a couple of years as entry level devices for $50. I mean, i can understand the geek factor of the iPhone, but this is yet another cell. Feature packed, but so what?
8 GB for music might not be good (Score:2)
This discussion is the perfect example... (Score:2)
And what's even funnier about it... (Score:2)
They couldn't even get out of the first line without comparing the new Sony Ericsson model to the iPhone. How many potential customers are going to go to an AT&T Wireless store for a Sony Ericsson, and come out with an iPhone?
How are they for standard interfaces ? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm guessing that because it is SE they don't use the commmon types of memory cards (SD, uSD) but use the Sony type. This is negative points, but what about a standard 3.5" stereo jack? And how about a standard mini-USB port which can be used to charge the unit, and which support USB 'mass storage' (or whatever it is called).
I find it a bit bizarre that Nokia used to be terrible on this count, but has now become much better. HTC on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction.
What about the software? (Score:2)
Is the hardware compatible with anything else?
And does the software not suck?
Besides either of those I am sure the hardware is might flashy like the PSP or the PS3, but the lame software does not justify the added cost of the hardware. As for compatibility, the Clie was a really nice PDA, except for the compatibility - being a Palm OS device it did not have first-party Mac drivers.
The iPhone may be expensive and cool looking but the thing I think that is selling it more is t
Smartphones? Not so sure (Score:2)
8 GB? does it contain an 64-bit CPU? (Score:2)
Sony Ericcson... (Score:2)
Of course they do (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want a phone that makes calls, and does SMS, there are loads to choose from. Take the world's most popular phone, the Nokia 1100, with over 200 million sold worldwide [engadget.com]. Excellent at making calls, sending text messages, brilliant battery life, and the only extra feature being a handy torch. And it'll cost you about £20 in the UK, without a contract, with £10 call time thrown in.
So leave those of us who use our phone for more than making calls to our gadget phones, you can buy the same basic and solid phones that you've always been able to buy.
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In the US, it's uncommon to buy your own phone. You can:
1. Buy a phone for $x
2. Pay $30 to have it "activated" (i.e. have them give you a SIM card)
3. Sign a contract
or
1. Get the free phone they offer (usually crappy radio and extra useless features, where the complaining comes from)
2. No activation fee; free phone comes with SIM card
3. Sign the exact same contract
I bought an unlocked RAZR when they were new
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These phones must have the camera in a different place than on American phones, or I suspect you'd have to have a mirror handy to do your video conferencing...
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