SonyEricsson Launch 3G Walkman Phone

Sony Ericsson has launched its first 3G Walkman phone. The W900 follows the highly successful global market launch of the W800. Two previously announced Walkman phones are also about to launch, the W600 in the Americas and W550 in the rest of the world, meaning there are now Walkman phones meeting a broad spectrum of mobile music needs and price segments.

Amusingly (or not depending on your point of view), the phone looks more like an iPod phone than the official Motorola iPod phone.

"The W900, along with the rest of the Walkman phone family, will establish a new life-style habit of enjoying superb quality music and video and a full internet web experience on the move from a single mobile device," says Rikko Sakaguchi, Senior Vice President, Product and Application Planning of Sony Ericsson. "In our first UMTS Walkman phone we have combined fast download speeds with superb sound quality and crystal clear 30 frames a second video recording and play-back in a really simple and easy to use device. The W900 will not only appeal as a music phone. The superb communications, multimedia and imaging functionality will appeal to all those wanting a true multi-media capable device."

The W900's large internal 470MB user free memory provides space for between 120 and 240 songs. The storage capacity is easily increased however by inserting a Memory Stick PRO Duo, currently available in retail outlets at up to 2GB, giving space for up to 1,000 tracks. Music files can be stored in all the key formats: MP3, AAC or AAC+, MIDI, WAV and XMF.

More than a fully featured music player, the W900 is a highly advanced imaging and multimedia device with broadband-fast download speeds, smooth, responsive browse capabilities and a large, 2.2 inch QVGA 262K TFT screen, one of the brightest ever seen on a mobile phone.

The handset comes with a 2 Megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash- or picture-light. The camera also shoots video at up to 30fps (frames per second), double the speed of most conventional imaging phones and the playback quality threshold for television.

The W900 UMTS Walkman phone is available in black or white and will be commercially available end Q4 2005. The variants will be:

• W900i - Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa
• W900c - Dual mode UMTS (2100MHz) - GPRS 900/1800/1900 for Mainland China. Launch for mainland China dependant on availability of 3G services.

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Posted to the site on 18th October 2005