Sony Ericsson Gets Faster, Slimmer

Sony Ericsson announced two flashy, sexy phones - the Z750 and the W580 - just for the US market at the CTIA trade show today.

The smooth, rounded Z750 flip phone will become Sony Ericsson's flagship model in the US. It uses tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE, so it can access high-speed networks both in the US and abroad. It will come in gray and pink, with a mirror-like finish and an "invisible" front display that lights up with caller ID information. There's a 2-megapixel camera on the outside of the flip, and a 2.2-inch, 320x240 screen inside. Music plays from the built-in FM radio or MP3 player that uses Memory Stick M2 media and can play back through wired or Bluetooth headphones. Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR will make for fast wireless transfers to and from PCs, and one of the first phones that can keep up with HSDPA speeds when in wireless Bluetooth laptop modem mode.

The Z750 also has an unusual amount of e-mail flair for a midrange phone. It supports corporate push e-mail from Microsoft Exchange servers, although it isn't a Windows Mobile phone, as well as POP3/IMAP email. US carriers have been known to cripple phones' built-in email capabilities, though, so we'll see if that feature shows up on retail phones.

Meanwhile, the W580 puts Sony Ericsson's Walkman brand on a slim, sliding phone. It's the same orange-and-white color scheme as the popular W800 Walkman phone , but there's also a gray version. Disco lights around the edge of the phone that pulse along with your music give it a youthful advantage.

Like the W800, the W580 has an MP3 player that plays all the popular unprotected music formats from a Memory Stick M2 card. Other impressive features include a 2-inch, 320x240 screen, real HTML Web browser, pedometer, FM radio, and built-in high-end games including The Sims 2. All this comes in a package only .56 inches thick and weighing 3.35 ounces. The W580 is a quad-band EDGE phone, so it will work on Cingular or T-Mobile networks.

Neither phone has a carrier yet, but Sony Ericsson has a good relationship with Cingular and isn't afraid to sell phones directly unlocked through its own online store. We should be seeing both phones in the third quarter of this year.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International