Slashdot Mirror
Sony Ericsson Shows Off Feature-Heavy Cell Phones
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."
no touchscreen, less shiny then a iphone. lame...
you guessed it - they are super shy about THAT detail
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
..but how usable are they?
showed off feature-heavy stuff too.
Do they actually WORK as a phone?
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.
There's lots of possible devices out there, with lots of functionality. Some functionality is very important to me, while other is nice to have but not really important. And the lack of "pocket real estate" - the amount of devices I am able and willing to carry - is a very powerful limiting factor.
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.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
What century do you live in ?
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...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Can't Sony let go of past glory? You don't see Ford releasing new Model Ts.
In terms of whats out there now the Nokia N95 has raised the bar coniderably for feature heavy handsets (though the iPhone has forced things along too, at least in the personal world). Playing leapfrog/catchup with this is a must do for all handset manafacturers wanting a share of the upper end of the market. In addition it is incredibly usable as a phone (though the focus on the camera is a bit iffy).
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
From the article:
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 they describe it as an MP3 player as well...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I noticed the following things:
- 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.
I had a Sony Ericcson. Well, technically I still have it. I tried to switch back to it after I grew dissatisfied with my RAZR, but then I discovered that in fact I hated the Ericcson way more than the RAZR., so I switched back. Whereas the RAZR merely makes me wish to strike it with a hammer from time to time, the Ericcson makes me wish I could clense the earth of all models.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Boy do i feel stupid buying one of those big heavy SLR things with the expensive lenses...
Can't wait to get one of those.
The SE K800 already had the xenon flash (which is the biggest improvement to the camera, letting you take actually useful photos in darkness) and 3MP. Going to 5MP probably achieves nothing as the sensor is so small.
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
That being said, being able to send a crude photograph of something for any reason is of course a good thing, but whicht does not pay in the same recreation area.
Signature omitted in order to save space. Thanks for your understanding.
I have a K750i since nearly 2 years now and use the device to sync it to my calendar. It is only capable of syncing up to 300 entries! Allthough the device has ~100MB of memory. My question to sony was answered that all their phones (except the business line) can handle only up to 300 calendar entries-> totaly useless for me now.
What the hell does it matter. These phones won't be coming out in the US anytime soon. If they even show up here at all, we will probably see them 4-6 months AFTER the euro market sees them. Again, fuck you very much US carriers.
Either they just use lousy programmers with fixed arrays or
again they use some stupid ass business manager to decide the numbers.
Btw, do windows mobile devices handle infinite entries since its MS coded.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
is all the DRM that these phones are going to have.
"Shiny" We are all raccoons because we like shiny things!
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 last a lot longer.
I realize that as an uber geek you must have as many electronic functions packed in your pocket at one time as possible but have you considered that you are going to end up paying way over $2000 in a span of ten years? For way less money you could have a GREAT digital camera and a GREAT MP3 player. Then all you would need is a series of cheap cell phones because you are going to dispose of them regularly anyway.
You'll thank me later.
It would only be news if they managed to produce a lightweight cell phone
Why on every mobile phone story do we have to have so many 'insightful' comments complaining that the phone covered in the story has too many features.
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. 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.
Who cares what features it has? There is no way Sony has enough weight with the phone companies that any of these features will get through without being crippled. The bluetooth? My current phone has bluetooth. It will only connect to bluetooth headsets so that you still have to use the carrier's service to move data. WiFi? I would be shocked if this was left intact or not restricted in some way. Camera? 50/50 odds that you will still have to pay the carrier for every picture you transfer off of the phone. As for the storage space, my guess is that while it will be there, you will only be able to play songs and movies downloaded from the carrier's service (over the carrier's 3G connection paying for the data transfer).
It doesn't what features the phone has, it matters what features the carrier leaves you with. The one thing that does look good about the iPhone is that other than the manditory data plan, it looks like it should be completely unrestricted in terms of other service.
The Nokia N95 has built in GPS, 5 megapixel camera, capable of recording near DVD quality video at 30 FPS, full support for 3rd party applications (such as Doom, multiplayer capable via Bluetooth) and so on.
;)
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
I mean, it's only a matter of time before you get a 2007-era mainframe, a gazillion-pixel motion-picture camera with simulated 10.1 surround sound recording, and a phone that all fits in your hand, with eyeglasses-mounted display and earpiece included.
And that's just for the people who don't want to borgify themselves.
This is not a flame post.
You have the same old hat of cameras, MP3s, contacts syncing with Outlook, etc, just with bigger resolutions and more storage. I did find the "rattle the phone to go to the next track" features of the W910i a nice innovation (not sure if it's been done before) but other than that, no news for nerds, just news for teenagers. Wake me up when there's thought recognition for dialing and receiving. :)
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. This page shows where I am via GPS, falling back to cell triangulation if I'm not running the app. Quite nifty.
Get your own free personal location tracker
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.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I'm getting increasingly concerned about ads disguised as stories here.
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?
Does no one bother that most of these so-called Walkman phones don't offer a 3.5mm headphone jack? The W910 doesn't have one. Yeah, you can get these adapters but then you end up 2m of cable which just sucks. Sure, there's Bluetooth but none of these phones comes with a stereo BT set and most 3rd party BT headsets are expensive, creepy, and/or unreliable.
I have the k790 myself, but I have a friend with the w800i, the "walkman" that came with the 4GB memory card free. At 1.5 GB of music it was already fairly useless. I know she was going about actually filling it to 4GB I wanted to ask her how it was. The more music she put on it the slower it became. Switching a song (manually) literally took 30 seconds and froze the phone at that point.
of why the iPhone has every other manufacturer of cell phones shitting their pants right now. Every time news of a new cell phone comes out, the discussion inevitably turns to the iPhone almost immediately. Every time another cell phone manufacturer starts spending money on a new ad campaign, they will be inadvertently providing Apple with free advertising.
...is that the only one of the big four carriers in the US who offers Sony Ericsson phones is AT&T, who just conicidentally just happens to be the exclusive carrier of the competing product that's the *eighth* word in TFA. The iPhone.
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?
I love Nokia 1100. It's probably the only mobile device out there, which comes with a built-in flashlight. It's a real party saver in the Finnish wilderness, when you have to build a fireplace for barbecuing in the middle of the night. Especially after some heavy drinking. :-)
Wow, you really don't know a whole lot of "business people", do you?
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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
- they use symbian OS for all their phones. a system which names the devices A,B,C etc... and runs itself on drive "C". I wonder where that idea came from?
- yes. the system is that bad as the one they take the naming scheme from. I once had a 7650 and i would be surprised if it has not gotten worser.
- it just weighs 130 gramms. Putting all the features aside, i call this a "forgotten in the car phone" and "not there when you need it phone".
scnr *g*
The questions to really ask are:
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 the software doesn't look like it will suck like the competition (though, until it actually comes out we won't know for sure).
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
From all the posts and comments above, it seems quite clear to most of us not living in the US that the average US resident has very little exposure to the latest in mobile phones. They are not to be blamed, of course, as the providers that they are stuck with force them to use clunky phones with ridiculous features and UI's (as compared to the latest Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericsson generation of mobile phones). I guess this is also the reason that so much hype has accompanied the iPhone's impending release. Truth be told, the iphone's features have been around in Asian and European mobile phones ever since 2003. Nowadays, a mobile phone in Asia and Europe would not be top notch without: a multiple megapixel camera capable of 30fps videos of decent quality; gps; wifi; bluetooth; music and video players; video conference capabilities, and other 3G goodness; Symbian OS with tons of applications; and at least a week of battery life. The iphone, when stacked against the competition overseas, comes out as an overhyped and underfeatured product with an extravagant price, quite disappointing considering the pedigree of the company that made it.
Maybe I'm an old geezer.
However, I work in an industry where camera phones are regared as spy tool, yet I want to have all the doo-dads, but no freaking camera.
Exactly. If I have a camera, I have a Nikon D-100, and for small-time stuff I have a Nikon Coolpix L6, which easily beats the living daylights out of any cell phone camera, and it got a real flash to boot. I want to have UMTS, I want to have some MP3 playback capability so I can use it as MP3 player replacement. OS X compatibility for syncing is a definite plus. I don't want to have a huge piece of junk - miniaturization should be well advanced to create such a thing.
And, oh, I want it to use the Bluetooth in order to serve as UMTS modem for the few occasions I need it as well. No Blackberrys, please. Palm and Symbin are OK with me.
Is this so difficult to create, or I'm just a rare one-off customer which has so specific needs the marked wouldn't bear creating a simplified phone with all the above features?
I got myself a P990i a few months ago - it is a big, chunky thing with amazing capabilities. Qwerty keyboard, touch screen, handwriting capability, camera, word processor, Bluetooth etc etc; they've even squeezed a phone in there. Amazing stuff; but it is heavy, it drains its battery quickly when you use it, and it is incredibly awkward to use - something about the way things are laid out in menus. The system (Symbian) is full of bugs - it regularly reboots itself in the middle of things. The Bluetooth seem to turn itself on spontaneously, and there seems to be no way of turning it off permanently. Often the light doesn't dim automatically, and the only way to get it to do so is to reboot. There is a special unlock key on the side, which can very easily be activated, eg. if you take it out of the pocket or take something else out. The same goes for the camera cover, so you can end up having the camera turned on filming the inside of your pocket until the memory runs full, or calling somebody. Quite often I have found that the keyboard seems to e active even when it says it is locked; and now the touch screen doesn't work properly anymore. I can get it replaced on the warranty, but that means I'll just have to live longer with these problems, and I'll have to wait for maybe weeks until they repair the phone. It's simply too much hassle.
And I suspect maybe this is the same with most smartphones; too many features, too little thought has gone into the usability of the design. Ideally even a smartphone should simply be a phone primarily. It should be dead easy to simply use the phone, and you should have complete control over anything that connects you to things. I don't want to be 'bluejacked', I don't want to be on the Internet all the time, I don't want to be spammed when I pass shops or advertising billboards. A phone and a calendar is all I actually need, a camera can be fun to have, but all the other things are extras, and they should be tucked away until I actively ask for them.
All in all I'm not sure I will buy a smartphone in the future.
Or does it use a segmented architecture like 32-bit 80x86 CPUs to access more than 4 GB of memory?
Major issues I have with my half-year old Sony Ericsson W850i are that it is not really useful as a portable music playback device, since:
a) there is no Mac software for managing the music library on it
b) running its Windows software on VMWare causes kernel panic as soon as I connect my camera over USB
c) simply copying my (unprotected, self-ripped from my CDs) AAC iTunes files to the phone's memory stick results in phone's "Walkman" software playing them back in random order -- it can't preserve the album order. It doesn't have this problem with MP3 files, which leads me to believe they have troubles correctly reading AAC metadata. (I'm keeping my music in AAC 'cause they have better sound quality at the same encoding rate than MP3, if you are curious.)
Makes me wonder if at least c) is remedied with these new devices.
Sig erased via substitution of an identical one.
The W960i (like the W950i) is a UIQ3 phone so your problems won't be there. UIQ3 even plays ogg vorbis (via 3rd party applications see http://shop.my-symbian.com/PlatformProductDetail.j sp?siteId=695&productId=199474).
Martin