Sony Ericsson Unveils Multimedia Phones

As operators and handset makers alike look to broaden the range of mobile devices on offer, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications officials Tuesday pulled the wraps off three mobile-phone models that offer a slew of multimedia capabilities and are set for release in the coming months.

The P800 handset runs the Symbian 7.0 operating system and includes a built-in digital camera and a color screen that measures 208 pixels by 320 pixels. The P800 is a triband Global System for Mobile Communications phone and supports General Packet Radio Service and the Bluetooth personal area networking technology.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

The P800 has the ability to download and view video clips such as a music video or movie trailer, Sony Ericsson says. It also includes an organizer that offers calendar, e-mail, address book, and to-do-list functions that can be synchronized with a PC. In addition, the P800 offers a file viewer that supports Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel file formats.

The P800 also includes a Web browser that supports HTML, XHTML, and Wireless Application Protocol, as well as Web pages designed for NTT DoCoMo's I-mode service. The phone also supports Java 2 Micro Edition.

The P800's built-in digital camera takes pictures that can be viewed on the handset's color screen, stored in the phone's photo album or sent as an e-mail to a PC or as an Multimedia Messaging Service message to another phone. In addition to these features, two P800 models aimed at the Chinese market, the P802 and P800c, will offer support for Chinese character input.

The P800 will ship during the third quarter, Sony Ericsson says. Pricing was not available.

Playing Games

Also set to ship during the third quarter is the Z700 gaming phone, a dual-band GSM/GPRS phone that offers a color screen, polyphonic sound, and two mobile games: Men In Black and Charlie's Angels. The Z700 also offers J2ME support, which will allow mobile gamers to download and install additional games and game levels.

In addition, the Z700 includes an e-mail client and a Web browser that supports HTML and WAP. The handset also incorporates support for Bluetooth. Pricing was not available.

The T206 is a Code Division Multiple Access phone that offers a built-in GPS receiver for emergency and location-based services. The T206 supports CDMA2000-1x technology that allows users to browse the Web at speeds up to 153 kbps, Sony Ericsson says.

The T206 will ship during the third quarter. Pricing was not available.