The Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog

The day has come…

Michell Bak — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:21:33 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls… The day has come for us to move on. WordPress.com has been our blogging home for many months now, but as we feel we have been rapidly expanding lately, we feel that we can not keep up with all the Sony Ericsson stuff, rumours, reviews, codenames and such anymore… at least not here!

As of today, the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog will be hosted by no other than the great SE-NSE website and will from now on be found at

blog.se-nse.net

The partnership with SE-NSE will bring along many more things than this – I might even say, that this is just the tip of the iceberg, really.

We do of course hope that you’ll join us at the new domain where we’ll be more active and ready with the news than ever – the term “USEB Exclusive” will get a whole new meaning!

We would like to urge upon all websites linking towards this blog, to change the link to the new website and furthermore give you all a great thanks for taking part of making the blog what it is.

While the new site is ready to show the world, there are still some very minor things needing to be fixed (like files from this blog to the new one), but we don’t count on this taking too long.

Best regards,

The team behind USEB.

China: Sony Ericsson wins gaming award

Michell Bak — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:44:55 +0000

Sony Ericsson has just won the “2007 Most Popular Game Equipment” award at the 2007 China Game Industry Annual Conference (CGIAC) held in Suzhou, China, on the 15th – 17th of January. The Chinese Developer Team was present and to accept the honorable reward was Liu Peng, Manager of Sony Ericsson Developer World China.

- I am very honored to take the award on behalf of Sony Ericsson. We really appreciate the great support from our partners and end-users. Sony Ericsson Developer World will continue to assist and support China’s wireless developers so they can offer more quality mobile phone games in the future, Liu Peng said.

The Chinese Developer World has only launched in May 2007, and has already won this large award – quite impressive, I think!

Exclusive: Large update on Paris

Michell Bak — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:22:13 +0000

‘Paris’ is the codename of the speculated high-end phone P5.
Sliding keyboard and different home screens you can navigate between by pressing left and right. Also, we’ve got a sliding mechanism on the back of the phone as a lens protector for the camera. “5 MP” is also stated on the back near the camera. It comes with a stylus even though the user interface can easily be used with your finger as well. It’s black and a bit smaller than P1. It has a built-in GPS (NaviLink 5.0 NL5350) with WayFinder 7.0 built-in as well as a weather application and the new Opera Mobile 9 with intelligent zoom and widgets. Based on OMAP34xx hardware platform.

Paris is going to be announced along with Beibei, if everything goes as planned, which it should.

Z770i was only the beginning…

xellar — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:42:12 +0000

Remember our little info regarding the Z770i? Seems the video is not taken by the mobile itself. Today a whole lot of these test_xxxx.mp4 vids popped out of nowhere into Fun & Downloads. You know, a pic says more than thousand words. See the full sheet with known phones greened out after the jump.

Full pic here.

W350 demo tour video

Michell Bak — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:56:57 +0000

Here’s the Demo Tour video of the Sony Ericsson W350. I think it’s very cool – what do you think?

First Hint Of Z770i

xellar — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:33:09 +0000

We just love Sony Ericsson, don’t we? All these little leaks to keep us busy.

Newest entry in the Fun & Downloads area is a mysterious file called “test_z770.mp4″, a video with:

352 x 288 pixels
15 fps
MPEG-4 with 560 Kbps

No further information is available at this point.

Download link: http://www.sonyericsson.com/downloads/fd/57/test_z770.mp4

Btw, it’s another “You read it first on USEB”

Exclusive: Beibei user interface pictures

Michell Bak — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:40:20 +0000

Lots of icons from the upcoming Beibei’s user interface. The phone will be running UIQ 3.2, and this is an exclusive preview of what the future will hold I guess the picture pretty much speaks for itself, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Small update on Beibei

Michell Bak — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:19:53 +0000

We’ve got yet another small update on the upcoming Beibei phone. It appears that it’ll be running UIQ 3.2 and will feature the same Walkman player as on the lovely W960. Furthermore, it’ll have a radio and a camera lens cover. For what I’m concerned, there’s a slight chance it’ll also feature auto focus.

Update! It will also feature Opera Mobile 9 with widgets support!

Update 2! Beibei will feature an integrated GPS from Texas Instruments, called NaviLink 5.0 NL5350. You can find out more info about it right here! This will work with the built-in WayFinder 7.0 navigation application.

Key features:

Single chip using TI’s DRP™ technology
The smallest GPS solution with a board area around 25 mm²
Lowest total bill-of-materials for a complete GPS system with only 11 external passives required
Low power with integrated power management
High GPS performance with weaker satellite signals, exceeding 3GPP and 3GPP2 requirements
Optimized to interface with TI’s 3G chipsets and OMAP™ processors to deliver a complete solution for handset OEMs

By the way, it is optimized to run on OMAP

WLAN is also built-in.

Sony Ericsson to double manufacturing capacity in India

Rajat Agrawal — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:12:33 +0000

Sony Ericsson today announced four new phones and its plans for manufacturing phones in India at a global announcement in New Delhi. Of the four phones – T270, T280, R300 and R306 – two phones will be manufactured in India. The R300 and R306 will join the ranks of phones like the J110, J120 and W200i that are already being manufactured in the country. While not revealing the current production capacity, Sudhin Mathur, GM, India operations, said that production capacity will be doubled in 2008 and will exceed 10 million phones by 2009. It will also ramp up the number of Sony Ericsson exclusive experience stores from 58 to 300 by the year 2009.

In partnership with CellPassion.com

Sony Ericsson R300 and R306 live!

Rajat Agrawal — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:10:00 +0000

We were present at the Sony Ericsson global announcement in New Delhi and well, we have a present for you – the first impressions and live pictures of the two Radio phones that have been designed and made for India! Both the phones support Am and FM radio, a first for the Indian market (and probably European and American markets as well). Moreover, both will be priced in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, which makes them quite desirable.

Without wasting any more words, let’s just get going with the meaty details.

R300: The first edge that Sony Ericsson has over its competition is the looks. Despite being in the entry-level segment, the R300 looks smart and you won’t have to ‘hide’ your low cost phone in front of others. The materials used seem pretty sturdy and it doesn’t appear that Sony Ericsson has compromised in this to save on production costs. The most interesting aspect is the back of the phone that has dedicated keys for the radio function. Still under development, the sales pack will come with an antenna attachment that won’t require headsets to be plugged in to receive radio signals. There is a dedicated key between the volume rocker and pop port that enhances the sound output in loudspeaker mode. The R300 will be the more affordable one of the two. The only downside that we could judge at the moment is the tiny D-pad that is a bit tricky to use.

Brief specs
101 x 46 x 12 mm
75 gram
VGA camera
Bluetooth
AM/FM radio

R306: This is the one that impressed us the most. The R306 has to be the prettiest low-end clamshell phone that we have ever seen. The dedicated radio buttons on the front are complimented by a small LED display that either shows the radio station details or the caller details. However, the metallic surface is prone to fingerprints. Like the R300, the pop port and the dedicated audio enhancer key are placed on the side. The keypad is a bit unusual as the circular keys don’t seem to provide any tactile feel. Overall, the R306 is a pretty phone that we expect to be launched at a pretty affordable price.

Brief specs
90 x 48 x 16 mm
93 gram
1.3 megapixel camera
Bluetooth
AM/FM radio

In partnership with CellPassion.com

Sony Ericsson T270i and T280i announced

Angello — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:08:52 +0000

Today Sony Ericsson announced two new T-series modells

T270i

100 x 13 x 45mm/ 82g
TFT.display with 65.536 colors and 128×160 pixels
lack of camera
FM-/AM-radio
10MB of internal memory

More info: Product Site
T280i

100 x 13 x 45mm / 82g
TFT.display with 65.536 colors and 128×160 pixels
1.3 MP camera, 4x digital zoom
FM-/AM-radio
10MB of internal memory

More info: Product Site

Sony Ericsson Radio-Phones R300i and R306i announced

Angello — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:51:54 +0000

Today Sony Ericsson announced two new radio phones.

True radio design
Dedicated radio speakers and preset channel buttons

Loud sound
3D sound enhancement and volume boost for noisy environments

AM/FM Frequencies
Tune-in to your favourite station

R300i

101 x 46 x 12 mm, 75g
1,8″-TFT-display with 65.536 colors and 128 x 160 pixels
VGA-camera
speaker with audio enhancer
FM-/AM-radio

More info : Product site

R306i

90 x 48 x 16 mm, 93g
1,9″-TFT-display with 65.536 colors and 128 x 160 pixels
1,3 megapixel-camera
stereo-speaker
FM-/AM-radio

More info : Product Site

Exclusive: Sony Ericsson R306i spotted!

Rajat Agrawal — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:19:01 +0000

Pictures of a new Sony Ericsson phone – the R306i – were spotted on the official Sony Ericsson website a few hours before its official announcement. The R306i is a clamshell entry-level phone with radio buttons on the face. As we had reported earlier it will be the first cellphone in India to support AM radio! Also spotted were the official pictures of the T280i, which we had revealed a few hours ago. Another phone that is expected to be announced today is the R300i, which might be a candy bar radio phone.

All phones have now been announced – more about them later today!

In partnership with cellpassion.com.

Exclusive: Beibei photoshop

Angello — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:20:15 +0000

Here goes another USEB exclusive. This is the first ever photoshop of the upcoming Beibei from Sony Ericsson. It’s a slim Walkman smart phone running UIQ with a touch screen, 3.2 mega pixels camera and a scroll wheel instead of joystick. Very interesting!

Sony Ericsson T270 and T280 unveiled

Rajat Agrawal — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:07:44 +0000

Here we go again! Another Sony Ericsson announcement and another leak. We have just received pictures of two new phones in the T-series, which have been branded as T270 and T280. Joining the T250, the T270 and T280 will sport a 128 x 160 pixel display and will be Bluetooth enabled. The T280 will have a 1.3 megapixel camera, while the T270 won’t. Both the phones are expected to be announced tomorrow. Also in the line-up for tomorrow’s global announcement are two radio phones. We’ll keep you posted about them.

Pic courtesy: Maximys
In partnership with www.cellpassion.com