WHEN Sony Ericsson unveiled its first-ever Xperia-branded smartphone at the 2008 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, it packed a full QWERTY keyboard and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional in a sexy slab of metal and plastic.

Fast-forward to 2010 and Sony Ericsson has given its Xperia brand a daring makeover inside and out, jettisoning not only the slide-out keyboard but also the operating system (OS) that used to power it—which, you might say, justifies the global wireless communications purveyor’s decision to jump model numbers, going from the still Windows Mobile-powered X2 to the just-released Xperia X10 now running on the hot-and-happening Android OS.

The 4.0 inch screen of the Xperia X10 offers more real estate than the 3.7? of the NX1 and just 0.3? short of the HD2. The 480×854 pixel resolution gives it a crisp rendering of images and icons but is no match to the brightness and vivid colors of an AMOLED screen of the Nexus One.

Nevertheless, it’s still one of the largest screens on a handset I’ve ever used. Add to that the responsiveness of the capacitive touchscreen and you’ll forget the TFT display is only doing 65k colors.

Both the TimeScape and the MediaScape UI offer a lot of eye-candy but they seem to offer little practical function but just that — eye-candy. It’s nice though that tapping into a stream allows you to either fire up the browser or select an app or client for that service (e.g. TwitDroid for the tweet stream; or for SMS, TimeScape gives you a threaded view of a conversation).

The X10 also has the default 3 sliding panels of the Android, a feature I felt important after using the Nexus One with 5 and the HTC Hero with 7 — more real estate for widgets, folders and shortcuts.

Sony Ericsson K610 is in the medium class of mobile phones and is aimed at people who need functionality and reliability at the same time from their phones – it’s seems to us that it’s targeted mainly at the office workers – it has a classic design, high-tech features, compact size and has everything that’s necessary to back up your daily schedule. In fact, as regards to the functional characteristics of K610, it is fully identical to Sony Ericsson W710 with the added 3G features.

Although the K610i sports a 2-megapixel camera, the photos and videos it captured didn’t impress us. As there is no flash of any kind, night time shots turned out dark and grainy, even when we set the camera to night mode. Perhaps we were spoiled by the exceptional 3-megapixel Sony Ericsson K800i, but there were still a couple of aspects of the K610i’s camera that let it down. While landscape and portrait photos focussed well enough, we ended up with a whole bunch of blurry pics when we tried to take close-ups shots. Images taken in the highest resolution were jagged when viewed at actual resolution and seemed quite pixelated. Other features absent include autofocus and macro mode.
The K610i version of the phone is to be sold in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The other version K610c is for Mainland China. Recently, Sony Ericsson announced another new version of the phone to be manufactured – K610im which will be a black, i-mode version of K610. I-mode is a network operator service for direct handling of iMail, for browsing the Internet and viewing online content.

The K610i ticks most boxes, with its stereo MP3 player, 2 megapixel camera, video calling, memory card & Bluetooth. But still, we’re left a little unsure what the K610i is for. It’s not got the best camera, it’s not a Walkman phone, it’s not packed with business features – it’s just small. Presumably it’s targeted at women more than men. So if you’re looking for a compact phone filled with features, but not the best in any particular area, the K610i could be your phone. It certainly does most things that most people want from a phone.

There are a few faults with the K610i: as mentioned above the keypad is rather small and fiddly (especially for man-size fingers); there’s no flash with the camera, so forget photography at night; and it does seem to have a tendency to shut down or reboot, as reported by several users. The Sony Ericsson V630i is a Vodafone-exclusive version of the K610i with some additional music features such as Vodafone RadioDJ. For a more reliable alternative to the K610i, you might consider the clamshell design Z610i, which is highly rated, or the more upmarket W880i – the ultra-slim 3G Walkman phone.

The W950i is Sony Ericsson’s flagship Walkman™ phone, and is one of the most unusual phones to be released in 2006.

The Sony Ericsson W950i is a Walkman phone for the European market. The candy bar handset has all the normal Walkman phone features including a high-end digital music player for MP3 and AAC files, an FM radio, and a melody composer. Other offerings include Bluetooth with a stereo profile, a speakerphone, an infrared port, e-mail, text and multimedia messaging, PC syncing, modem capability, support for 3G UMTS networks, a voice recorder, and basic organizer applications. It’s available unlocked for around $700 in the United States.

This phone has been designed as a music player & business phone – an interesting concept – and the W950i meets the needs of its target market well. What the designers at Sony Ericsson have realised is that even the best camera phone on the market today (the Sony Ericsson K800i or Nokia N93) is still not a patch on a dedicated digital camera, so why include one? By scrapping the camera they have produced a feature-packed phone that doubles as a full-spec music player and really can replace your iPod, without compromise.

Apart from having no camera, the W950i is unusual in other respects. It’s also the slimmest smartphone on the market, at just 15mm thick, and is also a 3G phone. It’s compact and lightweight and feels just right in the hand. The W950i has a flat keypad, that is actually very easy to use, together with a jog dial and dedicated music player keys on the sides of the keypad for easy access to your music collection. In addition the W950i has a touchscreen and stylus that makes navigation a breeze. It also supports handwriting recognition. The screen is very large (2.6 inches across), is bright and sharp, and is brilliant for navigating, managing playlists, and viewing graphics. In fact this is one of the most ergonomic and user-friendly phones around, and is a real pleasure to use. Nevertheless you should still expect to have to spend some time learning to use all of the features on this device, simply because it has so many of them!

The Sony Ericsson J100i is a small & compact mobile phone which is the baby of the J range family. The J range of phones have been market as very affordable, highly attractive phones which include basic but very useable features. The J range includes the Sony Ericsson J210i, Sony Ericsson J220i, Sony Ericsson J230i & all of these phones have their own unique appeal & built in features. The J100i comes in a twilight blue or a polar white coloured casing. The phone only weighs a mere 70 grams which makes it very light to carry around. It comes in a very small but perfect package which is 100 x 44 x 18 mm & this is why it is the baby of the J range.

The phone comes with polyphonic ringtone sound & the user can personalise their J100i by choosing their favourite ringtone. The J100i comes complete with a voice mail feature so the user can be sure that if a call is missed then the caller has the option of leaving a voice mail.

All key functions can be reached with just one click and the navigation key with its icon markings makes for instant recognition of the various functions. Simply press ‘Up’ to set the sound, ‘Right’ to set the alarm, ‘Down’ to access the phonebook, ‘Left’ to start writing a message and ‘Centre’ to access the menu.

The core voice calls and text functions are supplemented by useful extras including alarm clock, calculator. Available accessories are the Car Holder HCH-60 and Portable Handsfree HPB-60 which when combined with J100 make for an affordable, all-round communications solution.

The built in organiser feature comes complete with an alarm clock, stop watch & phonebook. The user can set the reminder feature on the J100i very simply & the phone will be sure to do the rest. The J100i has a one press shortcut facility which can take the user to their favourite functions very easily. The icons are very clear, colourful & modern looking which really adds an element of fun to this beautifully basic mobile phone.

It’s finally here! The much awaited Sony Ericsson T610. There has been much chatter about this phone among the cellular phone community. Since its prerelease notice, everyone has been awaiting the launch of Sony Ericsson’s flagship phone.

Sony Ericsson boasted a phone with 65,000 colors, 32 instrument polyphonic ring tones, MMS, a build-in digital camera, and Bluetooth technology. Many cellular phone enthusiasts were praising it as the perfect phone, even before they had a chance to hold it.

The Sony Ericsson T610 is a sophisticated phone incorporating a built-in camera, Bluetooth™ wireless technology, a large colour screen and a new graphical user interface.

The T610 is beautifully designed and built, with a square retro-feel and anodised aluminium case; it’s a phone that feels good in the hand and seems to be solidly built. The panels are changeable, so you can choose the colour of the phone.

The integrated camera can be activated in one click, with one more click to take a picture. Sony Ericsson’s new QuickShare? technology enables you to easily share pictures with your PC or other phones, using Bluetooth™, email, MMS or data cable. Sony Ericsson’s free Image Editor software lets you edit photos taken using the phone. You can also download software to help you create your own Muiltimedia Messages (follow the same link).

The high-resolution screen is of high quality, with 65,000 colours and plenty of space for the new graphical user interface, making the advanced features of the phone easily accesible. Great for use with the camera and for WAP browsing, although the screen can be difficult to read in sunlight. Soft keys and menu hotlinks also help to make the phone user-friendly – a key consideration in a phone that packs in so many features. Animated icons help to bring the menu to life.

Some users may buy the T610 specifically for the integrated digital camera. Unfortunately this is also the phone’s most mediocre feature. Although its display performed well as a viewfinder, there are other limitations to the T610′s camera function. For one, we discovered a split-second shutter lag between the time you press the shutter release button and when the photo is actually taken. This isn’t a big deal for posed pictures, but you’ll likely miss the moment if you’re trying to surprise someone with a candid shot. The T610 also has a maximum capture resolution of only 288 by 352 pixels, which is less than the 640 by 480 pixels of some of the competition.

However, the T610′s Bluetooth capability is well-implemented. We tested the phone with TDK’s USB adapter as well as HP’s iPAQ H5450. In both cases, we experienced no hitches whatsoever. Bluetooth quickly became our favoured mode of transferring photographs and music to or from the handset.