Sony Ericsson today announced a new addition to its Walkman phone family - the W550 - an affordable phone that offers great quality stereo music and integrates a 1.3 megapixel camera, full Internet browsing capability and a credible games console, all in a compact and stylish swivel phone design. This new Walkman phone will appeal principally to expressive fun seekers who enjoy life to the full and want to take their music with them everywhere they go.

"The W550 is an exciting product that combines music, imaging and game playing to offer consumers fun and entertainment wherever they are, while still being a great phone," explains Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson's Head of Product Marketing. "This new Walkman phone is aimed at fun seekers who enjoy a good party and like to share enjoyable moments with friends. There are so many entertainment features crammed into this small, sleek handset that whether you are alone or with a group of friends, the W550 can satisfy all your entertainment needs."

The W550 has an advanced digital music player with excellent sound quality delivered through two external high quality stereo speakers or through quality stereo headphones provided with the phone. Loading music onto the handset is simple thanks to intuitive Disc2Phone PC software and the phone's 256MB internal memory, enough for storing between 60 and 120 standard MP3 or AAC music tracks (depending on the bit rate). The W550 is the ideal new addition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman family with its stylish design and easy to use functionality. The phone is durable and offers great battery life, allowing users to listen to up to 30 hours of music.

Listening to music on the W550 over headphones means you never miss a call as the music cuts off automatically when a call is received, permitting the listener to take the call before resuming listening to the paused track. A direct music button gives instant access to the Walkman music player, which can be used independently of the phone, allowing the phone to be used in flight mode so your personal music can be enjoyed even on an airplane.

The W550 also offers an authentic games console experience. Games can be played with the screen positioned horizontally and buttons on the left and right of the screen being used for two-handed control. Gamers can enjoy this experience through the pre-installed 3D versions of WormsForts: Under Siege 3D developed by THQ Wireless, Extreme Air Snowboarding developed by Digital Chocolate and a new multiplayer version of Midway's Gauntlet, developed under license by TKO Software. If users prefer, horizontal-mode games can also be played in portrait mode or an L-Shaped mode using the keyboard. The W550 also supports multi-player peer-2-peer gaming over Bluetooth.

Equipped with a 1.3 MegaPixel camera, the W550 captures stills and video-clips - with 4x digital zoom for close-ups - that can then be stored or shared using MMS or Bluetooth, or even transferred to a PC via USB cable.

Gigs, movie schedules, search engines and webmail can all be easily checked with the full Internet browser from a choice of viewing modes: full scale mode enables users to scroll round the complete page, or information can be presented in a single column. Either way, the bright 1.8 inch 262K TFT display provides razor sharp pictures.

There are plenty of ways to personalise the W550. The user can choose from a range of additional Style-Up covers that can be matched with wallpapers, themes and start-up / close-down animations which can be downloaded from Fun & Downloads. There's no reason to ever get bored with this stylish, fun phone.

The W550 is a Tri-band / GPRS phone and will be available during early Q4 in two different variants:

- W550i - Triple Band GPRS 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz version for European, African, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Hong Kong markets
- W550c - Triple Band GPRS 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz version for mainland China

In addition the W600a Walkman phone for the Americas that was announced on June 13 in New York as a Tri-Band / Edge product will now become the W600i for global distribution as a Quad-Band / Edge phone (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900). The product will start shipping in the Americas from early Q4.

W550 - Features at a glance:

Imaging and messaging

QuickShare
1.3 MegaPixel camera
Horizontal camera user interface
4 x digital zoom
Picture light
176 x 220 pixel TFT display
262K colour display
Video recording and fullscreen playback
SMS and MMS
Wireless village
Adobe picture PC software

Entertainment

2 stereo speakers
Style-Up covers
PlayNow ringtones and 2D games
Horizontal fullscreen games and video
RDS FM radio
Walkman player (MP3 / AAC)
Media player (MP3 / AAC)
256MB user memory
Stereo headset
40 polyphonic ringtones
Java MIDP 2.0
3D games
MusicDJ and VideoDJ
OMA DRM phase 1
MegaBass
Stereo widening

Connectivity

Triple-band 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
GPRS class 10
Access NetFront HTML browser
BluetoothTM and Infrared
PC software
External antenna connector
USB system connector and cable

Post a comment and discuss this story with other readers.