Sony Ericsson's newly announced handsets

On Sunday evening, hours before the official kick-off of the Mobile World Congress (it's becoming a tradition really), Sony Ericsson announced quite a few new handsets.
Let's analyze them one by one:

XPERIA X1 (Specs)



This is beautiful, no doubt about that. The first Sony Ericsson device running Windows Mobile. Interesting move. Understandable. While Sony Ericsson does have a very long tradition of making smartphones based on UIQ on top of Symbian OS, the sales figures of these devices were never a match to Nokia's S60 handsets (also running on top of Symbian OS - expect a rather detailed explanation of the differences between S60 and UIQ soon). So they probably thought a competing OS might at least bring them some new customers. Microsoft also has reasons to worry, as their OS is really only popular in the USA (but even there it lags behind the OS on BlackBerry devices and the iPhone's OSX) and among business users. So two companies in need have found each other. (Although apparently it might be more of a threesome, as HTC seems to be manufacturing this device)

And, of course, Sony (trust me, this is Sony's touch, not Ericsson's) quickly came up with another brand (in the press release, they actually stress how happy they are it's the first brand "born from within Sony Ericsson" - LOL!).

The Xperia does seem like an interesting device, with its Motorola Z8/Z10-inspired slider mechanism (it's amazing that Motorola still inspires with their designs) and (supposedly) finger-friendly customized (by Sony Ericsson) interface on top of WM6. The interface does look snappy in this promotional video:



However, I don't see this leaving a niche, and this has always been Sony Ericsson's problem with their smartphones. They all are reasonably good devices, but all seem to operate in very narrow niches (one notable exception might be the W960i, if it's not marketed as anything else than the music phone). Except the scenario in which the price for the Xperia will prove to be very competitive (read: affordable), I don't see it crawling out of its niche-space. Time will tell.

G700 and G900 (Specs here and here, respectively)



G700 UI:


G900 Hands-on:


These are UIQ-based smartphones touted as 'organisers'. Although this marketing strategy seems useless to me, and in spite of their...let's say 'classic' looks, I actually think they may belong to the best-selling UIQ devices class (if priced appropriately). Why? Because of their design. Remember what Nokia did with the 6120 Classic? S60 3rd Edition FP1 in a candybar that anyone on the street might take for a dumb-phone (and with the lowest price-point at launch of any S60 smartphone to date). For many 'normobs' the word smartphone instantly brings up words such as "complicated". Many choose not to buy a smartphone exactly because they think the 'getting-to-know-your-phone' period would be excruciatingly long. I do think that once you go smart(phone), you never go back, but getting some people to buy a smartphone exclusively marketed as such (and having looks such as the P1i, for example) is hard.
Sony Ericsson might be on to something really cool here. Now if only they would make no further mentions of the word stylus in context... (or show any more pictures of the stylus of these phones for that matter)

C702 and C902 (Specs here and here, respectively)



Hands-on the C702:


Hands-on the C902:


First off, I really don't get the numbering scheme here. Sony Ericsson made us used to CyberShot branded phones to belong to the K series. Why this change now I don't know. And, come on, 702 and 902? 700 and 900 were not available? Maybe they're trying to bring the Japanese Operators' numbering schemes to the rest of the world. Probably so, as I would argue that even the looks of new Sony Ericsson devices are beginning to resemble those of the devices meant for the Japanese market. And this is good, it adds uniqueness.

Anyway, these two have interesting compromises built-in. While the C902 does have the better camera, it's display is smaller (2 inches compared to 2.2), presumably to make room for those touch based CyberShot-only keys. Which are a nice...touch indeed, but useful as well? Who knows. A 5MP camera phone with a 2 inch display is an oddity for me. Also, these phones seem to be minor updates (design-wise only) to the CyberShot line-up, which already includes recently announced K770 as a 3.2MP shooter, and the K850 as a 5MP shooter. They will make good sales figures I think, mostly because of the CyberShot brand, but I don't expect them to become top-sellers.

Z770 (Specs)


(image from GSMArena)

This is a very stylish clamshell, with a very interesting design. While it certainly looks good, we'll see if it really appeals to the fashion-conscious crowd, since at 16mm, it is rather thick by modern fashion standards. Sony Ericsson stick to their tradition of releasing relatively few clamshells, and those they do release always employ a "different" design than what the market is used to.

W980 (Specs)




Walkman clamshell. Rare iteration. What is rather baffling is that its index is higher than that of the UIQ-powered Walkman smartphone. Not the best of moves, if you ask me, since psychological factors often tend to impose on people the impression that the higher the index, the better the device.
Nevertheless, this is a very good dumb-phone (should I be calling them 'feature phones' instead?). The A200 software platform from Sony Ericsson is probably the most advanced non-smartphone platform to date, so the software can't be bad. Issues on thickness again, but hey, Sony Ericsson say the music experience on this handset is 'unrivalled', 'unparalleled', or something like that (you gotta love this PR yada yada). It's got all the Walkman goodies (TrackID, Shake Control, SensME, and so on), it looks good, so it will definitely sell.


Why did I cover these phones?