Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray and Xperia Active

A pair of Android from Sony Ericsson. First up is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray which is basically a shrunken version of the Xperia Arc. The screen is just 3.3" but packs 480 x 854 pixels, just like the Arc, inside the same 1GHz processor powers the thing. I guess you probably need good eyesight to use this one!

Next up is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. This seems to be pretty much the same hardware platform as the new Xperia Mini, with a smallish 3" display. The active is designed for outdoors use and is waterproof, while still looking like a very decent device underneath. A 1GHz processor in this is probably overkill, but you can never have too much power can you?

Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro

No, not the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini and Mini Pro, this is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro.. not confusing at all. These two follow up from the original X10 Minis.. which weren't mini versions of the Xperia X10 anyway. They're a bit bigger, but have a much larger display and some significant poke under the hood, roughly the same as the HTC Desire but with less work to do on driving the display. They look pretty good, and should be out in Q3.

Sony Ericsson Android Tablet spotted..

There are only two major handset manufacturers who haven't yet announced a full-blown tablet device, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Nokia.. well, its MeeGo project just imploded and we could be waiting a long, long time for them to sort themselves out. But Sony Ericsson have been busy of late (with things like the Xperia Play), so they are almost definitely working on something big.

The sharp-eyed folks at nieuwemobiel.nl spotted this tablet (presumably at MWC) that does genuinely seem to be a Sony Ericsson device. That's the good news.. the bad news is that it looks like an engineering prototype of the TD-LTE network in China, which might explains the retro look.

There are a whole lot of rumours about what Sony Ericsson might come up with. Sony have apparently been very heavily involved in its design, so we're expecting something more than a dull black slabby thing..

[Via]

Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Sony Ericsson are BORING. Well, they were boring but now they went a did this mad and brilliant mash up of PlayStation and Android phone. I'd love it even more if I ever had time to play games..

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play to be announced soon

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play has been pretty widely leaked for some time now, but now it's "almost official" with a full announcement coming on Sunday just prior to the big Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

Basically, the hardware is a standard Android slider that replaces the QWERTY keyboard with some Playstation style gaming buttons. We don't know the exact spec of the handset, but we'd guess that it has at least a 1GHz processor and something like an 852 x 480 pixel display (it's hard to be sure from the only official photo we have).

The software is a different matter, Sony have already given a commitment to mobile gaming so expect some cool additions here. Also, we suspect that to get the best out the Xperia Play then games will need to be adapted to use the controls. It will be much easier to play certain games this way though as a standard Android handset really only has the touchscreen and accelerometer which makes some genres frustrating.

We'll know the the full score in a few days, hopefully including information about the launch date.

[Via]

Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

A huge improvement over the old XPERIA X10, the Xperia Arc comes with a large display and it looks great too.. but for a top-of-the range phone it lacks a dual core processor which is a shame.

Sony Ericsson Playstation phone revealed.. sort of.

The "Zeus" is allegedly Sony Ericsson's dedicated gaming phone, although it has been dubbed the "Playstation phone", this is in fact an android slider that substitutes gaming controls where you might expect to see a keyboard.

The announcement is expected this week.. but it's too late to get this in the shops by Christmas which would have been ideal.

The Zeus will certainly give a boost to Sony Ericsson, in our view they have failed to impress this year and their flagship Xperia X10 device is not a patch on the HTC Desire (although the X10 Mini is an intriguing device).

[Via]

Mobile phone display mega shootout: The full picture

Introduction

There are so many of them that it’s pretty hard to make up your mind. It all boils down to LCD vs. LED although this simple fact is easy to overlook. You can go ahead and blame it all on marketing but that’s one thing that just can’t be black and white. Instead of keeping it simple, manufacturers are busy making up catchy names.

Had enough with LCD? Be our guest, try Super LCD. There’s even Super Clear LCD for the sake of being different. Same with AMOLED. There’s the garden variety. But there’s also Clear Black and Super AMOLED.

Anyway, with so many screens around even we got mixed up. And instead of writing down “We’ll never again mistake regular LCD for Super LCD” three thousand times, we got assigned to do this article. Yes sir. Coming up, boss. It’s about LCD and AMOLED, about Super AMOLED and SUPER LCD. It’s about the Retina display, which technically is a type of LCD.

This is not a story going back to monochrome displays and the dawn of STN and CSTN screens. That would’ve made an even bigger mess. Instead, we’re focusing on present day touchscreen and the varieties it comes in. We have each technology represented and it’s quite a bunch of highly popular and fairly recent phones being judged by the quality of their screen. From the good old LCD to the ClearBlack AMOLED by Nokia – they are all here, with all their strengths and weaknesses.

And here are the contenders, along with the display technology they stand for. In the LCD corner, the HTC Desire HD and LG Optimus 7 are next to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10.

HTC Desire HD • LG Optimus 7 • Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

The Samsung S8530 Wave II is on the enhanced LCD team – technically, it’s Super Clear LCD, the brand name Samsung use to market their own SLCD-based screens. The Retina display is not just another LCD screen either – like the Apple iPhone 4 is not just another phone.

The Samsung S8530 Wave II • Apple iPhone 4

The Nokia N8 is running for AMOLED, while the C6-01 has Nokia’s ClearBlack technology behind it. Finally, we have a couple of Super AMOLED screens – on the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S and Samsung S8500 Wave.

Nokia N8 • Nokia C6-01 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Samsung S8500 Wave

An elite club it is and that goes to show how important screens are. Manufacturers can’t go on for ever offering more and more features, so things like screen quality are becoming a key selling point.

Next go to : gsmarena

Sony Ericsson Xperia X12 leaks

We've never rated the Xperia X10 much.. it's a decent enough effort, but it simply isn't competitive against the HTC Desire due to its hardware and software limitations. So, the leaked Sony Ericsson X12 looks significantly better with Android 2.3 "Gingerbread", a bigger 4.2" display and a speedy Qualcomm MSM7230 processor.

There have been several leaked photos along with some fairly detailed specifications, we guess that the X12 will be announced very soon for market introduction sometime in the first half of 2011. But will they be able to compete effectively with HTC, Motorola and Samsung when it comes to high-end Android phones?

Via [1], [2], [3]

Xperia X10 line to get Android 2.1... finally.

Sony Ericsson have announced that the Xperia X10 line (including the Mini and Mini Pro) are finally getting an OS update from Android 1.6.. but only to Android 2.1!

Of course, everybody else is waiting for Android 2.2 or has it already, version 2.1 is already obsolete as far as many people are concerned. So all Sony Ericsson are doing is replacing an obsolete version of Android with a slightly less obsolete one.

The Xperia X10 is a pretty decent handset, but there's really no reason to choose it over the similarly specified and much more up-to-date HTC Desire or a number of other rivals. Sony Ericsson's commitment to Android looks pretty half-hearted.. in fact their entire strategy during 2010 looks like they are not really trying. Will they survive 2011?

[Via]

Sony Ericsson A8i heading for China Mobile

China Mobile uses the unusual TD-SCDMA network, but it has a massive subscriber base which means that it is worth manufacturers making handsets specifically for this market.

Running a variation of Android called OMS, the Sony Ericsson A8i has a 3.5" 854 x 480 pixel display, a 5 megapixel camera and all the usual stuff you'd expect such as WiFi and GPS.

It looks very much like the white version of the XPERIA X10 but with a smaller screen, and its certainly an attractive European-style handset that should appeals to better off customers.

Why is China Mobile so important? Well, it has over 500 million subscribers and is the single largest mobile phone network in the work. Those are big numbers.. and unlike Vodafone who are number 2 in the world, the China Mobile business is one single market which give significant economies of scale.

Nokia too are competing with the Nokia X5 TD-SCDMA which is a very conventional Symbian smartphone. We know which one we would choose!

Via [1] [2]

Xperia X10 Mini is phone of the year.. apparently.

Apparently voted "phone of the year" for 2010-2011 at the European EISA awards is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini.

No, we're not sure why either. It's alright, but really we think that the screen is too small to be really practical. Oh well.

Via

Video: Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

A more compact version of the X10 with a lower spec and lower price tag, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 is pitched to sell at less than €200, but it still comes with all the Android essentials.

We have mixed feelings about the X10.. it's a nice enough device but it is hard to beat the HTC Desire which we think beats it in every category. The X8 has less serious competition though.. it looks pretty too :)

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