On Wednesday Sony Ericsson announced that it has launched its own channel in the Android Market. The firm says it will use the channel to recommend specific apps and games, provide original content like Timescape plugins, offer exclusive gaming titles, and to help promote apps developed by partners. The channel sounds a lot like the custom area of the Android Market that many U.S. wireless carriers use to recommend applications, and it should be a useful option for owners of Sony Ericsson Android handsets. There’s one caveat: the update is carrier dependent, which means it won’t be available to all of Sony Ericsson’s customers. Hit the jump for more info.

Read

We just swung by the Sony Ericsson booth to get a glimpse at two of the company’s most exciting new handsets, the Xperia Play and the Xperia arc. Although we can’t say we’re too surprised that SE was showing off these two devices at Mobile World Congress — both handsets have been leaking like a soup strainer over the past few months — it is nice to get some hands-on time with both devices. Will the newly announced devices be enough to catapult Sony Ericsson back to mobile handset glory? Read on to find out.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia arc seems to be the company’s new flagship Android device. With a 4.2-inch screen, 1GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera, and Android 2.3, SE has finally done right by the Xperia brand. The handset —which gets its name from its arching backside — is extremely light and extremely thin. It definitely doesn’t feel like you’re holding a 4.2-inch phone.

Both the front and back of the device are constructed from glossy plastic, and while the handset doesn’t feel cheap, it is a magnet for fingerprints.

The “Reality Display” on the Arc really is gorgeous thanks to deep blacks and bright colors. SE says the phone uses a form of Sony’s BRAVIA engine, which is the engine used in Sony’s HDTVs, and the display is versatile. Attaching the phone’s HDMI-out port to an HDTV will mirror the device’s screen. We saw a demo of an SE representative playing Angry Birds on a 42-inch display, which was pretty neat. If you have an HDTV made after 2009, you can even control the phone’s interface with your TV remote. We popped in an HDMI cable and navigated through a catalog of movies on a demo device. The rep helping us noted that this feature is not specific to Sony BRAVIA TVs, the technology that enables this is part of the HDMI protocol and should work on any, newer set.

Another area of the Arc that received a lot of attention was the camera. The 8.1-megapixel shooter uses Exmor R technology — again created by Sony and used in its consumer cameras — that helps the camera take quality pictures in moderate and low light situations. The pictures were very nice, and the speed at which the Arc can take pictures in succession is very impressive.

We’ll be honest, we’re not really fans of Sony Ericsson’s user interface. We know manufacturers are going to skin and customize how Android looks and feels, but this is radically different. The good news is it doesn’t seem to slow down the phone one bit, the bad news — in our opinion — is that it’s there in the first place. Regardless, if you want a super-thin, light and powerful Android smartphone (running the most current operating system available) you should probably give the Arc a second (or first) look.

Now… on to the Play.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the Play is how heavy it is — adding an extra thirteen buttons to a phone has its down side. The phone is 16mm thick — nearly twice as thick as the Arc — and weighs in at 175g. As we mentioned, above the device is — obviously — tailored to those who are looking to game on their Android rigs. And for this purpose, the Play is great.

We tried our hand at a racing game (the name escapes us, it’s been a long day) and the experience was comparable to dedicated portable gaming devices. Video was smooth and rendered well. The device has a D-pad and Sony’s PlayStation buttons along with an L1 and R1 buttons. Our SE rep couldn’t comment on the company’s expectations for future games designed specifically to take advantage of the extra inputs… so we’ll just have to wait and see — we’re not sure if developers will develop and Android game for one specific handset.

The device has the same 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM as the Arc and the performance is comparable. The device also runs Android 2.3 and has the same UI experience. The camera is toned down a bit from the Arc as well, as the Play has a 5-megapixel shooter.

Again, this device is trying to cater to a specific audience, so if gaming on the go isn’t your thing, you’re probably not going to love it.

Have a look at our gallery below and let us know what you think. Anyone out there going to be taking another look at Sony Ericsson?

]]> http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/16/hands-on-with-the-sony-ericsson-xperia-play-and-xperia-arc/feed/ 5 http://www-bgr-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/BGR1IMG_1546110216165542-80x80.jpg http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/09/sony-ericssons-xperia-play-coming-to-verizon-wireless-says-wirefly/ http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/09/sony-ericssons-xperia-play-coming-to-verizon-wireless-says-wirefly/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:29:24 +0000 Andrew Munchbach http://www.bgr.com/?p=75856

According to online wireless dealer Wirefly, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play handset — you know, the one with the slide out gaming controls — will be headed to Verizon Wireless. On a webpage comparing the iPhone 4 to SE’s latest creation, the site lists the Play’s carrier as Big Red. Sony Ericsson has a press event scheduled for Sunday, February 13th at 12:00PM ET in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress. We can expect to get all the official details on availability there.

[Via PhoneArena]

Read

Publication Global Atlanta caught up with Sony Ericsson CEO, Bert Nordberg, at the grand opening of the company’s North American headquarters in Atlanta. When asked, “where do you see the phone industry going… what do you see as the next big development technology wise?” The CEO quipped, “we have some big surprises coming up in the next few months… but we never announce them in advance.” Sounds good to us. We’d love to see some high-quality Sony Ericsson hardware on American soil… delivered in a timely fashion, of course.

[Via Engadget]

Read

A reader hit up our inbox to let us know that the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, due out on AT&T, is now live on SE’s website. The Phone is a quad-band GSM and UMTS/HSPA phone that will have an 8.1 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, 360 x 640 TFT touch-screen, Bluetooth, aGPS, micro-SD card slot, and will run the Symbian OS. The phone’s dimensions are 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.5 inches and it weighs in at 3.4 ounces. The phone will be available in Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue, Moon Silver, or a sensual Venus Ruby. The site also lists an anemic 75 MB of memory for this particular offering. Eeeeeeesh! Hit the read link and let us know what you think!

Thanks, Sayon!

Read

It looks like Fido’s corporate security team isn’t having its best month because someone aptly nicknamed “FidoMarketing” has leaked the details of its Q2 handset and price plans. There’s not a heck of a lot of exciting things here, although the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 is listed and is apparently coming very soon:

• BlackBerry Pearl 9100 – May 4th
• LG GW300 – April 13th
• Nokia 3710 – May 18th
• Nokia X3 – May 18th
• Novatel Wireless MC988DF – May (singled out for being 28.8Mbps, a sign of things to come to Fido/Rogers no doubt)
• Sony Ericsson Aspen – June

In terms of plans, Fido is still struggling to find its identity. It has really cheap handsets, yet the plans that go along with them are pretty mediocre for Canadian standards. FidoUNO, Fido’s UMA service, will be decommissioned as of June 1st, but a new CarryOver Minutes plan (not available to City Fido or corporate customers) will be introduced which allows one to accumulate rollover minutes over 6 moths. Data plans will also get a bit of a change with news plans with the introduction of Wireless Internet Options. Basically what it all boils down to according to the documents is this:

• $15 – Unlimited Email and IM
• $15 – 100MB/100MB BIS
• $25 – 500MB/500MB BIS
• $30 – 1GB/1GB BIS
• $40 – 2GB/2GB BIS
• $40 – 3GB
• $50 – 5GB
• $50 – 15GB [sic]
• $80 – 8GB
• $150 – 15GB

Be honest, people. What are you thinking?

Read

Things aren’t looking so pretty at Sony Ericsson as the handset maker a little while ago posted its fourth-quarter earnings showing a loss of $270 million, pre-tax. Of course, this should come as no surprise to anyone since SE’s earnings reports the past few quarters, six to be exact, were just as disappointing. The company also recently had major layoffs and restructuring the past few months. However, SE is remaining cautiously optimistic for 2010. While other manufacturers are expecting a big rise in the cell phone market in 2010, SE sees things a little more modestly. Since smartphones and high-end devices are Sony Ericsson’s overall weakness right now by comparison to Apple, HTC and BlackBerry, we’re thinking that there is a lot riding on the XPERIA X10 with Android due out very soon.

Read

Today we took a brief look at Sony Ericsson’s line-up at CES and fondled the Pureness as well as the X2 and Elm. SE also had black and white versions of the X10 available, but you all saw that two months ago when SE held its announcement in NYC — so we won’t really dive into that much. If you’re itching to see more snapshots in our gallery as well as get a brief low-down on each handset, hit the break!

Click on over to our Sony Ericsson at CES 2010 gallery!

One thing we noticed at this year’s CES is that there is a lot of green, or eco-friendly technology and the Elm is definitely in that category. The plastics are recycled, there is an in-phone e-manual, green apps and a power saving charger are packed into a small packaging box for minimal waste. Voice quality on the phone features noise reduction and what SE calls “intelligent voice adaptation.” Don’t let the simple looks fool you, though: the Elm is capable of accessing your Twitter and Facebook accounts along with home screen widgets. The Elm has a 5MP camera with LED flash and face detection, too.

There isn’t much to say about the Hazel because it features almost everything the Elm does — green technology and same social networking integration. Even the camera is the same. The only difference we noticed with our very brief time with the devices is the obvious form factor. The Hazel is a slider phone whereas the Elm is candy bar styled.

The pureness was rather impressive, but only for its novelty. You’re all already aware of the sky-high price for this thing, and unless you’re a fashionista looking for something sleek regardless of price, it’s probably not worth it. The glass see-through screen is pretty interesting, but it’s very difficult to see what’s on it if there are a lot of highlights in the background — if you’re holding it above a white table or in front of a white wall or sunlight, you might not see much. The phone is devoid of visible buttons when it is turned off, but when you turn it on all the numbers and menu keys light up. Neat concept and it’s what Sony Ericsson calls a “holiday from technology” since all you’ll be doing on this thing is talk, text and checking the time.

The XPERIA X2 brings more of the features you might want in a phone these days. As you know, it’s a Windows Mobile 6.5 touch screen device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. We checked out the panel manager for multiple desktops and it has a nice thing called SlideView for quick access to the applications you use most. SE’s X2 also has Wi-Fi, DLNA media server support and TV out, too, with a 8.1 megapixel camera sensor that has auto/touch focus, just like the iPhone.

The economy isn’t going to keep Sony Ericsson from cranking out ridiculously expensive, high-end dumb phones for the high-class crowd. One of its latest, the Pureness, will now be available through Saks or Sony Cierge for a whopping, or mere, depending on who you are, $990. What do you get for that kind of cash? Talk, text and time. That’s right — just the basics and that is exactly how SE is advertising this thing, but it also comes with a 24-hour global concierge service “providing its members support for all lifestyle requests.” The clear screen and keypad light up with info only when buttons are pushed, which makes it look like a sleek, artsy gadget when not in use. If we had to choose, we’d be saving up for a whole different high-end line of handsets…

Read

Google still has a ways to go in Europe where Symbian reigns supreme. Although Europeans easily recognize the Google brand, Android itself is still pretty foreign to them. It’s not surprising since there aren’t many Android offerings there, but numbers are still below expectations. At the end of the third quarter, Android’s market share in Western Europe was at 5.4%. “The lack of devices available didn’t help to raise awareness, though this is expected to change, with more handsets from LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and other vendors hitting the market soon,” says IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. Right now, Nokia and Symbian are still at the top spot for Western Europe, but Samsung is surprisingly getting close to overtaking Nokia. How many of our European pals out there are using Android devices?

Read

There is word floating around that Sony Ericsson is planning on two variants of the XPERIA X10. While it’s far from confirmed, it appears as though SE’s plan of teaming with U.S. carriers to subsidize this bad boy is working out. Both versions will have 3G support for their respective carriers, which means the T-Mobile version will have support for the 1700MHz band. SE is also saying it plans to have this phone out in early 2010, so we’ll find out sooner than later. We’re just wondering what pricing will be like since this device will have to be heavily subsidized to come down from its $700+ price tag. Hit the jump for some device specs.

Read

Sony Ericsson has us scratching our heads just one day after we spent some time with its new XPERIA X10 smartphone. During our lunch meet-up, SE told us it was hoping to work with U.S. carriers in getting the X10 into the pockets of Americans on the cheap. We’re still hoping that SE will make this happen, but a new rumor would see the X10 retail for a whopping $879 when it hits the market during the first quarter of 2010. We know that SE is hoping to get back on the relevance map and turn a profit while it’s at it, but a sky-high price tag on a device that failed to knock our socks off probably isn’t going to cut it with consumers.

Read

Today we hit up Sony Ericsson’s shindig in NYC for some one-on-one time with its XPERIA X10, and so far (it’s a non-retail prototype) it looks like SE has a decent device on its hands. Of course, we all know the X10 is running Android 1.6, but SE has created its own UI, or UX as it prefers to say (short for User Experience), called Nexus. Like other UI overlays for Android, Nexus focuses on social media integration, entertainment and simplifying contact info by aggregating user information. Two very unique applications that SE has integrated into Nexus are Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is much like viewing your contact information on HTC’s Sense UI and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR: you can view your contact’s email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter updates all in one place. Mediascape allows you to access photos, video and music from your phone as well as YouTube and PlayNow, SE’s music store. The great thing about Timescape and Mediascape is that they recognize connections between your contacts (like facial recognition), music and media and it makes suggestions on how you can communicate or get a guide to new media. Now that we’ve got the software aspect out of the way, hit the jump to see not only what think of the device itself, but quite a few pretty pics and a video overview!

Our initial impression of the XPERIA X10 is mixed. The screen is a vivid and crisp 4″ capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 854 while the device itself is both light and thin. It also packs smartphone basics like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 3.5mm headset jack and a rather impressive 8.1 megapixel camera. The device feels nice in the hand, although those with small hands might think it’s rather large. Still, it’s not cumbersome by any means. When running through the screens, we did experience a bit of lag even though the X10 is running the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. And while SE has added its own UI over Android 1.6, it still feels like a bare-bones Android device. The UI is very functional and it gets the job done, but it’s not as attractive as HTC’s Sense UI. We’re not quite sure what it is about the XPERIA X10, but we’re just not feeling that “wow” we got with the Droid, for example.

SE says it’s working with U.S. carriers to get the XPERIA X10 subsidized in the States, but in the even that doesn’t happen it could be another expensive device that might be overlooked in the Americas – we’ve got our fingers crossed that AT&T or T-Mobile will pick this up. There’s no word on when this will be released, but with all the press and fanfare we’re thinking it shouldn’t be much longer.

September 15th: Sony Ericsson claims, “the way you listen to music changes forever” on September 21st. September 21st: Sony Ericsson announces the MH907 motion-controlled headphones and 99.999999999999% of the world will continue listening to music the same old way. Don’t get us wrong — the new “SensMe” technology SE introduced today is kind of nifty. Basically, it allows you to control music playback and call handling by removing and replacing one of your ear buds. Ok that’s cool we suppose, but it begs the question: Is removing and replacing an ear bud to control your headset more or less convenient than simply tapping a button? We’re going to go with less. The novelty factor is certainly there though, so if you have a Sony Ericsson phone — yes, this headset will only work with SE phones — at least you have something interesting to look forward to. No pricing or release information has been made available.

Read

Steve Richter! Our friends at AT&T pinged us earlier this month to see if we wanted to give away a new Sony Ericsson W518a to celebrate the launch of its AT&T Share Facebook app. We wouldn’t dream of depriving our readers of the chance to win a shiny new handset of course, so we were happy to oblige. Steve’s comment was randomly chosen as the winner earlier this week and he will be receiving his new Sony Ericsson W518a some time next week. Woo hoo! There you have it boys and girls; if you haven’t already checked out the AT&T Share Facebook app, we definitely recommend that you do so. After all, there are plenty more prizes to be had — why should Steve have all the fun?