Sony Ericsson's W880 "Ai" launching next week?

Oh yes it is. That's the Sony Ericsson W880 "Ai" Walkman up there comin' atcha straight out of Sweden. We still don't know if the tri-band GSM / UMTS and QVGA specs are the real deal or not. But that's definitely a 2 megapixel camera on the back. Now, according to Swedish site NYA!mobil.se (via a bit of janky machine translation), the Walkman W880 will apparently join the living on Tuesday, 6 February -- in Sweden anyway, home country of the Ericsson half of that SE equation. At this point, that date seems fair enough. Besides, they've managed to get their hands on the device so they must know a little something, eh? More pics including a peep at the user interface after the break.

[Thanks, David]

[Micke @ Feb 1st 2007 5:16AM]

According to Mobil the Sony Ericsson W880 will also have the new user interface with a new menu system. Sounds cool to me

[Ssco @ Feb 1st 2007 5:17AM]

If only those buttins were a little bit bigger...

[Xavier Gill @ Feb 1st 2007 6:35AM]

The small buttons are cool for us Europeans since we're not cursed with the same big fat Homer Simpson hands our American cousins are.

"The fingers you are using are too fat..."

[hfvienna @ Feb 1st 2007 8:03AM]

This phone is 10 times more beautiful than on the picture and feels very very very nice in your hand , I promise.

[LS @ Feb 1st 2007 5:45AM]

looks great but i'm not a fan of java interfaces
still might tempt me away from this tetchy n73 mind you

[MarcusAbe @ Feb 24th 2007 8:32PM]

Folks, how ugly this cellphone is!

What's happening SE designers?

I expect the successor of the k790/800 won't be such a disappointment!

[Borre @ Feb 1st 2007 6:07AM]

Actually the name of the site is just mobil (or mobil.se). "Mobil" is also the name of the magazine that runs the site. "Nya" means just "new", and suggests that it is a new version of the site (although it is a few months old by now).

[Micke @ Feb 1st 2007 6:10AM]

Mobil changed their layout today :)

[Borre @ Feb 1st 2007 6:20AM]

Hehe, I see that now...
But not with as much as the last time, so i didn't really notice...

[Brinkster @ Feb 1st 2007 6:15AM]

Here's a translation of the article:

This tuesday Sony Ericsson introduces its new mobile W880. It's thin, and Mobil can now publish live images that shows how small the new 3G mobile really is.

W880 will be launched on tuesday next week, but we can already present live images and a few facts about the phone.

The new thing about the Sony Ericsson upcoming Walkman mobile W880 is that Sony Ericsson follows two trends among the mobile manufactures: thin mobiles and a more solid material feeling. The casing in metal and the small form factor should give a luxurious feeling.

But apart from the exterior we can already say that W880 doesn't offer much new when it comes to menus and functions. At large it offers the same functions and menus that its predecessor W850, which means 2 megapixel camera, 3G, music player that can figure out the name of the songs (TrackID), web browser, blog functions, RSS reader and Sony Ericssons new messages menu.

The mobile phones after W880, according to sources to Mobil, will become considerable more updated, also regarding the software. They will be made using a new platform with significantly changed menus. This will also be presented by Sony Ericsson now on tuesday, February the 6´th.

[Mat @ Feb 1st 2007 6:43AM]

keep on suckin' that gin and juice!

[Bob @ Feb 1st 2007 8:09AM]

You know what the ladies say about guys with small fingers...

[granny down east @ Feb 1st 2007 12:22PM]

...yeah, they have big butts.
HAHAHAHAHA

[David @ Feb 1st 2007 7:34AM]

I can confirm the launch on Tuesday.

[Xem @ Feb 1st 2007 7:39AM]

Well 2 b totally honest, I don't really get having a mobile jukebox, u never have enough space for all my music.
I mean 4GB Sd cards r okay, but not enough space, u still need a 60GB MP3 player to listen to music if u really like music.

And if ppl get all hyped for this phone they should check out Nokia N95, now THAT is a monster phone. Maybe not an "mp3 phone" in itself, but it kicks everything out of the market in content.
GPS anyone!?

[Mark @ Feb 1st 2007 8:33AM]

I hope so, cause that's one ugly phone (coming from a longtime SE user).
I like the new UI, from what I can see of it.

@Xem, Nokia's OS is really becoming the Windows of mobile phones. They should get their act together before people are starting to notice. People will switch their mobile platform much sooner than they will their PC platform.

[Kevin @ Feb 1st 2007 10:13AM]

Hi! 1978 just called, and they need their design back. Seriously, this would look awesome next to my Quasar LED wristwatch...

[srw @ Feb 1st 2007 5:39PM]

Damn thats ugly..

[James @ Feb 1st 2007 9:18AM]

I love the look and I've always preferred SE's interfaces and overall quality (at least the phone's I've owned). I'm very interested in this phone. Hello, my little birthday present.

[james @ Feb 1st 2007 9:20AM]

It has FCC approval, BTW.

[james @ Feb 1st 2007 9:20AM]

It has FCC approval, BTW. http://www.esato.com/news/article.php/id=1428

[Anders G @ Feb 1st 2007 9:23AM]

Would sure be interresting to line that one beside my SE P990i ;)

[sheikhness @ Feb 1st 2007 9:26AM]

Someone has been opening beer bottles with that BIC lighter!!! :-)

[A Gupta @ Feb 1st 2007 9:47AM]

hawtness... although I am intrigued by the possibility of a UI overhaul... keep on chuggin, SE!

[Castle @ Feb 1st 2007 10:28AM]

Holy hell that is small.

[Richard @ Feb 1st 2007 11:12AM]

Those little buttons actually work better for fat fingers. That's why the P990 reverted to them over the lozenge-like buttons of the P910.

Xavier, I know a lot of Russians with fat fingers. Maybe you don't like them either?

[animeGhost @ Feb 1st 2007 9:29PM]

any word on an american carrier pickin up this one like cingular/at&t or an american launch date maybe?

[John P. @ Feb 1st 2007 11:54AM]

looks like something from the sci-fi 70's. retro-future in a really bad way. Yuck.

[carter @ Feb 1st 2007 2:30PM]

It looks nice to me. I've never had a cell phone - I think they are a pain, and the telcos are bloodsucking leeches - but maybe I'd consider buying the brushed metal one, on looks alone.

[ASTROBOT @ Feb 1st 2007 2:14PM]

Well this look damn nicer than my W800i. But I'm pretty happy with my W800i and won't upgrade until the iphone or something similiar to it come out.

[ERR @ Feb 1st 2007 4:29PM]

this looks slightly disappointing...

[Yeos @ Feb 3rd 2007 8:38PM]

Oh man this phone is ugly!!! The 3 overlapping circles do not match the buttons,,,proportion wise or shape wise. The finishing looks raw and cheap. and wat's with the colour combi?

[afa @ Feb 2nd 2007 2:12AM]

Personally, I've found that SE's phones from the past few years have had nice designs, but recently their designs have just gone downhill. This is one fugly phone.

[oats @ Feb 2nd 2007 7:34AM]

I can't wait for this h/set to some out, it looks slick and thin too.

Lets hope it's as good as it looks :-)

[Aaron @ Feb 3rd 2007 3:53AM]

Ooh, I love this thing. Not in the market for a new phone, unfortunately. Can't say I use mine that much.

[�COM-4 @ Feb 4th 2007 12:40PM]

I didn't know Delorean designed cellphones.

[Frederick Rothe III @ Nov 14th 2007 1:05PM]

Checked out the W880 at the Sony Style Store;from the specs it is a tri-band (900,1800,1900) 3G mobile phone which is good for the Eu but not for the US. I have AT&T (Cingular),so it won't work on the network in upstate New York. Most of the tiime it is on 850;therefore this new phone for me is useless unless they bring out a quad-band phone (which they do for the slower EDGE network);their latest W580 slider is quad-band but still EDGE;all AT&T is using now is 3G SIM cards.